one
of the council of regency appointed to govern Sweden during the minority
of Charles XI. In 1661 he presented to the senate a plan which aimed at
rendering Sweden altogether independent of foreign subsidies, by a
policy of peace, economy and trade-development, and by further recovery
of alienated estates. His budget in the following year, framed on the
same principles, subsequently served as an invaluable guide to Charles
XI. Bonde's extraordinary tenacity of purpose enabled him for some years
to carry out his programme, despite the opposition of the majority of
the senate and his co-regents, who preferred the more adventurous
methods of the chancellor Magnus de la Gardie, ultimately so ruinous to
Sweden. But the ambition of the oligarchs, and the fear and jealousy of
innumerable monopolists who rose in arms against his policy of economy,
proved at last too strong for Bonde, while the costly and useless
expedition against Bremen in 1665, undertaken contrary to his advice,
completed the ruin of the finances. In his later years Bonde's powers of
resistance were weakened by sickness and mortification at the triumph of
reckless extravagance, and he practically retired from the government
some time before his death.

See Martin Veibull, _Sveriges Storhetstid_ (Stockholm, 1881).

BONDED WAREHOUSE, a warehouse established by the state, or by private
enterprise, in which goods liable to duty are lodged until the duty upon
them has been paid. Previous to the establishment of bonded warehouses
in England the payment of duties on imported goods had to be made at the
time of importation, or a bond with security for future payment given to
the revenue authorities. The inconveniences of this system were many; it
was not always possible for the importer to find sureties, and he had
often to make an immediate sale of the goods, in order to raise the
duty, frequently selling when the market was depressed and prices low;
the duty, having to be paid in a lump sum, raised the price of the goods
by the amount of the interest on the capital required to pay the duty;
competition was stifled from the fact that large capital was required
for the importation of the more heavily taxed articles; there was also
the difficulty of granting an exact equivalent drawback to the exporter,
on goods which had already paid duty. To obviate these difficulties and
to put a check upon frauds on the revenue, Sir Robert Walpole proposed
in his "exci