Avainsana-arkisto: Think Forward

The Business of War in the Baltic Sea Region: 1520–1815 -työpaja Helsingin yliopistolla 26-27.10.2023

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"Miekkatanssi" Olaus Magnuksen teoksessa Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, 1555

”Miekkatanssi” Olaus Magnuksen teoksessa Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus, 1555

Sodankäynnin liiketoiminta, jolla tarkoitetaan armeijoiden ja laivastojen materiaalihankintoja, rahoittamista, sekä sotilaiden värväämistä yksityisiltä markkinoilta, oli eräs uuden ajan alun keskeisimmistä taloudellisista toimialoista. Aikakauden levottomuudesta johtuen sodat yleistyivät ja laajenivat. Myös sodankäynti oli murroksessa, vaatien entistä enemmän sotilaita, rahaa, uusinta teknologiaa, sekä erityisosaamista. Vastatakseen näihin haasteisiin yhä useampi hallitsija kääntyi yksityisten taloudellisten toimijoiden puoleen. Nopeasti kehittyviltä kansainvälisiltä sotilasmarkkinoilta löytyi hyvin verkostoituneita ja osaavia ammattilaisia, jotka saattoivat tarjota vaadittavat resurssit sekä hallinnollisen osaamisen valtion puolesta. Alueellinen erikoistuminen ja hintakilpailu johtivat ylirajaisen kauppiaiden ja sotilasyrittäjien verkoston luomiseen, luoden Euroopanlaajuisen ja jopa globaalin järjestelmän resurssien mobilisoimiseksi.

Sodankäynnin kaupallistamista on totuttu pitämään ohimenevänä historiallisena ilmiönä kansallisvaltioiden kehityksessä, josta luovuttiin keskusjohtoisten kansallisarmeijoiden ja valtio-ohjauksessa toimivien sotilasmarkkinoiden saavutettua monopolistisen aseman. Sotilaita ja tarvikkeita toimittavat sotilasyrittäjät ja asekauppiaat on nähty moraalittomina, tehottomina ja epäluotettavina renkeinä, joiden kontolle on laitettu sotien pitkittyminen ja kansantalouksien kurjistuminen. Näitä teleologisia käsityksiä on kuitenkin kyseenalaistettu yhä enenevissä määrin viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana. 2000-luvulla koettu sotilastoimintojen ulkoistamisen sekä laajempi yksityistämisinto on herättänyt kiinnostusta ja uudenlaisia tulkintoja vuosisatojen takaisista sotataloudellisista järjestelmistä. Muun muassa David Parrott on osoittanut sotilasyrittäjyyden olleen huomattavasti monimuotoisempaa ja yleisempää kuin aiemmin on luultu, ja uuden ajan alun sosioekonomisissa puitteissa tehokas keino resurssien mobilisoimiseksi, sekä keskeisten yhteiskunnallisten ryhmien integroimisessa valtion poliittisiin hankkeisiin.[1]

Pohjoismainen sodankäynnin liiketoiminnan tutkimus on ollut hajanaista. Parinkymmenen vuoden takainen valtiokehityksen tutkimus selvitteli aktiivisesti verotuksen ja kansantalouden kytköstä sodankäyntiin, mutta se, miten resursseja käytettiin ja yksityisten toimijoiden rooli tässä prosessissa, on jäänyt vähemmälle huomiolle.[2] Yksittäisiä, sotatalouden erinäisiä ominaisuuksia käsitteleviä tutkimuksia on viime vuosina julkaistu ympäri Pohjoismaita.[3] Kenttä on kuitenkin edelleen pirstaloitunutta, ja tutkijoiden välinen kansainvälinen yhteistyö on säilynyt vähäisenä.

