his studyexamines the wife’s and husband’s use of real property and movable goods in late medieval Stockholm. From a property ownership view, spouses are studied as a single econo- T mic unit. A gender perspective analysis highlights the wife’s rights of disposition regarding the couple’s jointly owned property. Stockholm was in an economic growth phase during the second half of the 15th century. Its population of at least 7,000 people was moderate from a northern European perspective, but from a Scandinavian perspective, Stockholm was the second largest city in the Nordic region after Bergen. Stockholm’s size was comparable to many other cities around the Baltic Sea, some of which had a few thousand more, others a few thousand less. Lübeck, on the other hand, was three to four times larger than Stockholm. Stockholm was part of a network of trading centers located on the Baltic Sea but was also connected to trade in the North Sea. In Stockholm, we find the same late medieval credit instruments and the same types of transactions as found in its mercantile surroundings. The inhabitants of Stockholm originated from several language areas and included fewfrälse (nobility). Vast amounts of Swedish produced copper and ironwas shipped from the city. For example, 80 percent of the iron Lübeck imported was shipped from Stockholm. Those who lived in Stockholm came from the Lake Mälaren district as well as from the entire Baltic Sea region. From 1471, a resident of Stadsholmen (the central island of Stockholm, known as “Old Town”) who paid taxes was a burgher of the city andwas called Swedish, regardless of where he came from. He had the right to engage in burgher occupations in Stockholm. The summary. the open window 282 Introduction
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