Brödkorgen och pennfäktarna : politiska anspråk på 1771–1772 års hungersnöd i samtida, svenskt offentligt tryck

Sammanfattning: This master’s thesis concerns itself with the subject of political usage of a societal crisis, namely the contemporary utilization of narrative renderings of the Swedish famine of 1771-1772. During the last years of the Age of Liberty in Sweden (1719-1772) political and social tension were on its peak. The two rivaling political parties, the “hats” and the “caps” fought ferociously in the Diet, while a growing discontent royalist movement was gaining momentum to eventually perform a successful coup d'état on the 19:th of August 1772. Simultaneously a violent socio-political struggle raged between the estates, challenging the old social hierarchies, and demanding social and civic rights for the non-noble estates. In the world of economy, a slow tectonic shift away from the old mercantilist doctrines was occurring, towards more liberal attitudes. The continental famine of 1770-1772 struck Sweden with disastrous effect. Studying the unique public printed media that sprung up in the wake of a short period of liberal regulation in the freedom of press (1766-1774), this thesis asks how different contemporary political groups took advantage of controlling the public debate about the famine by delivering political renderings of it. The study shows that the advocates of the caps party, the non-noble estates, together with writers advocating a dismantling of the mercantilist structures quite successfully dominated the discourse, being a bloc that to some extents overlapped, and blaming the famine on domestic social and economic structures. A narrative of the famine was used by several non-noble writers to attack and discredit the wealthy classes and nobility, by the caps to discredit the hats, and by physiocratic and liberal advocates, to discredit mercantilism, promoting deregulation of domestic agriculture, and grain trade. The hats, mercantilists and nobility did not succeed in dominating the discourse, largely acting defensively and blaming the famine on foreign circumstances, nature, inadequate domestic manufactories or farmers lacking adequate knowledge. Trying to safeguard mercantilist structures while simultaneously wanting improved harvests, they adopted an approach of advocating domestic solutions that didn’t challenge the existing economic or social systems. A group of royalist writers, critical of the party-system and possibly the political constitution itself, also used a narrative of the famine to discredit the fractioning at the political top and lack of cooperation, perhaps contributing to clear the way for the eventual coup d'état in 1772, that put an end to the Age of Liberty in Sweden.