7. Virginia Christina Sofia af Forselles (1759-1847)

was one of the first and the most prominent female industrial leaders in Finland. After the death of his husband Henrik Johan af Forselles in 1790 she became the main owner of Strömfors Ironworks in the municipality of Ruotsinpyhtää (Strömfors).

To secure the business, she built several ships with which she shipped raw material from Sweden. She named her first brig (1800) as “WUNNEN FRIHET WARSAM FRAMGÅNG” (meaning “the freedom won, with gentle success”). As a noble widow she had – for the first time in her life – the freedom to make her own decisions regarding the property she owned. And with this ship she wished to achieve a gentle success through sustainable and mindful actions.

For 57 years she was the sole owner and primary decision-maker of Strömfors Ironworks. She earned the local title “Her Grace” reflecting her influence as an employer in the community and her status as the only woman among Finland’s ten wealthiest business actors in 1800.

7. STRÖMFORS IRONWORKS

The land owner and baron Johan Creutz founded a tilt hammer forge in the village of Petjärvi in 1698. The iron mill got new owners in 1744, when merchant Jacob Forsell and ironwork inspector Anders Nordström bought the property and set up a manufactury and a saw mill. The two gentlemen named their new mill as Strömfors Ironworks.

The basis of foreign trade

Strömfors Ironworks benefited from the new town of Degerby/Loviisa in many ways. The land and sea fortresses – and later also the shipyards – of the town were dependent of the iron products manufactured by Strömfors Ironworks. Nails, tools and anchors were shipped to Loviisa.

But only staple towns and their merchants had the right to engage foreign trade. The owner of Strömfors Ironworks, Jacob Forsell, became the first inhabitant, and the first mayor of the town. He also acted as a merchant in the town. This way he enabled Störmfors Ironworks to import its products from Loviisa to faraway countries.

Jacob Forsell was a remarkable businessman. He had gain his fortunes during his early years in Hamina where he had successfully combined timber trade with shipping operations and salt imports. In the end of 1750’s he owned the largest sawmills in Finland and the only iron mill in the easternmost part of the Swedish Empire.

During the first decades, boards, wrought iron and smaller iron products of Strömfors Ironworks formed the basis of Loviisa’s foreign trade. Iron exports enabled salt imports, and with salt the merchants of the town were able to increase their economic welfare.

7. THE FLEET OF THE STRÖMFORS IRONWORKS

Strömfors Ironworks was one of the four iron mills in Finland that shipped pig iron – raw material used for producing wrought iron – from a mine in Utö in Sweden.

Raw material was mainly shipped by the mill’s own yachts. Log ships were used in the narrow and shallow fairways of the home waters and later fast and easy-to-sail brigantines .

In the beginning, Strömfors Ironworks did not have any own ships in international traffic. By owning shares in the ships registered to Loviisa Jacob Forsell could secure both his own trade in the town as well as enable the shipping of the mill’s iron and wood products abroad.

When the Sailor’s Home was established in Loviisa in 1761, Strömfors Ironworks got the right to register its ships to Loviisa. In this way, the mill preserved its privilege to engage in foreign trade even after the nobbled merchant and mill owner Jacob af Forselles died.

In 1758 yacht LAXEN sailed from Loviisa to Hamina with a cargo of 300 barrels of tar. The cargo was owned by Jacob Forsell and merchant Elias Backman from Loviisa. Log ship LYCKAN (1788) and brigantine VULCANUS (1788) shipped mainly timber products of the Strömfors saw mill.

The home harbor of the snow ULRICA CHARLOTTA was the municipality of Ruotsinpyhtää (Strömfors), but it was registered to Loviisa. In 1783 the ship arrived from Ibiza with a cargo of salt for Henrik Johan af Forselles, and departured to Cadiz the same year with a cargo of iron and timber products from Strömfors Ironworks.