”The Business of War in the Baltic Sea Region: 1520–1815” työpaja tuo yhteen kansainvälisiä, Itämeren alueen sotataloutta tutkivia uuden ajan alun historioitsijoita. Helsingin yliopistolla järjestettävä työpaja pyrkii kehittämään vuorovaikutusta ja verkostoa näiden hajanaisten kansainvälisten tutkijoiden välillä, sekä tarjoaa foorumin uusimpien tutkimustulosten esittelylle. Kaksipäiväinen työpaja koostuu kuudestatoista esityksestä, jotka tarkastelevat sodankäynnin liiketoimintaa monipuolisista näkökulmista (katso ohjelma alempana). Työpajaan toivotetaan tervetulleiksi myös Helsingin yliopiston opiskelijat, henkilökunta, sekä muut aiheesta kiinnostuneet. Ohjelma (englanniksi) alla. Tarjoilujen mitoittamiseksi osallistujia pyydetään ilmoittautumaan oheisen lomakkeen avulla:

https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/125846/lomakkeet.html

PROGRAMME
The Business of War in the Baltic Sea Region: 1520-181

Dates: 26 – 27.10.2023, University of Helsinki
Place: Topelia room A205, Unioninkatu 38 Helsinki

Thursday 26.10.

11.30 – 12.00 Coffee

12.00 – 13.15 Keynote speech by Steve Murdoch (Swedish Defence University). Title: ”Dealing in Death”: The Early Modern Arms Trade – A Scottish Case Study

13.30 – 15.30 Session 1. Merchants, suppliers and civil-military relations. Chair: Anu Lahtinen

Mika Mickelsson (University of Turku): Louis De Geer as International Arms. Manufacturer and Dealer in the 17th century Sweden

Katarzyna Wagner (University of Warsaw): Brandskatt and financial contributions from the period of the Polish-Swedish war (1655-1660). An attempt at comparison

Ulla Ijäs (University of Turku): War business is a family business. Johan Friedrich Hackman and business of war in the 1790s eastern Baltic area

Henri Aaltonen, Jari Eloranta, Jyrki Knuutila (University of Helsinki): Cults of Saints, the Church, and Warfare: Saint Olaf’s Cult and the Role of the Church in Sweden’s Medieval and Early Modern Conflicts

15.30 – 16.00 Coffee

16.00 – 17.30 Session 2. The Resource Nexus: Global Flows, Military Supplies and State Capacity in the Baltic Region, 1740–1815. Chair: Sebastian Schiavone

Patrik Winton (Örebro University): Global Commodity Chains and Military    Supplies during the Russo-Swedish War, 1741–1742

Peter Ericsson (Uppsala University): The Financial Infrastructure of Warfare: Stockholm as a Hub for Payments and Transactions in the Seven Years’ War

Oleksandr Turchyn (Uppsala University): Swedish Military Finances and Logistics in the Seven Years’ War (1757-62)

Friday 27.10.

9.00 – 9.30 Coffee

9.30 – 11.30 Session 3. Military entrepreneurship, migration and recruitment. Chair: Sofia Gustafsson

Sebastian Schiavone (University of Eastern Finland): King’s Scots: Swedish Crown’s attempts to utilize & control William Cahun’s cavalry standard in Northern Seven Years War

Jaakko Björklund (University of Helsinki): Jacob De la Gardie’s Lifeguard Regiment: A case of Swedish military entrepreneurship and private proprietorship 1611–1617

Björn Forsen, Mika Hakkarainen (University of Helsinki): Military Entrepreneurship and Migration: Swedish Mercenaries in Venetian/Italian Service

Jouko Hartikainen (University of Helsinki): Swedish privateers in British propaganda and press during the Great Northern War 1700-1721

11.30 – 13.00 Lunch

13.00 – 15.00 Session 4. Military networks and information flows. Chair: Jaakko Björklund

Martin Neuding Skoog (Swedish Defence University): Strategic intelligence on the military market. Swedish networks in operation ca. 1530-1560

Adam Grimshaw (Independent scholar): Facilitating Commerce in Times of War: England and Sweden in the later Seventeenth Century

Cathleen Sarti (University of Oxford): Understanding the Business of War Through Custom Accounts

Anu Lahtinen (University of Helsinki): Mapping the Finnish roads and military maintenance 1550–1917: HISCOM Project

15.00 – 15.30 Coffee

15.30 – 16.00 Closing remarks and information on the book project

Organizers and contact information:
Anu Lahtinen, Professor of Finnish and Nordic History, anu.z.lahtinen@helsinki.fi
Sofia Gustafsson, Doctor of History, sofia.gustafsson@helsinki.fi
Jaakko Björklund, Doctoral Researcher of History, jaakko.bjorklund@helsinki.fi
Sebastian Schiavone, Doctoral Researcher of History, sebastian.schiavone@uef.fi

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Kirjoittaja Jaakko Björklund viimeistelee väitöskirjaansa Helsingin yliopiston historian oppiaineessa.

