The formation of a nation’s leading industry: an examination of the impacts of mercantile policy on Swedish iron exports during the 18th century

There is a wide array of literature on the particular manifestation of mercantilism in Sweden during the “Age of Liberty” and there is an even wider selection of literature on the success of the Swedish iron industry. However, there is very little literature on the combination of the two, and it suffers from issues with lack of adequate data. Therefore, this paper aims to fill that gap by studying the impact of the Swedish Commodity Act of 1724, the largest piece of Swedish mercantile legislation and an adaptation of the British Navigation Acts, on Sweden’s leading industry - iron - and its exports to its largest foreign market in England. This investigation of the relationship between mercantilism and Swedish iron trade is based on the Sound Toll Registers, one of the most detailed sources on maritime trade history. The time series regression results indicate that the implementation of the commodity act successfully increased the total tonnage of iron shipped from Sweden to England.