The book consists of eleven of the most important writings of Anders Chydenius, an eighteenth century pioneer of freedom and democracy. Thematically they touch upon subject areas such as the freedom of trade and industry, emigration, the monetary system of the Swedish realm in the eighteenth century, the freedom of the press (or as Chydenius said: the freedom of writing and printing), the freedom of information, the rights of the rural working class and the freedom of religion. The book also includes a comprehensive biography of Chydenius written by Lars Magnusson together with commentaries and explanatory notes to each text.
Anders Chydenius' Life and Work: An Introduction Lars Magnusson The Selected Works of Anders Chydenius Commented by Lars Magnusson Part I: Tumultuous Dit of 1765-6 1. Answer to the Question Prescribed by the Royal Academy of Sciences: What may be the Cause of so Many People Annually Emigrating from this Country? And by what Measures may it best be Prevented? (1765) 2. The Source of Our Country's Weakness (1765) 3. The National Gain (1765) 4. A Remedy for the Country, by Means of a Natural System of Finance (1766) Part II: Pioneering Freedom of Information 5. Memorial on the Freedom of Printing (1765) 6. Report of the Third Committee of the Grand Joint Committee of the Honourable Estates of the Realm on the Freedom of Writing and Printting, submitted at the Diet in Stockholm on 18 December 1765 7. Additional Report of the Third Committee of the Grand Joint Committee of the Honourable Estates of the Realm on the Freedom of Printing, submitted at the Diet in Stockholm on 21 April 1766 Part III: Radical Rector of Kokkola 8. Answer to the Question posed by The Society of Arts and Sciences at Gothenburg: Whether Rural Trade is Generally Useful or Harmful to a Country, and to what Extent it Contributes to the Promotion or Decline of Industry (1777) 9. Thoughts Concerning the Natural Rights of Masters and Servants (1778) 10. Memorial, Regarding Freedom of Religion (1779) Part IV: Autobiography of Anders Chydenius 11. Autobiography submitted to the Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg (1780) Appendix I: Monetary terms Appendix 2: Measurements and weights
