Måns Jansson

My research deals with different aspects of the early modern economy, notably so industrial development and the circulation of technical know-how. Above all, I have studied the metal trades and the manufacturing sector in eighteenth-century Sweden. Another interest area is the changing relations between state-making and local practices of work and decision making.

Ongoing research projects/programs:

Brandförsäkring på Sveriges landsbygd och den finansiella revolutionen. Organisationsformer, bebyggelse och argument 1743-1850 (funded by Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser, project leader: Göran Ulväng).

Mapping the geographies of early modern mining knowledge. A digital history of the study tours of the Swedish Bureau of Mines, 1691-1826 (funded by Swedish Research Council, project leader: Jacob Orrje).

Early modern mines were like subterranean roots from which fiscal-military states drew military, economic, and scientific power. To improve this vital trade, fledgling European mining administrations encouraged travelling officials to tour foreign territories to collect new useful knowledge.

This three-year collaborative project between researchers at Uppsala and Stockholm University uses state-of-the-art digital methods to explore the collection of foreign knowledge of the Swedish Bureau of Mines through their system of study tours.For over 100 years – from the late seventeenth century until the early 1800s – the Bureau encouraged its officials to travel across Europe and beyond. They meticulously documented these voyages, and over time produced numerous handwritten travelogues, which are preserved to this day in the Swedish National Archives. Through, e.g., Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), and Deep Mapping, we will turn the Bureau’s archive into an enriched dataset suitable for mapping the geographies of early modern mining knowledge, and understanding the practices of the travelling mining officials. Using this data, we will carry out a detailed, yet long-term, analysis of the circulation of mining knowledge. Consequently, the project will provide new insights of how digital methods can be integrated in historical analysis, while also improving our understanding of the rise of modern science, state-making, and industrialisation.

Stålmakare och kunskapande: svenskt stål och dess betydelse från militärstatens dagar till den tidiga industrialiseringen (funded by Jernkontoret).

I have previously worked in the following research projects:

The Metal Bazaar: Knowledge-making in the Stockholm Metal Trades during the ‘Long Eighteenth Century’ (funded by Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser, project leader: Göran Rydén).