ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical context in which the state was able to create increasing economic independence, based on exports and on the institutional structures providing the preconditions for Swedish development in the 19th century. Sweden created an institutional structure that gradually became centralised but was actually based on consensus. In the 17th century, Swedish political circumstances absorbed all the country’s resources as it underwent an unprecedented expansion; for this reason, the Empire was a period of profound changes, also affecting the economy. Economic policy was aimed at exploitation of Sweden’s three most abundant resources: copper, iron and tar. The success of Swedish iron was due to the availability of water power, forests, the particular purity of the raw material, and to an economic policy supported by the College of Mines. Sweden’s main characteristic in the period from 1650 to 1720 was its growing economic independence.
