The Swedish conglomerate state has been characterized by the special status of its provinces. While serfdom did not exist in Sweden and Finland, it was accepted in the Baltic and German provinces. The main aim of the paper is to explore how the institution of serfdom was understood and interpreted in Stockholm. It will analyse the question of how the Swedish central government’s position on serfdom changed between 1561 and 1806. It will argue that there were clichés, stereotypes, and prejudices that have shaped the discourse on serfdom. The sources leave us no doubt that the labels and emotions around serfdom were very important to the authorities, the nobility and later to the public commentators who opined on the issue. Serfdom did not live up to the ideals expressed by the Swedish authorities, and a critical discussion of serfdom started much earlier than the mid-eighteenth century process of peasant emancipation. However, there were always both practical and ideological considerations around serfdom and Stockholm’s policy did not change throughout the 17th and 18th century when it came to restricting peasants‘ free movement or using serf labour in manor fields.

中文翻译：

---

农奴制的符号学：1561 年至 1806 年瑞典联合国家如何看待农奴制

瑞典企业集团的特点是其省份的特殊地位。虽然瑞典和芬兰不存在农奴制，但波罗的海和德国省份接受了农奴制。本文的主要目的是探讨在斯德哥尔摩如何理解和解释农奴制度。它将分析瑞典中央政府对农奴制的立场在 1561 年至 1806 年之间如何变化的问题。它将论证陈词滥调、刻板印象和偏见塑造了农奴制的话语。消息来源让我们毫无疑问，围绕农奴制的标签和情绪对当局、贵族以及后来对这个问题发表意见的公众评论员都非常重要。农奴制没有达到瑞典当局表达的理想，对农奴制的批判性讨论早于 18 世纪中叶农民解放进程开始。然而，围绕农奴制始终存在着实践和意识形态上的考虑，斯德哥尔摩在限制农民自由流动或在庄园土地上使用农奴劳动的政策在整个 17 和 18 世纪没有改变。