The parliamentary rule during the Age of Liberty (1718–1772) invited citizens to debate and discussion, to a freer formation of opinion, not the least on public affairs. After the Great Northern War, the monarchs were no longer trusted. And the landed nobility had lost its say in the Great Reduction of 1680. New ideas of rationalism, individualism and meritocracy found their way from the European continent to remote towns and cities in Sweden-Finland.