Gunnar Mickwitz’s dissertation, Geld und Wirtschaft im römischen Reich des vierten Jahrhunderts n. Chr. (‘The money and economy of the Roman Empire in the 4th Century AD’), was published in 1932. In it, Mickwitz researched the relationship between monetary and natural, or subsistence economies, as well as their importance to ancient Rome in the 4th century. Researchers have previously suggested that the Roman Empire at that time had changed from a financial economy to a subsistence one.

By studying papyrus texts and the latest research on the Early Middle Ages, Mickwitz was able to question this view. His research showed that while the Roman government became a subsistence economy in the fourth century, the private sector remained a financial economy. In a single stroke, Mickwitz’s dissertation thrust him to the fore in Finnish and international historical economics research. The revolutionary effect of his research caused a stir in academic circles and reviews of his dissertation appeared in journals from sixteen different fields.

In his third book, Mickwitz expanded the scope of his research to include the historical economics of the Middle Ages. Published in 1936 and entitled Die Kartellfunktionen der Zünfte und ihre Bedeutung bei der Entstehung des Zunftwesens (‘The cartel functions of the guilds and their importance in the development of the guilds’), the book deals with the importance and development of the guild system in the Middle Ages. Mickwitz also stressed the impact that the Byzantine empire had on Western Europe at the time.

Mickwitz still found time to dig deeper into research on the Baltic Sea region at the end of the 1930s. His last major work, Aus Revaler Handelsbüchern (‘Concerning account books from Reval’), was published in 1938. In it Mickwitz used archival sources to present research on the protocapitalist network of Hanseatic merchants in the capital Reval (present-day Tallinn). After the war Mickwitz’s research had a significant impact on the scholarship dealing with the commerce in the Baltic Sea region during the Late Middle Ages.

Both Geld und Wirtschaftia and Aus Revaler Handelsbüchernia are considered absolute classics in their field. Gunnar Mickwitz found time in his short academic career to make a significant impact on historical research in Finland and historical economics research internationally. He was a promising scholar in the field of historical research in the 1930s. Since 1992, the Swedish Historical Society in Finland has awarded an annual prize named after Mickwitz for distinguished research in a Master’s thesis in Swedish in the field of history at the University of Helsinki.

Sources (in Finnish and Swedish):

• Christer Bruun, ‘Mickwitz, Gunnar’, National Biography of Finland online. Accessed May 15, 2015.
• Erik Gren, ‘In Memoriam. Gunnar Mickwitz’, Fornvännen, Journal of Swedish Antiquarian Research 1940, 228–230. (PDF)
• ‘Gunnar Mickwitz’, Historiska föreningen online. Accessed May 5, 2015.
• ‘Gunnar Mickwitz’, Wikipedia. Accessed May 15, 2015.