Minister for Finance
Which position did Johan August Gripenstedt hold between Oct 1851 and Oct 1851?
Johan August Gripenstedt Baron Johan August Gripenstedt ( 11 August 1813 – 13 July 1874 ) was a Swedish businessman and politician . During his political career , Gripenstedt was a member of the Swedish Estates Assembly ( as a representative of the nobility ) from 1840 to 1848 , Minister without Portfolio from 1848 to 1856 , Minister for Finance from 1856 to 1866 , and Member of Parliament from 1867 to 1873 . He is best known for his ten years tenure as Minister for Finance , during which he introduced many liberal economic reforms and fought for issues such as free trade and state owned railways . Early life and military career . Johan August Gripenstedt was born in the Duchy of Holstein , then part of the German Confederation , where his parents lived at the time . His father Jakob Gripenstedt was a retired Swedish officer . His mother Helena Kristina ( née Weinschenck ) was the daughter of a German physician . The Gripenstedt familys earliest descendant was a man named Hieronimus Berger , born in the Courland region of modern-day Latvia , who immigrated to Sweden and was ennobled with name Gripenstedt in 1691 . Johan August Gripenstedt came to Sweden with his family at the age of four . He grew up at the estate of Gräfsnäs in Västergötland and later , when the estates fee tail ended following his uncles death in 1821 , at the nearby estate of Holmängen . Gripenstedt and his brothers were educated at home , and following his examination in the spring of 1827 he was registered at Uppsala University . However , Gripenstedts plans for a civilian career promptly changed and in 1828 he left the university for the Royal War Academy in Stockholm . After completing his education at the Royal War Academy , Gripenstedt became a Second Lieutenant at the Göta Artillery Regiment in Gothenburg , in 1831 . Following further education at the Marieberg Upper Military School from 1832 to 1835 , Gripenstedt was in 1837 promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and , in 1841 , to the rank of Artillery Staff Officer . At this time however , Gripenstedt had already started a new career as a politician . In 1846 he was at his own request released from military service . Politics and entrepreneurship . Gripenstedt first entered politics as a representative of the nobility at the Riksdag of 1840–1841 . He soon distinguished himself as a skillful speaker and was elected to the parliaments Committee on the Accords ( ) . Through his marriage into the Anckarswärd family in 1842 , Gripenstedt became affiliated with the liberal landowners-faction of the parliament , led by Carl Henrik Anckarswärd . In the end of 1841 , Gripenstedt was elected to the parliaments powerful Committee on the Constitution , which at this time worked on a new representative reform . As opposed to the conservative group of the parliament , Gripenstedt was a strong adherent of free elections and general suffrage long before this was realized in Sweden . During start of the Riksdag of 1847 , Gripenstedt was elected to the Committee of the State . As a trustee of Carl Henrik Anckarswärd , and later as the owner of estates such as Nynäs Castle in Södermanland , Gripenstedt became a successful entrepreneur within the grain exports and iron industry . In 1848 Gripenstedt was selected , to manys surprise , by King Oscar I to serve as Minister without Portfolio ( ) in his cabinet . The post was first offered to the conservative Jacob Nils Tersmeden , who declined , and King Oscar wanted to rejuvenate his cabinet why he selected Gripenstedt instead . Gripenstedt also served as acting Minister for Finance from 10 January to 21 October 1851 . On 28 May 1856 he was appointed as ( permanent ) Minister for Finance . Influenced by French liberal thinkers such as Alexis de Tocqueville and Frédéric Bastiat , Gripenstedt was a leading proponent of free trade and other liberal reforms . He succeeded in getting the Swedish parliament to gradually abolish tariffs and reduce customs duties . In 1865 he signed trade agreements with France , the German Customs Union and Prussia , which resulted in greatly reduced customs duties on many products . His optimistic descriptions in the Swedish parliament in 1857 of the economic situation of the country , the so-called flower paintings ( ) , paved the way for a fast expansion of the Swedish railroad network , which was financed by loans on the international market . Gripenstedt opposed an activist foreign policy , which he saw as a threat to the economic stability of the country . As the Danish-German conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question grew more tense , Gripenstedt and then Prime Minister for Justice Louis De Geer ( also a devoted liberal ) stopped King Charles plan for Swedish military support in the upcoming war . Following his retirement as Minister for Finance on 4 July 1866 , Gripenstedt served as a member of the lower house of the new bicameral parliament from 1867 to 1873 . He died in Stockholm on 13 July 1874 ( aged sixty ) , following a long period of illness . He is buried at Bälinge Church in Södermanland . Family life . Gripenstedt married his wife Eva Anckarswärd , the oldest daughter of Colonel August Anckarswärd and Sofia Ulrika Anckarswärd ( née Bonde ) , in 1842 . Together with his wife he had five children . Titles and honours . Gripenstedt was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( ) in 1858 . He was ennobled by King Charles as a baron ( ) on 4 May 1860 . Legacy . Gripenstedt is widely seen as one of the most decisive and influential persons in Swedish political history . As a great speaker and with a good sense of political intrigues and tactics , Gripenstedt was successful in almost everything that he took on . He is not only credited as the one who initiated and guided Swedens transition to a capitalist economy , but also as one of the main architects of the liberal revolution of the 1800s . His reforms changed Sweden definitely into a new direction of liberalized economy and free trade . These new policies ultimately paved the way for the Swedish industrialization . The period from 1870 to 1970 is commonly referred to in Swedish history as the Hundred Years of Growth . During this period Sweden developed from one of the poorest countries in Europe to one of the richest and most prosperous countries in the world . In the book Historiens 100 viktigaste svenskar ( 100 Most Important Swedes in History ) , written by Niklas Ekdal and Petter Karlsson , Gripenstedt was ranked as the twelfth most important Swede in history . External links . - Johan August Gripenstedt - den svenska frihandelns fade