[1] Glete 2010, Parrott 2012, Fynn-Paul, t’Hart and Vermeesch 2014, Parrott 2014, Pourchasse 2018, Torres Sanchez, Wilson 2020, Wilson and Klerk 2020, Sutherland 2022.

[2] Lundkvist 1966, Ekholm 1971, Landberg 1971, Artéus 1986, Nilsson 1989, Nilsson 1990, Lindegren 2000, Glete 2002, Hallenberg 2009.

[3] Kreem 2001, Lind 2013, Linnarsson 2014, Neuding Skoog 2017, Sproule 2019, Klerk 2020, Björklund ja Schiavone 2021, Neuding Skoog 2021, Talvitie ja Granqvist (toim.) 2021.

Looking back to think forward: Finland, Northern Europe, Eurasia

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The recent crises have made people to look at the event of the past, to see how and why societies have reacted rather differently to them. The reasons for present day reactions and solutions are often rooted in the past.

For example, while most European countries have outsourced their security of supply after the cold war era, Finnish National Emergency Supply Agency (NESA) still maintains large permanent reserves of standby emergency supplies. According to NESA, Finland has geographical characteristics that cause difficulties to the organisers of crisis preparedness and necessitates the upholding of permanent reserves.These include cold weather, long distances, remoteness from international centres of trade, and dependence on maritime transport.

This approach has a long history. The roots of Finnish national crisis preparedness can be traced past Finland’s independence, to its joint history with the Russian Empire and the Swedish Realm, and the basics have stayed the same for three hundred years. The security of supply aimed for the benefit of Finnish people has always been a combination of state-controlled reserves and cooperation with the private sector to encourage voluntary storing.

During the early modern centuries, the European states were primarily concerned with procuring and storing supplies for their armies. Furthermore, in most countries, both the maintenance of armies and the attempts to organize emergency supply for civilians were outsourced to merchants and other private entrepreneurs In Europe’s Nordic periphery, where winters were harsh, distances were long, population was scarce, and merchants had small resources, complete outsourcing of military and civilian supply was an impossibility, and government-regulated public granaries were a necessity.

Think Forward studies the ways in which the resilience of the present day society is connected to the past, highlighting the need to understand the processes that have enhanced confidence or that have failed to do so. The history of Northern crisis preparedness and security of supply is a theme with both national importance and connections to current international debates in the field of history, but which we know scarcely little about. We welcome new members and initiatives related to the topic – from the point of view of resilience, preparedness, maintenance, private life, gender, politics, diplomacy, security, &c.

This blog text is based on a project plan written by Juha-Matti Granqvist, Sampsa Hatakka and Anu Lahtinen, as well as on a presentation given by Anu Lahtinen in the online conference Geopolitics of the New Reality: Kazakhstani and Eurasian Experience, organized by The International Information Technologies University (IITU, www.iitu.kz), Department of Media Communications and History of Kazakhstan, on 7 December 2022.

See other Think Forward contributions:
https://tinyurl.com/ThnkFwd

https://blogs.helsinki.fi/historia/tag/think-forward/

https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/projects/looking-back-to-think-forward-long-term-perspective-on-crisis-sig

Looking back to think forward. A project and a research network

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Looking Back to Think Forward: Long-term Perspective on Crisis signals and Resilience building (Think Forward) – Menneisyys tulevan tukena: Pitkän aikavälin näkökulma kriisin merkkeihin ja kriisinkestävyyteen

The past is marked by crisis – disruptions of a system, whether political, economic or environmental, challenging the existing equilibrium. Change is triggered by an external shock that is often considered sudden or unexpected, shaking the resilience of the society or a community. Most often, however, there have been at least weak signals that have been left unnoticed.

