entangled in insolvency – jussi sallila 287 ically. In his study, Jägerskiöld refers to many of the cases of the 1680s. However, although he does not deny the importance of the reduktion, it has a secondary role compared to the long-term trend toward the modernization of Swedish law through reception of foreign influences. Legislative reforms were carried out in a piecemeal fashion. Many of the royal letters and edicts of the 1680s and 1690s were issued after courts and officials charged with the execution of judgments sought clarification of the law. Rules concerning bankruptcy composition were laid down in an edict issued in 1685. Responding to aquery of the Svea Court of Appeal, the king ruled that majority rule applied with respect to creditors whose claims were equal in the order of priority. However, such a composition was not binding for recalcitrant creditors who had a privileged position.823 The most important piece of bankruptcy legislation was the royal edict and interpretation824 of the law of 28 May 1687.825 The 1687 edict was concerned with debt relationships between spouses andcessio bonorumapplications of insolvent debtors or the heirs of a dead person. According to the text, it was general practice in Sweden and abroad that a man or a woman overburdened by debts relinquished his/her assets to the creditors in order to avoid imprisonment for debt. However, such a practice was prone to abuse. In order to keep up general good faith, it was necessary to examine all such cases scrupulously and assess the reasons for insolvency. If the indebtedness was due to calamities such as fire, shipwreck or enemy invasion, where the debtor was not at fault, cessio bonorumwas generally allowed in practice. The debtor should not receive such a benefit if the causes of insolvency were morally reprehensible. There were frivolous debtors, who squandered their assets in “superfluous consumption, wastefulness, gambling, obvious laziness or neglect.” An even more reprehensible group was made up by debtors who had committed fraudulent actions, such as 823 KOngl. May:tz nådigeResolutionoch Förklaring öfwer then ifrån Swea Hofrätt i underdånighet ingifne frågan/huru emellanCreditorerne skal förhållas när Debitorenförmenas intet wara solvendo, och somlige af Creditorerne wilja gifwa honomdilation eller om något wist accordera, och en eller annan intet wil sig til någåndera conditionen förstå. Stockholmthen 9. Novemb. Anno 1685, Kongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, p. 979. 824 See Trolle Önnerfors, Elsa 2010 pp. 180-182, on such authoritative interpretation through statutes in Sweden. 825 KOngl. May:tzResolutionoch Förklaring öfver Lagsens rätte Förstånd uti åtskillige mål/ angående giäldz betalning emellan Ächta Folck/ samt Debitorers sökte anstånd och befrielse. Gifven Stockholm then 28Maji Anno 1687, Kongl. stadgar, ed. Schmedeman, pp. 1120-1124.
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