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Presentation for the Conference "Encountering the 'Other' - Understanding Oneself: Colonialism, Ethnic Diversity and Everyday Life in Early Modern Sweden and New Sweden. Held at Lund University, Sweden / University of Delaware, US on november 8-10, 2013. Summary: During the 17th century Sweden underwent a rapid modernization on most levels. During the process the know-how and skills needed had to be found abroad to a large extent. This paper describes how a group of highly skilled craftsmen were recruited in Germany for the establishment of a new textile manufacturing site. Together with their skills they brought with them a continental, urban lifestyle that they managed to upheld in a small fortress town, situated in a rural part of Sweden. Although the large-scale manufacturing of cloth for the armed forces only lasted for some thirty years, it was still an important attempt to introduce new modes of production to a military state in rapid development.
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Ideas from AbroadGerman Weavers as Agents for Large-scale Cloth Production and a
Continental Lifestyle in 17th Century Sweden
Jönköping – the castle and the town in the late 17th century
Claes Pettersson, Jönköping County Museum, Sweden
To Modernize a Country on the Outskirts of Europe…Know-how and Skilled Craftsmen
German weavers to Jönköping
The Walloons, master blacksmiths to Swedish ironworks
The Swedish Realm at its greatest extent in 1658
In the beginning of the 17th century Sweden was undergoing a rapid process of modernization
• administration• judicial system• monetary system• education• manufacturing• town planning• fortification• armed forces
Know-how and skills had to brought in from abroad…
Guarding the southern border – three city fortresses
An Important Link in the Chain… Town fortress Strategic production – arms & cloth Storage facilities for the Army Local administration
The new ideal town – draft from1617
The preparations needed – a town built on landfill
Dark brown – landfill made by the crown in the first years. Mainly in the area where the royal chartered factories were established later on
Army barrack in the castle, similar to houses built at the arms factory site around 1620
A Helping Hand from the Authorities
Landfill and timber foundations at the arms factory site
During the first years the crown together with local businessmen provides funding and labor for the new town project – building an infrastructure suitable for the factories soon to be established.
VantmakerietThe Royal Chartered Cloth Factory at Tyska maden (the German meadow) in Jönköping 1621 – 1655
Main production - cloth for army and navy
Established 1620 by royal decree
Initial planning & preparations
Skilled German craftsmen recruited 1621
Support from the Crown until 1623
Becomes as important as the arms factory
In production until1655
Excavated 1984-87 / 2006-07
Core area
Phase 2
Vantmakeriet – small tools and threads
Tin thread for embroderiesThimble from Nuremberg
Brass crook
Spun metal thread
Brass pin
German imports used in the workshops
Jeton for counting board
Water powered mills, stamp and hammers along the Dunkehalla river west of town
Sheep farm at Klämmestorp est.1620
Vantmakeriet in the hinterlandFacilities outside theTyska maden area in Jönköping
Facilities for processing of linen
Dams for bleaching
Pump mill
Other large sheep farms at Gudhem, Nydala, Byarum and Mulseryd
Lead seal for textiles from Burtscheidt by Aachen, Germany
Of Better Quality – import of wool and textiles
The cloth factory had to rely on imports for its production of high quality fabrics during all of its existence…
Exclusive tankard with polychrome decoration and gold foil. Made in Saxony
Stone ware beer jug, Westerwald
Dish with floral decoration, Werra Weser type
How to identify an immigrant household?
What kind of items were brought along, from Germany to Sweden?
Few true pottery imports were to be found at the Vantmakeriet site…
Chance Meetings with the Individual
The face of the past
Padlocks of German design
Wedding ring
Glass button with engraved heart flanked by turtledoves
“Personal items” …what can be
interpreted as that?
Dutch claypipe,1620s
Claypipe of Jona-type, 1630s
Living the Good Life... …in Jönköping during the 1620s?
Glasses for red, white and liquor…
Pepper Figs
Luxury among craftsmen – to be able to uphold a continental, urban lifestyle in remote Sweden
A sacrifice – ¼ öre copper coins, minted during the reign of Queen Kristina. Found at regular intervals beneath the wooden sill of a tailors workshop, built around 1640
Well paid in a somewhat primitive local economy…
Large quantities of copper coins have been found by metal detector in both factory areas in Jönköping.
evenly distributed, not just found in houses connected with trade and commerce
often found in secondary use seldom hidden or in hoards …just dropped…
often in mint quality
So – what could minted money buy in a Swedish garrison town of the 1630s?
Genuine Maximilianthaler – minted in 1615
Lucrative Opportunities in a Foreign Land?
A “Balkanfälschungen” an official forgery from the mints of the Holy Roman Empire to be used in a trade war against the Turks!
Silver coin from Central Europe. Plated with a thin surface of gold…
Forged coins show that some people used “get rich quick”-schemes in the 17th century.
But how much of a risk did a counterfeiter really take in a remote Swedish town?
Refugees in a war-torn world?
Pendant – coin, Riga 1593
A small treasure-find from the site Vantmakeriet site – jewelry and coins from Estonia and Latvia, then parts of the Swedish Realm, suffering from a Russian invasion in 1656
Silver buckle
Curonian pendant, for belt, female dress
Swedish silver coins, minted in Reval (Tallinn) in Estonia
Hidden and lost under the floorboards of a storehouse in the German speaking part of town…
Tyska kyrkan – the German church in the prosperous 17th century port of Gothenburg
A Room for the German Congregation
The German annex
In Jönköping a room for the German community was added to the first timber church, built in 1625.
But in the new stone church of the Christine parish, consecrated in 1673, there was no such separate section. The cloth factory had become history…
A German Interlude…
Lingonberries
Blueberries
Vantmakeriet, the Royal Chartered Cloth Factory, existed from 1620 to the mid 1650s – a period of a mere 35 years.
The enterprise failed and production ceased because of a number of reasons, among them:
problems with raw materials (local wool) a reduced inflow of orders from the crown the severe floods of 1650 difficulties in recruiting new craftsmen specialists seeking employment elsewhere
The distinct German enclave in the Tyska maden-district faded away, leaving no traces in the register of property owners from 1696. By then the blocks were populated by craftsmen with mostly Swedish names.
But maybe there’s a small remnant of a Continental lifestyle left in the local food culture of the 18th century, with more use of sweeteners like different species of forest berries…?
Jönköpings läns museum = Jönköping County Museum
For more information about current excavations and research, visit us on Facebook and check our home page at:
http://www.jkpglm.se
This Powerpoint presentation about the German weavers will also be available on www.slideshare.net