Mercantilism from below? Swedish consuls and merchant networks between Naples and Stockholm in the mid eighteenth century

The article examines the relationship between state policy and commercial initiatives within the institutions of the ancien régime, namely consuls. By exploring the case of the Swedish consulate in Naples in the mid eighteenth century, it addresses the role of private actors in the establishment of consulates, the Swedish authorities’ problems controlling the consular network from a distance, not least because of the specificity of the local operational contexts. The article challenges the standard interpretation of the Swedish consular service being subject to an effective government-led policy of controlling and promoting the expansion of the Swedish merchant marine in the Mediterranean. Further, it suggests considering consuls as ancien régime entrepreneurs of a particular type, who used their political resources to achieve both economic and symbolic outcomes, by ­taking a pragmatic, micro-­analytical approach to the relationship between institutions and the economy.