Stockholms Banco

Timeline

1. 1656–1660Stockholm · StockholmJohan Palmstruch of Livonia obtained a charter from Charles X Gustav to establish Sweden's first bank in Stockholm, handling deposits and transfers and attempting to bring the cumbersome copper plate currency into a manageable credit system. The bank had a semi-official character, aimed at attracting capital to the realm and facilitating payments, laying the organizational groundwork for the subsequent paper money experiment.
2. 1661–1663Stockholm · StockholmAfter the 1660 reduction in copper coin weight triggered depositors racing to withdraw the old heavy coins, the bank began issuing freely transferable credit notes in integer denominations from 1661, in values including copper daler and silver daler. Banknotes were far easier to carry and mail than copper plates often weighing over ten kilograms, quickly became popular, and even traded at a premium at times, becoming one of Europe's earliest banknote practices truly entering everyday circulation.
3. 1664–1668Stockholm · StockholmThe bank expanded lending by issuing more banknotes, leading to devaluation, bank runs, and suspension of payments. In 1664 the Privy Council and the Estates ordered loans curtailed and credit notes recalled; Palmstruch was convicted of mismanagement in 1668 by the Svea Court of Appeal (sentenced to death, later pardoned). That September the charter was transferred to the newly established Riksens Ständers Bank, which deliberately distanced itself from the failed paper money experiment and later developed into Sweden's central bank.