Fredrik Vilhelm Thorsson

Fredrik Vilhelm Thorsson
Minister for Finance
In office January 5, 1918 – June 30, 1920
Prime Minister	Nils Edén Hjalmar Branting
Preceded by	Hjalmar Branting
Succeeded by	Rickard Sandler
In office October 13, 1921 – April 19, 1923
Prime Minister	Hjalmar Branting
Preceded by	Jacob Beskow
Succeeded by	Jacob Beskow
In office October 18, 1924 – May 5, 1925
Prime Minister	Rickard Sandler
Preceded by	Jacob Beskow
Succeeded by	Ernst Wigforss
1st Minister for Trade
In office July 1, 1920 – October 27, 1920
Prime Minister	Hjalmar Branting
Preceded by	Post created
Succeeded by	Gösta Malm
Personal details
Born	30 May 1865 Stora Köpinge socken, Malmöhus County
Died	5 May 1925 (aged 59) Ystad
Political party	Social Democrats

Fredrik Vilhelm Thorsson (30 May 1865 – 5 May 1925) was a Swedish politician and shoemaker. He was Minister for Finance during three separate periods (1918–1920, 1921–1923, and 1924–1925), and Minister for Trade in 1920.

Biography

Fredrik Vilhelm Thorsson came from humble working conditions. He was the son of shoemaker Nils Thorsson Viktor and Amalia Charlotta Pihlström. At the age of nine, he became an orphan, and was looked after by the parish officers and sold at auction, where they offered children at sale.^[1] That he would follow in his father's footsteps and be trained to cobbler was obvious; his journeyman he undertook, inter alia, in Copenhagen when he received a journeyman's certificate in Ystad. As a shoemaker, he worked in Stockholm, Uppsala and Sundsvall. In doing so, he began to agitate for improved conditions for the workers. Then he became known as a prominent figure of the Scanian Socialists, he boycotted by several employers and returned to his home town, Ystad, where he opened a shoemaker with his partner Anders Nordstrand.

Political career

In 1889, Thorsson was employed by Southern Social Democratic Party as an agitator, and proved to have a knack for this why he got more and more missions. A victory was when he campaigned against C. G. Ekman in 1897 and won the unions to social democracy.

Thorsson was elected to the Lower House in 1902, and was regarded as the most radical of the Social Democrats. In the parliament he won alone against the State Committee in respect of the sale of state property. In 1909 he became a member of Staaffska state committee position in the military, and was also appointed Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Trustees. In contrast to other politicians left in the group, he defense friendly. Between 1910-1917, he was a member of the state committee and made himself thus notable for the interest and diligence. In 1914 the second parliament he became Governor delegate and re-elected in 1917. In 1918, he became blev Minister for Finance in Nils Edén's cabinet, when Hjalmar Branting resigned. He then implemented a budget reform and drafted proposals for council tax reform.

In March 1920, the coalition government was dissolved when Thorsson could not agree with liberals on municipal taxes. Thorsson instead became Minister for Finance in the Branting's second cabinet the following year, with an interlude as the newly opened The Commerce Department's first chief. After a break, when he was replaced by James Beskow, he remained then Minister for Finance until Branting's death in February 1925, when he, according to some sources was elected party chairman, but did not take up or be recognized by the party executive before he became ill and died in May of that year. These data are not in Ernst Wigforss memoirs, which only stands to Thorsson firmly believed that Sandler was the most suitable candidate for party chairman, this after it emerged that Thorsson had to be admitted for surgery. Thorsson was succeeded as finance minister by Ernst Wigforss, Per Albin Hansson became party chairman and Rickard Sandler became prime minister.

Legacy

Fredrik Ström wrote an account of Thorsson in the small volume Skomakaren, som blev kungens skattmästare, which was printed the year after Ström's death.

In Ystad, a bust of Thorsson was later set up in the city.

References

Notes

1. Yvonne Hirdman, Jenny Björkman, Urban Lundberg, Dick Harrison: "Sveriges historia 1920–1965"

Printed sources

• Ström, Fredrik (1949). Skomakaren som blev kungens skattmästare: F. V. Thorsson. Deras liv blev bragd, 99-2921440-2 ; 19 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Sv. missionsförb. 1458905.
• Wigforss, Ernst (1950–1954). Minnen (in Swedish). Stockholm: Tiden. 452589.
• Dahl Torsten, Bohman Nils, ed. (1954). Svenska män och kvinnor: biografisk uppslagsbok. 7, Sibylla-Tjällgren (in Swedish). Stockholm: Bonnier. 53806.

Further reading

• Tidman, Yngve (1988). "Skomagarepågen som blev rikshushållare". Ystadiana (in Swedish) 1988: 141–161 : fotogr. 9168058.
• Uhlén, Axel (1996). "Fredrik Vilhelm Thorsson: skomakare, parkföreståndare, riksskattmästare". Notiser från Arbetarnas kulturhistoriska sällskap (in Swedish) (Stockholm : Arbetarnas kulturhistoriska sällsk., 1996): 192–198. 2245191.
• Vennerström, Ivar (1926). F.V. Thorsson: en minnesskrift (in Swedish). Stockholm: Tiden. 8074846.