Marstrand Free Port
| Marstrand Free Port | ||||||||||
| Frihamnen Marstrand | ||||||||||
| Free port of Sweden | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
| Capital | Marstrand | |||||||||
| Government | Republic | |||||||||
| Historical era | Enlightenment | |||||||||
| • | Established | 1775 | ||||||||
| • | Disestablished | 1794 | ||||||||
|
||||||||||
| The anachronistic coat of arms is based on the town's medieval sigil, in use during the free port era. | ||||||||||
Coat of arms
The Marstrand Free Port was an largely autonomous island territory of Sweden, during the Gustavian Era of the late 18th century, which effectively functioned as a merchant republic. As a free port designed with inspiration from the Italian porto franco and declared in 1775 by King Gustav III, it became an urban centre of commerce both legal and illegal, refuge of political and religious dissidents, and hideout of wanted criminals.
An experiment in free trade principles, as opposed to the mercantilist state policy of the era, the Marstrand Free Port was an economic success – although most of the income went into private hands, rather than the state's. Despite this, its autonomous status was still revoked in 1794 after nearly two decades, following complaints from its burghers.
Marstrand, a medieval-origin island-based town in the formerly Norwegian Bohuslän province, became Swedish with the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The same year, the mighty Carlsten Fortress was constructed, a penal fortification that came to dominate the port. In the mid-18th century, the most immense of the region's centennial "herring periods" – a seasonal surge of Atlantic herring in near-limitless amounts – brought on a boom in Marstrand's economy. It became a primary site of commerce for the massive herring industry, which for some time provided Sweden's second largest export (after the iron industry).
...
Wikipedia