Göta kanal was supposed to be project that led to a number of different goals. It should support Sweden’s reorientation towards the west after the loss of Finland in 1809/10, it should be a tool for connecting the newly finished Trollhätte kanal and the transport flows from Gothenburg to the Baltic Sea, and it should support growth and trade in the regions that it passed. One of the industries that was supposed to gain from the canal was the iron industries. Their produce, heavy iron bars mainly for export. was difficult and expensive to transport by land transport. The iron industry and the iron trade was strictly regulated and in this situation a new transport mode would add new transport alternatives and possibly new markets for the industry.
Stjernsund castle Photo: Björn Hasselgren
The iron mill group connected to Stjernsund castle, in the region of Närke in mid-Sweden was one of the larger iron industries in Sweden by the time Göta kanal was built. The castle was built during the period, until 1821 when Stjernsund and the iron mills att Skyllberg and other places were owned by Olof Burenstam, who died this year.
The relations between Olof Burenstam, the head of the Göta kanal-project Baltzar von Platen and the later owner of Stjernsund castle, the Swedish King Karl XIV Johan, is described in a paper based on research partly financed by the The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, which also ownes the caste since the early 1950s.
The resarch shows that there were several links between the iron industry in the regions where Göta kanal was built; financially, as a buyer and supplier of iron manufacture and when it comes to transport services and export from inte iron mills. The Göta kanal-project thus had both short term and longer term effects on the surrounding economy.
The paper was presented at the Swedish Historians’ Meeting in Umeå on June 15 2023, https://www.umu.se/kalender/svenska-historikermotet-2023_11615445/ Abstract here: https://beyond-production.objects.dc-sto1.glesys.net/projects/1edc7e39-27df-653c-82fe-020287552602/documents/CqcuXPgTaZ6wg9y9ofY08Op1KSPIuNn57n3S5vpY.html
@HasselgrenB on "Market and Planning - individuality or collectivism" 