FISKARS 1649 – 360 years of Finnish industrial history

Fiskars 1649
Fiskars 1649
The 18th century
Wars and shortages with contrasting technological progress
By the 18th century Sweden-Finland was
impoverished and disunited. One third of
Finland’s half a million inhabitants had
died during the famine years of 1696–1697. The
Great Northern War, during which the Russians
systematically ravaged the Finnish coast, broke out
in 1700. In 1712 – during the Great Northern War
and on the eve of the Great Wrath – the number
of workers at Fiskars and Antskog totalled only 25.
Bollsta in Pohja was one of the centres of Russian
civil and military administration during the Great
Wrath, and Russians were active in the area. Many
Fiskars workers lost their lives during the hostilities.
When peace was made at Uusikaupunki in 1721,
Sweden-Finland’s status as a great power collapsed.
St Petersburg, founded in 1703 by Peter the Great,
became a rapidly growing international centre and
the capital city of Russia, the new great power on
the Baltic Sea.
After the Great Northern War, the Finns
had no money to revive the ironworks. Wealthy
Swedes from Stockholm invested money in
Finnish ironworks, and a merchant named John
Montgomerie bought Fiskars in 1731, recruiting
more workers from abroad. In 1734, the Fiskars
and Antskog ironworks employed nine smiths, two
The silver cup given by the Royal Mines Authority to Anders Holmberg, who found the
Orijärvi copper mine in 1758.
Due to its high charcoal content, crude iron was brittle. Alternate heating and forging were used
to remove all surplus charcoal and turn the iron into steel.
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