1) The manuscript is based almost entirely on original sources, published and unpublished. 2) My background is commodity trading and I bring that perspective to the topic. 3) The work makes use of accounting records, ignored by my predecessors. In 1611, the seventeen-year-old Gustav Adolf ascended the throne of Sweden. Before the new king could sit on his throne, however, he faced a disastrous war against Denmark, another conflict in Russia, and a rebellious nobility at home. Plus, Sweden itself had an arctic climate and a short growing season. Clearly Gustav II Adolf faced great difficulties even to survive. Yet by the end of the next decade, Gustav II Adolf’s Sweden was a leading military power in continental Europe. In 1630 the king invaded the Holy Roman Empire and joined the Thirty Years War to defend the Protestant cause. How was this possible? Sweden had one major asset, the Stora Kopparberg, the largest copper mine in Europe. The king exploited the mine and used the revenue to finance his political and military ambitions. This is the story of Gustav II Adolf’s efforts to improve efficiencies at the mine and control the marketing of its bounty.
Preliminary Notes, Introduction,
Chapter One: The Stora Kopparberg,
Chapter Two: The Älvsborg Ransom,
Chapter Three: The Copper Company in the
Early Years,
Chapter Four: The Copper Company: The Years of Decline,
Chapter
Five: The Deposit System,
Chapter Six: After the King, Conclusion, Appendix
A, Appendix B, Appendix C, Appendix D, Appendix E, List of Illustrations,
Bibliography, Index.
Lawrence Stryker studied European History at the University of Virginia where he earned a PhD before entering work as a metal commodities trader in New York City. He has been active as a trader for the last thirty-eight years and is currently the head of trading at DBlock Metals, LLC based in North Carolina.
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