tion is registrable. Written procuration implies that the procurator is authorized
to represent his principal before court of law or other authority, and to come
to terms on his behalf. However, a procurator is not entitled to transfer away
the real property of his principal or to permit it to be mortgages. Procuration
conferring more limited powers than the above is not registrable.
Aliens.
As regards the right of aliens to carry on trade in Sweden, a certain
amount of information may he culled from the above account. It is now
proposed to gather up the law on the subject into a brief summary. The
general rule is that the right of aliens to carry on trade, industry, handicraft,
or other occupation with a view to commercial profit, is subject to
the sanction of Government.
The procedure is as follows: An application is lodged with Konungens Be-
f alining shavande, the Governor of the Lan, accompanied by a certificate
showing that the applicant is myndig, that is, of age and not under wardship,
and that he possesses god frejd, a good character (this certificate is issued by
the priest of the district in which one resides). Besides this, there must be a
b or gen, a guarantors signature, or other security, for the due payment of rates
and taxes during three years. The application must state the town or place in
which the business is to be carried on. The Governor of the Lan, having
received these papers, may find it necessary to make further .inquiries about
the applicant and to demand explanations on certain points. He then forwards
all the documents with his own comments to the State Department of Finance.
When the intention is to carry on any such business as a blast furnace, a
foundry, a forge, an iron works, or other establishment intended for the utilization
of refinement of the products of the mineral kingdom, and not in the
nature of a handicraft, notice shall be given not to the Governor of the Lan,
but to Kommerskollegium, the Board of Trade (see above).
The license to carry on trade or other occupation for commercial profit includes
the right to transport goods between places in Sweden and to and from
places abroad. But the license does not include the right. of peddling
(gardfarihandel), nor of assisting in peddling. Nor does the license include the
right of selling-off stock (realisation), nor of assisting therein, without a special
license from Government. The procedure is the same as in the case of an
application for trading rights.. On the other hand, no license is needed for
an alien to hold a share in a ship (redd i skepp) but his share must not
extend to more than a third of the tonnage of the vessel, and he shall not .be
the principal owner. . 1 0 j • ,
Not is a special license required for an alien to ship on board a Swedish
vessel, subject, however, to the proviso, that in shipping on board a vessel in
Sweden itself, the crew shall not consist more than I as to one _ fourth of
aliens. The master or mate shall not be an alien. During the herring season
in Bohuslan, an alien who is desirous of purchasing fish for exportation, need
only give notice to that effect to the lansstyrelse (lan government), or to
the kronobetjant (country police officer), or to the magistrat (the Magistracy).
This does not however involve the right to cure fish, except so far as that
may be necessary for the preservation of the fish in transit.
An alien requires a Government license in order to become a member of the
board of a Swedish joint-stock company or a registered society. An alien may
not be a share-holder in a joint-stock banking company or in an unlimited
(solidarisk) banking company. There are moreover certain railway companies
whose articles of association do not permit a foreigner to own shares in them.
Aliens are not entitled to give public entertainments or to take part in them
without a license, for which application must be made to the police authorities.
License is not granted for more than three months at a time. An indispensable
condition for getting a license of this kind renewed is that the fee on
account of the previous license shall have been paid.
There is nothing to prevent a foreigner acting as a procurator for a joint-
stock company or a registered society.
The right for the vessels of alien nations to carry on cargo trade in Sweden
is a matter of treaty.
It has been stated above that in certain cases the Swedish law requires a
foreigner to furnish security for the due payment of his rates and taxes, for
three years. When the three years period has expired, he will be obliged to
have the security renewed for another period of three years, if he wishes to
continue in the enjoyment of his license. The new security is, as before, lodged
with the Governor of the Lan.
During the days of the Union with Norway, Norwegian subjects were in
important particulars, placed on the same footing as Swedish subjects. With
the Dissolution of the Union in 1905, these privileges ceased to exist. However,
the new regulations did not have retroactive effect, so that Norwegians who
had already acquired property, trading rights, or other privileges in Sweden, are
still allowed to qontinue in the enjoyment of those rights.
Weights and Measures.
The motley ancient Swedish system of weights and measures, for the
reform of which a variety of proposals had been brought on the carpet
ever since the days of Gustavus III, was reformed and unified in 1885,
in strict accordance with the decimal system. However, the new measures
which had scarcely come into complete operation before they were
superseded by the adoption of the metrical system, which the Riksdag
of 1876 carried through.
The metrical system became obligatory from 1889. However it has been
adopted for medical purposes as early as 1869, and in the Post Office as early
as 1873. The metrical system was used in the Customs and in the State
Railways in 1881.
The present law as to weights and measures is the Ordinance of 1885. For
commercial purposes no other instruments shall be used for measuring or
weighing but those that have been tested (jnsterade) in Sweden. For the
purpose of testing weights and measures, Sweden is divided into 53 justerings-
distrikt, or inspection districts, each superintended by an official called justerings-
kontrollor, assisted by subordinates called justerare. The supervisory board is
the Boyal Mint and Assay Office, which has the sole right of testing instruments
of precision.
Sweden sends a deputy to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures,
founded in 1875, which has its headquarters at Paris. The object of that institution
is to furnish States who have adopted the metrical system with standard
weights and measures, and to determine certain technical details in order
to attain perfect uniformity.