Jonas Alströmer
Alingsås

Youth and Early Employment

Jonas was born on January 7, 1685, in Alingsås. His father was Tore Carlsson, his mother Annika Gisledotter. They were poor townspeople. Jonas had three siblings: Brita, Maria, and Carl. His original surname was Toresson, but he early on took the name Alström from his birthplace—something his siblings also did.

His schooling was limited; he learned to read, write, and count. Jonas had to work from an early age, his first job being as an errand boy in Eksjö. His employer was very strict, but Jonas endured for two years.

Afterward, he walked to Vänersborg, where he was hired by the town’s secretary, tasked with making fair copies of town council records. During this time, he was offered a job by merchant Törne in Stockholm, thanks to his friend Johan Ahlberg, who worked as Törne’s bookkeeper.

In Stockholm, Jonas held a modest position as a clerk at Ryssvågen (a customs weigh-house). Before long, an event occurred that would take him abroad: Ahlberg had secretly become engaged to Törne’s daughter, against her parents’ wishes. The couple decided to flee to London, asking Jonas to come along. They sold their belongings to fund the journey and a fresh start in England. One Sunday, while the family was in church, the young people slipped aboard a ship bound for London. When the family began searching and a customs boat caught up with the ship, they were saved by the sympathetic captain, who did not reveal them.

In London

Ahlberg started a trading company in London, hiring Jonas. After three years, the business failed due to bad speculation. Jonas, however, had made a name for himself among merchants and found work as a shipping clerk. He became a British citizen and eventually started his own trading company.

His business flourished, and he built up a considerable fortune. Jonas noticed that large amounts of goods—particularly woollen fabrics—were being exported to Sweden, and that England was far ahead in industrial development. As he later wrote, “it suddenly opened my eyes, through divine providence,” to how much money Sweden was losing because it could not produce such goods itself.

In 1715, Jonas returned to Sweden. He spent that year and the next traveling the country, gathering information on raw materials, production, and trade. He believed Sweden could be self-sufficient in textiles, but decided it was too early to start manufacturing. Instead, he went abroad to learn more.

France, the Netherlands, and the Birth of the Manufactory

In France, he studied sheep farming, but also investigated various other industries. Secretly, he purchased stocking looms and other equipment. From Paris, he applied for permission to start a manufacturing plant in Alingsås.

In August 1723, he went to Amsterdam, where he recruited skilled workers and bought more tools—risking heavy fines if caught. Eventually, he secured the equipment and workers, loading them onto a Swedish ship and slipping away at night to evade Dutch customs patrols.

His biggest problem was money—he had spent his fortune on preparations. Attempts to interest other businessmen failed, so he turned to Värmland, where he sold “shares” in his venture to local industrialists. This allowed him to form a company to back his factory in Alingsås.

In Stockholm, his ideas won support, with King Frederick I among the first to contribute funds. Soon, the stocking-weaving workshop was up and running, followed by ribbon-weaving, cloth-making, and tobacco spinning. Tensions between the factory’s workers and the town’s burghers became so heated that the town council was dissolved and replaced by the manufactory company’s leadership.

Support and Criticism

In November 1727, the Riksdag introduced a “general national aid” policy: all imported goods—especially those that could be made domestically—were subject to an extra 5% fee. This created a fund to support manufacturing. Additionally, for five years, all wage and tax payments in Sweden and Finland included an extra one-eighth levy for the fund. The Alingsås manufactory, considered a “mother factory and school for other manufactures in the kingdom,” received substantial support.

Alströmer faced heavy criticism, some due to envy, some justified. He defended the factory’s value as a training ground for craftsmen who went on to other parts of Sweden, arguing that state support was an investment in the nation’s industrial future.

A major fire in Alingsås in 1749 destroyed many workshops. To rebuild quickly, wooden houses were used instead of the recommended stone.

Sheep Farms and Agricultural Innovation

Early on, Sweden imported sheep to improve its native breeds. The elite wanted fine, light-coloured wool for clothing, while farmers preferred the coarse, dark wool of native sheep for work clothes.

Alströmer leased Höjentorp royal estate between Skara and Skövde and founded a model sheep farm (skäferi) with his own funds. He imported sheep from various countries, including merino sheep from Spain—the first person in the world to legally acquire them. He also imported Angora goats from Turkey to produce mohair.