In the Nordic Countries in general and in Finland especially, crisis preparedness has always been critical. The roots of Finnish national crisis preparedness can be traced past Finland’s independence, to its joint history with the Russian Empire and the Swedish Realm, and the basics have stayed the same for three hundred years. The security of supply, for example, has always been a combination of state-controlled reserves and cooperation with the private sector to encourage voluntary storing.

During the early modern centuries, the European states were primarily concerned with procuring and storing supplies for their armies. Furthermore, in most countries, both the maintenance of armies and the attempts to organize emergency supply for civilians were outsourced to merchants and other private entrepreneurs In Europe’s Nordic periphery, where winters were harsh, distances were long, population was scarce, and merchants had small resources, complete outsourcing of military and civilian supply was an impossibility, and government-regulated public granaries were a necessity.

Think Forward studies the ways in which the resilience of the present day society is connected to the past, highlighting the need to understand the processes that have enhanced confidence or that have failed to do so. The history of Northern crisis preparedness and security of supply is a theme with both national importance and connections to current international debates in the field of history, but which we know scarcely little about. The aim of this project is to offer new, comprehensive, and state-of-the-art research on the subject. We welcome new members and initiatives related to the topic – from the point of view of resilience, preparedness, maintenance, private life, diplomacy, security, &c.

The first plans for the project have been jointly drafted in several application processes in the year 2020-2021. This summary is based on the joint work of Associate Professor Anu Lahtinen, Dr. Juha-Matti Granqvist and Dr. Sampsa Hatakka. For more information, please contact Anu Lahtinen https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/fi/persons/anu-lahtinen

Other Think Forward contributions: https://tinyurl.com/ThnkFwd

See even the book launch of Civilians and Military Supply in Early Modern Finland (eds. Petri Talvitie, Juha-Matti Granqvist), https://blogs.helsinki.fi/historia/2021/11/29/tutkimustiistai-zoom-30-11-klo-15-00-17-00/

Military Maintenance and Archaeology / Arkeologiaa ja sotilashuoltoa (Tuesday Meeting / Tutkimustiistai)

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Tutkimustiistai / Tuesday meeting 30 November, 15.00-17.00 (3-5 pm)

ca. 15.00.-15.30 Eljas Oksanen: Mapping citizen science archaeology in Finland / Kartoittamassa arkeologista kansalaistiedettä Suomessa

ca. 15.30-16.30 Book Presentation: Civilians and Military Supply in Early Modern Finland (eds. Petri Talvitie, Juha-Matti Granqvist)  https://hup.fi/site/books/e/10.33134/HUP-10/   This volume examines civil-military interaction in the multinational Swedish Realm in 1550–1800, with a focus on its eastern part, present-day Finland, which was an important supply region and battlefield bordered by Russia. Sweden was one of the frontrunners of the Military Revolution in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Zoom address for the meetings:
Topic: Tutkimustiistai
Join Zoom Meeting
https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/61655480277?pwd=UDVKWS9VamUrb3ZuWW1seDNabEJlZz09
Meeting ID: 616 5548 0277
Passcode: 515868

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”Tutkimustiistait”: joka kuun viimeisenä tiistaina klo 15.00 alkaen järjestetään (etä)tilaisuus, jossa tutkijat voivat lyhyesti esitellä tutkimuksiaan. Esitykset n. 10 min. + 10 min keskustelu, 2-3 esitystä per kerta. Esitykset suomeksi, ruotsiksi ja englanniksi tervetulleita.

Varje månads sista tisdag ordnas ett tisdagsmöte (zoom) kl. 15.00; där forskare kan kort berätta om sin forskning. Föredrag typ 10 min. + 10 min diskussion, 2-3 presentationer per möte. Presentationer på finska, svenska, engelska välkomna.

Every last Tuesday of each month, at 15.00, we are planning to have a meeting with short presentations abut ongoing projects. Presentations ca. 10 min + 10 min discussion, 2-3 presentations per Tuesday. Presentations welcome in Finnish, Swedish, English.