Birkarlar

Birkarlar, group of Swedish and Finnish traders and trappers who, for approximately 300 years, explored, colonized, and governed the forest area extending from the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia to the northern Norwegian hinterland. In 1277 the Swedish kings gave the Birkarlar the right to exploit this wilderness, amassing furs and fish and levying taxes on the Sami population. In return, the Birkarlar paid a tribute to the royal treasury. These frontiersmen had Norwegian and Russian counterparts (especially the Novgorodian Vatagi) with whom they shared the tasks of subduing pagan tribes and developing the river and portage routes. They brought significant revenues and commerce to the advanced centres of Scandinavia and northeastern Europe. In 1552 Sweden’s King Gustav I Vasa (reigned 1523–60) revoked the Birkarlar’s taxing rights in the area in favour of direct royal control, and the frontier company passed from the historical scene.