Conservative ministries of the seventies were resolved upon greatly
increased expenditures in the interest of military and naval
rehabilitation. Against this programme was set squarely that of rigid
economy, urged by the strongly organized Landtmannapartiet, or (p. 599)
Agricultural party, representing the interests of the landed
proprietors, large and small, of the kingdom. The Landtmannapartiet
was founded in 1867, immediately following the reconstitution of the
Riksdag under the law of 1866, and through several decades it
comprised the dominating element in the lower chamber, in addition to
possessing at times no inconsiderable amount of influence in the upper
one. Throughout the period covered by the Conservative ministry of
Baron de Geer (1875-1880) and the Agricultural party's government
under Arvid Posse (1880-1883) there was an all but unbroken deadlock
between the upper chamber, dominated by the partisans of military
expenditure, and the lower, dominated equally by the advocates of
tax-reduction. It was not until 1885 that a ministry under Themptander
succeeded in procuring the enactment of a compromise measure
increasing the obligation of military service but remitting thirty per
cent of the land taxes. By this legislation the military and tax
issues were put in the way of eventual adjustment.

Already there had arisen a new issue, upon which party lines were
chiefly to be drawn during the later eighties and earlier nineties.
This was the question of the tariff. The continued distress of the
agrarian interests after 1880, arising in part from the competition of
foreign foodstuffs, suggested to the landed interests of Sweden that
the nation would do well to follow in the path already entered upon by
Germany. The consequence was the rise of a powerful protectionist
party, opposed by a free trade party with which were identified
especially the merchant classes. In 1886 the agrarians procured a
majority in the lower chamber, and by 1888 they were in control of
both branches. The free trade Themptander ministry was thereupon
replaced by the protectionist ministry of Bildt, under which, in 1888,
there were introduced protective duties on cereals, and later, in
1891-1892, on manufactured commodities. Step by step, the customs
policy developed by Sweden during the middle of the century was
reversed completely.

*664. Politics Since 1891.*--July 10, 1891, the Conservative Erik Gustaf
Bostroem, became premier, an