Anders Chydenius was a Swedish-Finnish Lutheran priest and a member of the Swedish Riksdag, and is known as the leading classical liberal of Nordic history.
33 Facts About Anders Chydenius
2.
Anders Chydenius was born in 1729 in Sotkamo, Ostrobothnia where his father Jacob was a chaplain.
3.
Anders Chydenius' childhood was spent in the barren area of northern Finland.
4.
In 1753, after graduation, Anders Chydenius was appointed preacher of the Chapel of the dependent parish of Nedervetil in Ostrobothnia.
5.
Anders Chydenius was married in 1755 to Beata Magdalena Mellberg, daughter of a merchant from Jakobstad.
6.
Anders Chydenius's aim was to enlighten the peasants by example.
7.
Anders Chydenius practiced medicine and became known by inoculating ordinary people against smallpox.
8.
Anders Chydenius was sent to the Diet in 1765 to obtain free trading rights for the towns of Ostrobothnia.
9.
Anders Chydenius participated actively in the Diet, and published several articles of criticism which caused a great stir.
10.
Anders Chydenius considered that one of his greatest achievements was an extension of the freedom of the press.
11.
Anders Chydenius maintained his own orchestra, and rehearsed with them.
12.
Anders Chydenius's father lived in the parsonage at Gamlakarleby from 1746 to 1766, and Anders lived there from 1770 to 1803.
13.
Between 1778 and 1779 Anders Chydenius participated in the Diet, at which the position of hired hands was brought up.
14.
Anders Chydenius participated in the Diet again in 1793 and was active as a writer covering the development of agriculture, the burning of saltpeter, smallpox, and the settlement of Lapland.
15.
Anders Chydenius focused his liberal writings on attacking the mercantilism, mercantilist conquest politics, conservatism, protectionism and privilege that were prevalent at the time.
16.
Anders Chydenius criticised the clergy, nobility, civil servants and other privileged people, saying that they lived off the work of peasants, seeking to turn the debate on the status of peasants into a debate on the status of the privileged.
17.
Anders Chydenius showed that, on the contrary, workers were not idlers who should be forced to make the state rich, but vital individuals who, free to pursue their own happiness, would benefit others.
18.
Anders Chydenius was in favour of peace, demanded full and inviolable land ownership, wanted to give refugees protection and peasants and artisans the right to sell their products whenever and wherever they wanted.
19.
Anders Chydenius opposed price and wage regulation and the labour strike, and demanded the right of workers to choose their employers.
20.
In 1765 Anders Chydenius published a pamphlet called The National Gain, in which he proposes ideas of free trade and industry, explores the relationship between economy and society, and lays out the principles for liberalism, capitalism, and modern democracy.
21.
Anders Chydenius put his theories into practice by proposing to the Riksdag of the Estates a drastic trade liberalization of towns along the Gulf of Bothnia.
22.
Anders Chydenius became a great proponent of freedom of the press.
23.
Anders Chydenius was outspoken about universal rights and the abolition of privilege.
24.
Anders Chydenius wanted to give the poor the same freedom as for everybody else and argued for the good of the poor, which was then rather exceptional among politicians.
25.
Anders Chydenius promoted democracy and defended the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of trade and industry, and the workers rights.
26.
Anders Chydenius called for an oversight of the way the state funds were spent.
27.
Anders Chydenius can be seen as a major influence on Nordic thinkers as well as real-life politics, strictly promoting classical liberalism.
28.
Anders Chydenius has been labeled the father of Swedish liberalism.
29.
Anders Chydenius is remembered as a man ahead of his time, expressing ideas that were radical in his day, but are now the backbone of the Nordic ideology.
30.
Anders Chydenius can be seen as an Enlightenment thinker, an advocate of science, arts, rational thinking and freedom.
31.
Anders Chydenius was a scientist and skilled eye-surgeon, the maker of several inventions, a pioneer of vaccination in Finland and the founder of an orchestra.
32.
Anders Chydenius was featured on the highest valued bank note of the Finnish mark's last design series.
33.
The Anders Chydenius family is even today a well known cultural family in Finland.