Anders Chydenius, an 18th-century Finnish clergyman and member of the Swedish Diet, published his arguments for free trade and freedom of the press in 1765 — more than a decade before Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. His 1766 campaign was directly instrumental in Sweden passing the world's first freedom of the press law, the Freedom of the Press Act, which remains in continuous legal force in Sweden to this day.
Finland has periodically honored Chydenius as a neglected intellectual forefather, and this 2003 issue coincided with growing scholarly reassessment of his place in Enlightenment history.
Anders Chydenius, an 18th-century Finnish clergyman and member of the Swedish Diet, published his arguments for free trade and freedom of the press in 1765 — more than a decade before Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. His 1766 campaign was directly instrumental in Sweden passing the world's first freedom of the press law, the Freedom of the Press Act, which remains in continuous legal force in Sweden to this day.
Finland has periodically honored Chydenius as a neglected intellectual forefather, and this 2003 issue coincided with growing scholarly reassessment of his place in Enlightenment history.