Economic Societies in the Eighteenth Century: Remarks on the Swedish Case

One feature of the eighteenth-century learned life were the hundreds of societies aimed at reforming the economic basis of their own countries, regions or cities. Albeit these economic societies showcased diversity in both their names and the focal points of their activities, they ought to be treated together due to their model of combining economic reform, patriotic rhetoric, and the form of voluntary association. More importantly, the societies themselves subscribed to this international model in their staging of themselves, and influenced each other through a constant cross-fertilization of ideas, practices and publications. Sweden's first society premiered in the 1760s as the Patriotic Society in Stockholm. It was followed by two regional societies in the 1790s, and by the 1820s some twenty-five societies had been founded on Swedish soil. The societies appropriated the model of an economic society to fit in a tradition of scientific-economic discourse in the realm.