142 the areas of competence of each of the five so-called colleges of the realm. This legislative document, which might most accurately be described as a general set of rules for the administration, proclaimed that the responsibilities of the räknekammaren were to see to it:' that the rents are demanded correctly and on time, that they are used for their proper purposes, that they are not reduced in an untimely manner, but that they are instead improved and increased, for which reason they should haA^e an eye on all regalia fisci, that they not be embezzled, neglected, and lost; should take care that the resources of the realm improve and are accommodated to the expenditures, are maintained at hand, obtained in time, and that credit is maintained, so that in case of need the crown can obtain support and help at home and abroad; for all these reasons, therefore, all the ordinances and dispositions should be executed in the räknekammaren. The Important position of treasurer of the realm was Council, and in 1634 its choice fell upon Gabriel Bengtsson Oxenstierna, who represented what was perhaps Sweden’s leading aristocratic family.** The importance and the development of the kammarkollegium during this period was shaped by the economic interests of the ruling aristocracy. When Queen Christina’s and the Council’s extensive alienation of crown lands during the first half of the seventeenth century, mostly to men of the upper nobility, led to a drastic reduction of crown revenues, the kammarkollegium was given the impossible task of finding, during a period of rising wartime expenditures, the funds necessary to pay the salaries of the administration and the armed forces. By 1653, the ordinary rents of the crown had been reduced from an original 2,528,616 dsmt to 1,160,547 dsmt by the various alienations of crown estates.® The economic policy pursued by the aristocracy was predicated on the idea that the finances of the realm should be based on indirect taxes, excise taxes, customs duties, and other fees paid in cash. The aim of this policy was to “liberate” the crown budget from its dependence upon the traditional agrarian rents, which it was thought could then be donated or sold to private individuals on a large scale. Such sales would also produce cash incomes, which were highly desirable in view of the great sums required by Sweden’s military and foreign policies. With the introduction of a cash economy, the aristocracy could look forward with confidence to assuming control of all the agrarian rents not required for the maintenance of the state budget. Then, too, the aristocrats claimed ' Article 13 of the Form of Government of 1634, SRF, 13. ® Nils Edén, “Från Gustav Vasa till Karl XII;s död,” in idem et al., Kammarkollegiets historia (Stockholm, 1941), 71. * These figures, which are based on Sam Clason, Till reduktionens förhistoria (Uppsala, 1895), are not, however, fully reliable; see Sven A. Nilsson, “Kontribution eller reduktion,” Scandia. 24 (1958), 69. filled by the
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