Sweden fought it’s last war over 200 years ago. That in itself might have guaranteed fast development. Fast development means much change and dislocations. Some of those changes still show their effects. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This bulk postage, (if only it was unused) puts the numeric value front and center. Sweden had just followed Germany’s lead and moved to a gold instead of a silver backed currency. They had also entered a monetary union with old rival Denmark. Remember at the time Sweden controlled Norway, and Denmark controlled Iceland, so if not for those pesky Russians in Finland, Scandinavia was coming together and taking off.
Todays stamp is issue A5 a 12 Ore stamp issued by the Kingdom of Sweden in 1872. It was a 32 stamp issue that came out over several years and had to take into account the currency change. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 used. Sometimes old bulk postage issues are worth much more unused and that is the case here. The unused value of this stamp rises to $225. An imperforate pair of them rises to $1,000.
Agriculture was changing rapidly in 19th century Sweden. There was a move from village based large communal farms under rich often absentee landowners to smaller much more productive personally owned farms. You can guess this lead to what to do with excess sons. Farms tend to want to get bigger not be subdivided between heirs. So what to do with the excess boys. Well even with a pacifist foreign policy, there was still military conscription offering that traditional relief valve. There was also fairly rapid industrialization in the growing cities. What perhaps changed Sweden the most was sending over a million immigrants to North America. At the time the population of Sweden was under 5 million.
In the short run sending them off made sense. Some returned having made a fortune. The ones that stayed had less competition and more was being done for them. Schooling became much more complete and began taking on a more physical component to retain fitness absent farm work. Mandatory gymnastics that resembled Asian martial arts were added for both boys and girls. Far more skiing that at the time took on a military flavor became common.
At first there was political change but in the 19th century it was mostly finessed. Up until the 1870s there was no Prime Minister and the legislature was a single house comprising wealthy landowners. New King Oscar II slowly allowed a few changes. The new Prime Minister was just the old Foreign Minister and there would now be a new bicameral legislature. The old order mostly survived though and why not, things were working.
One thing that might not have worked so well was letting all those young men go abroad to make their lives away. More education and living in cities leads to later and smaller families. Now Sweden finds itself short of people and as opened itself up to much immigration. The population is still only 10 million with a quarter of those being of immigrant heritage. One third of children have at least one foreign born parent. With the change lead to the new Somalis and Syrians learning to love gymnastics and skiing or will Sweden have to change to accommodate to what the new folks love?
Well my drink is empty and I may have another while I brood over my copy of todays stamp being used. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.