224 of the Russian instruktsiia for voevodas and governors, and a concluding section on the results of the reform. As has been mentioned in earlier contexts, the position of power achieved by the Swedish aristocracy after the death of Charles IX in 1611 brought with it a more systematic organization of the Swedish state. The central administration, as we have seen above, was divided into five mutually independent areas of responsibility, each of which was represented by a governmental institution referred to as a college. The heads of the colleges, who were soon given the title of president, served simultaneously as members of the State Council and were recruited from the most prominent aristocratic families in the kingdom. In order for this new central administration to produce the intended political effect, however, it was necessary to establish better control over local administrative organs. During the reign of Gustav Vasa (1523—1560), responsibility for the local administration of finances had been transferred gradually to the bailiffs of the crown. As became very clear during the reigns of Vasa’s sons Erik XIV, Johan III, and Charles IX, this development involved the dismantling of the ancient system of fiefs. This in turn meant that the aristocracy lost its considerable incomes from the control of fiefs, as well as its influence over the collection of taxes. The new provincial governors, the ståthållare, merely retained administrative and judicial functions,- while non-noble bailiffs took over the role of the aristocratic fiefholders in collecting the taxes imposed on the peasantry. These bailiffs operated with a great measure of independence and were subordinate only to the central organ of fiscal administration, the räntekammaren, or bursary. The sources speak of the willfulness with which the bailiffs conducted the collection of taxes and inform us that embezzlement was not at all uncommon.'* The number of bailiffs grew along with the fiscal needs of the crown, and, together with the non-noble secretaries in the central administration, the bailiffs came to form the core of a new class of civil servants that was much resented by the aristocracy. For this reason, the death of the last of Gustav Vasa’s sons, Charles IX, was followed by demands from the council aristocracy that the jurisdiction of the provincial governors over the activities of the bailiffs should be increased. Through the governors, the Council could thus gain firm control over the collection and - Jerker Rosén, Tiden före 1718, vol. 1 of Svensk historia, edited by Sten Carlsson and Jerker Rosén, (3rd ed., 2 v., Stockholm 1969), 362—368; concerning the fiscal administration by the bailiffs, see Birgitta Odén, Rikets uppbörd och utgift. Statsfinanser och finansförvaltning under senare 1500-talet (Lund, 1955), 64—78. ^ Instruktioner I, 38—39.
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