The Yale expositor., 1907-03-01
CITY LONG IN PAWN
SWEDEN, NOT REDEEMlNa WIS.,
MAR, 1T BECOMES GERMAN.
Pledged by King oustavus ~. for Loan
Of a Million DoIlars-consd-
cred Finest l1arbor Site
on Baltic Coast.

London.-Wismar, a port of $4,000
people on the Baltic. situated in the
German duchy of Mecklenburg'
Schwerin, but belonging legally to
Sweden, has recently become Ger
man city. Ii was pledged by King
Gustavus ". for loan of $l,OOO,OOO.
and the king of Sweden having failed
to redeem it within the century II has
passed to the duke of Mecklenburg-
Schwerin. from whose ancestors the
money was borrowed.
In the early part of the eighteenth
century the most powerful enemy OF
Sweden, after the destruction of the
Hanseatic league, a kind of trade
union established by certain German
cities for safety and commercial pur-
poses. captured Wismar and RACED the
Notifications Afterward peace was
declared and the city reverted to
Sweden. but with the provision that
she should not rebuild the fortified
lions. The place thus lost its
| strength and importance and became
instead an element of weakness to the
ruined and its inland trade lost.
Under these circumstances IL was
not surprising that the Swedes tired
| at last Of their white elephant. So in
! the reign of the incompetent and eX-
! travagant Gustavis ", with territory
! lost TO the French in one war, with
! Finland lost TO Russia. with defeat in
a war against Norway, the Swedes
seized an opportunity to relieve them
selves of the burden of possession.
The direct opportunity was given
! by the cancellation by Gustavus OF his
| engagement TO the daughter OF Duke
Frederick Franz |. That person not
unnaturally resented the insult and
threatened dire things. Finally his
threats crystalized into a demand for
! an enormous indemnity. The money
| had TO be raised at once. The duchy
of Mecklenburg advanced 1,25S,OO0
reichsthaler and took Wismar, Neuk-
loster and the Island of Peel as Sc
curity.
Under the conditions of the loan the
city of Wismar and the two govern
ments were to remain in pledge for
100 years. At the end of that time
Sweden might claim and obtain the
pledged city and land by paying back
the original loan. with three per cent.
compound interest
A further provision. however, OF the
loan was that should Sweden fail to
take any notice whatever of the eX-
/ piration of the time the contract would
be thereby renewed for another 100
years. The sum which Sweden would
have ha4 to pay II she wanted TO claim
Wismar and the two government dis
tricts is figured as amounting to S2I-
100000. and this alone, quite apart
from considerations of policy, oper-
ated, doubtless, as a bar against the
assertion of her rights.
Il Will be seen that while the imme-
date business transaction dates back
but about, 100 years, any diplomatic
suuabbles over the city now would
have to revert to the surrenders and
| armistices of the Thirty Years war
161S-4S And the fact that heretofore
Wismar has been Swedish territory
explains why Germany has not forti-
fed the port, which is considered the
finest harbor site of the entire Baltic
| coast. Under the Swedish-Danish
treaty Notifications were not to be
built and when the duchy of Mecklen.
burg took over the place the stipula-
| ton WAS renewed.