Höjentorp became a training center for provincial sheep masters, who also learned about mineralogy, soil types, botany, and cultivation of tobacco, potatoes, and hops, as well as fruit-tree pruning. Graduates were sent to counties across Sweden and to Finland. To encourage breeding of fine-wool sheep, a cash reward system was introduced.

Final Years

Jonas’s son Patrik took over the manufactory in 1755. Jonas died on June 2, 1761, before seeing its decline.

The factory’s privileges expired in 1765, but Patrik secured a five-year extension. Production soon halved, focusing mainly on wool goods. A second great fire in 1779 destroyed many remaining workshops and the Alströmer library. Cloth production continued until 1847.

Personality and Legacy

Contemporaries described Jonas as of medium height, muscular rather than stout, with both physical and mental vigor. His face was cheerful and friendly, his eyes lively and quick-witted. He avoided brandy and tobacco but would indulge socially. He dressed simply, without cuffs.

Of an enemy, he once said: “I pity that man for not knowing me—if he did, he would be my best friend, as I would be his.”

Jonas devoted himself tirelessly to his manufactory and sheep farm, spending evenings and nights writing letters. The Alströmer letter collection at Uppsala University Library contains about 13,000 letters, mostly to or from his son Patrik.

The Alströmer Family

Jonas married at age 36 in Stockholm to merchant’s daughter Margareta Clason, with whom he had three sons: Patrik (b. 1733), August (b. 1735), and Clas (b. 1736). Margareta died the same year as Clas’s birth, aged only 29.

His second wife was Hedvig Elisabet Paulin of Stockholm, and they had a son, Johan (b. 1742). Jonas had high ambitions for his sons, giving them private tutoring, university studies, and study trips abroad. The whole family was musically inclined.

Friends, Trade, and Science

Jonas and his friend Niclas Sahlgren met in Holland while both were studying manufacturing. Sahlgren later became a successful director of the Swedish East India Company.

In 1739, Jonas co-founded the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with Carl Linnaeus, Mårten Triewald, Anders Johan von Höpken, and Sten Carl Bielke. Linnaeus praised Jonas as a passionate supporter of practical sciences and a generous host.

Jonas’s influence extended to diplomacy—his contacts helped Sweden sign a treaty with Algiers in 1729 to protect shipping from piracy in the Mediterranean.

He was appointed Commercial Councillor (Kommerseråd), awarded the Order of the Polar Star in 1748 as its first non-noble recipient, and was knighted in 1751, changing his name to Alströmer. His motto was “For the Fatherland.”

Despite criticism of the manufactory’s finances, his contributions to Swedish industry were never doubted. In 1752, Parliament declared that “all subjects of the realm owe Alströmer everlasting gratitude for his many useful proposals for the public economy.”

Today, most remember him for introducing the potato to Sweden.

Sources and Reference Material:

• Alingsås museum. Årstryck 1 (1961) - 5 (1965). Alingsås 1962–1966.

• Bohlin, G.A., Bidrag till Alingsås stads historia. Minnesskrift vid stadens 300-årsjubileum 1919. Alingsås 1919.

• Hastfer, F.W., Utförlig och omständelig underrättelse om fullgoda fårs ans och skjötsel. Stockholm 1752.

• Heckscher, E., Ett bidrag till Alingsås manufakturverks historia. Historisk tidskrift 37. 1917.

• Hult, J., *[Jonas Alströmer frihetens entreprenör./Omslagets titel]. Jonas Alströmer 7/1 1685 U 2/6 1761, en av akademiens fem stiftare. Minnesanteckning vid Kungl. Vetenskapsakademiens högtidssammankomst den 31 mars 1985. Stockholm 1986.

• Kjellberg, S.T., Ull och ylle, bidrag till den svenska yllemanufakturens historia. Diss. Lund 1943.

• Nathorst, J.T., Handbok i ullkännedom och fårskötsel, efter de bästa utländska författare och egen erfarenhet. Stockholm 1827.

• Regnér, G., Minne af Jonas Alströmer, svenska Handaslöjdens Fosterfader, som vann belöningen uti upfostringssälskapet den 1 nov. År 1785. Stockholm 1790.

• Stråle, G.H., Alingsås manufakturverk, ett bidrag till den svenska industriens historia under frihetstiden. Stockholm 1884.

• Västgöta-Dal 1993. Personalities and events from Swedish history. An annual publication from Älvsborg County Museum, Vänersborg.

• Letters, articles, and conversations with Karl-Henrik Suneson.

Compiled by Ewa Anderson, antiquarian, Alingsås Museum.

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