{"id":275,"date":"2023-06-19T11:46:38","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T09:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/?p=275"},"modified":"2023-06-19T15:06:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T13:06:37","slug":"bellmans-lottery-an-italian-novelty-in-sweden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/2023\/06\/19\/bellmans-lottery-an-italian-novelty-in-sweden\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bellman\u2019s lottery\u2019: An Italian novelty in Sweden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Johanne Slettvoll Kristiansen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Carl Michael Bellman (1740\u20131795), Swedish poet, songwriter, entertainer, and\u2014unbeknownst to most\u2014secretary of the Royal Swedish Number Lotto from 1776 to his death in 1795.  Image: Painting by Per Krafft the Elder (1724\u20131793), accessed via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Royal Swedish Number Lotto (\u2018Kungliga Nummerlotteriet\u2019) left its mark on life in the Swedish capital of Stockholm for a period of nearly 70 years. Its first drawing took place in February 1773, and they continued every third week in the form of meticulously staged state ceremonies, conducted with great pomp and splendour, until the Number Lotto was finally abolished in 1841. During its existence, competing forms of public gambling were outlawed, and the public rage for games of chance was channelled towards the new state lottery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lotto (or \u2018Lotto di Genova\u2019) originated in Genoa in the seventeenth century and spread across Europe over the course of the eighteenth, reaching Scandinavia by the early 1770s (an equivalent Danish lotto held its first drawing in 1771). The game is usually classified as a type of lottery, but its structure was fundamentally different from other and more familiar types of lotteries in Scandinavia at the time. These were set up as raffles, where a limited and predetermined number of relatively expensive lottery tickets would have to be sold before a drawing could take place. Prizes were determined by the income from ticket sales and would be randomly and unevenly distributed among the ticket holders during the drawing. Prizes could range from\u2014say\u2014 50,000 rixdollars to nothing (a \u2018nite\u2019 or a \u2018blank\u2019, giving rise to the expression \u2018drawing a blank\u2019). Only a few lucky ticket holders would win a significant sum of money; others would win smaller but still considerable prizes; but the large majority would draw blanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of tickets in the lotto, however, was unlimited, which meant that players need not compete with one another for entry. If you were able to purchase a ticket in time for the draw, you were in<\/em>, regardless of the number of participants. The Number lotto also provided players with more agency, because it enabled them to form their own bets through various number combinations (in contrast, the tickets of the raffle-style lotteries were pre-numbered). Last, but not least, the price of a lotto ticket depended on the nature of your bet: if combinations and stakes were kept to a minimum, the game was well within the reach of the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taken together, these factors made the Number lotto wildly popular, but also controversial. Debates raged across Europe concerning its potentially dangerous effects, especially on the poor and uneducated. It was commonly argued that they were not able to understand the nature of the game, more specifically the improbability of winning: they kept playing and kept losing the money they should have spent on feeding themselves and their families. From the mercantilist viewpoint held by many in Scandinavia in this period, the lotto would ruin not only the individual but the state itself, since the strength of the state rested on the good condition of its people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Public drawing of the Swedish Royal Number Lotto, in front of the Indebetou building (site of today’s Hovf\u00f6rvaltningens hus), in 1819. Notice the fainting woman at the front of the image. Has she just won or lost?  Image: Dragning i Nummerlotteriet vid Indebetouska huset 1819<\/em>, C. J. Lundgren, accessed via Stockholmsk\u00e4llan<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Number lotto was a controversial institution and a defining feature of urban life in the Swedish capital for nearly 70 years. Despite this fact, there is a conspicuous lack of knowledge about and attention to this topic, both in the scholarly community and elsewhere. If mentioned at all, it is usually only with reference to the role played by the Swedish poet and songwriter Carl Michael Bellman, who acted as secretary from 1776\u20131795. In fact, the interest in Bellman has caused problems for historians wishing to research the history of the Number lotto, because many key sources have been purchased by Bellman collectors and have become spread across private archives or lost in the process.

Carl Michael Bellman (1740\u20131795) was a Swedish poet, songwriter, entertainer, and master improviser, most known for two collections of poems set to music: Fredman\u2019s epistles<\/em> and Fredman\u2019s songs<\/em>. He was especially celebrated for his unique ability to combine elegant classical references with descriptions of the seedy underbelly of Stockholm, with many of his songs focusing on the themes of drinking and prostitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Bellman was not just a great artist: he was also a state employee. Despite having several failed employments behind him, he became a personal favourite of King Gustavus III after writing a poem of praise following his coup d\u2019\u00e9tat in 1772. Bellman applied personally for the position as secretary in December 1775, characteristically in the form of a poem. The closing stanza read:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Der dess h\u00f6ga vinster dragas,
S\u00f6ker jag en tjenst och l\u00f6n,
Men Gudinnan, rik och sk\u00f6n,
L\u00e5ter ej en skymt uppdagas
I mitt l\u00e5ga, m\u00f6rka skjul \u2026
Om Ers Majest\u00e4t behagar
Gilla Lyckans h\u00e5rda lagar,
D\u00f6r Poeten innan jul.[1]<\/a>

Translated into English (with no pretensions to poetic flair), the stanza reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the high prizes are drawn
I seek employment and a salary
But the Goddess [Fortuna], rich and beautiful,
Will not let one glimmer of hope
Into my humble, dark abode
If Your Majesty should prefer
To favour the harsh laws of fortune
The poet will surely die by Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellman was awarded the position, but his role in the daily operations of the lotto was minimal. His employment was a so-called sinecure bestowed by the king, which entailed a handsome salary but little actual work. Be that as it may, Bellman may have served a much more important function through his popular image; in modern terms one could perhaps say that he worked in a precursor to the Public Relations department.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bellman carrying three objects that defined him in the eyes of his contemporaries: a lyre, a beer mug, and a sign advertising tickets for the Royal Number lotto. Image: Wash drawing ascribed to Pehr Hillestr\u00f6m, 1793. Courtesy of the Swedish Royal Library (Kungliga Biblioteket), Manuscript collection Vf 18.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As a leading figure within Scandinavian culture, Bellman continues to lend an aura of sophistication and interest to an institution that few, perhaps, would otherwise take much notice of. Behind this cultivated fa\u00e7ade, there were countless unknown men and women whose lives were touched by this institution, for better or worse. Nevertheless, the Swedish Royal Number lotto will most probably continue to shine brightest in the public imagination as \u2018Bellman\u2019s lottery\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Carl Michael Bellman, ‘Till konungen, d\u00e5 skalden s\u00f6kte att blifwa sekreterare vid nummerlotteriet i December 1775’ [To the King, when the poet applied for the position as secretary to the Royal Number lotto in December 1775], in Samlade Skrifter af Carl Michael Bellman, utgifna af Joh. Gabr. Carl\u00e9n, fjerde delen<\/em> (Stockholm: Adolf Bonniers f\u00f6rlag, 1861), pp. 270-271.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Bengt Gustaf Jonshult, ‘Bellman i Nummerlotteriet’, in Spel! Spel om pengar i dag och f\u00f6rr i tiden<\/em> (Tipstj\u00e4nst\/Bra B\u00f6cker: 1994), pp. 146-148.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Johanne Slettvoll Kristiansen The Royal Swedish Number Lotto (\u2018Kungliga Nummerlotteriet\u2019) left its mark on life in the Swedish capital of Stockholm for a period of nearly 70 years. Its first drawing took place in February 1773, and they continued every third week in the form of meticulously staged state ceremonies, conducted with great pomp […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ukategorisert","tag-lotteryfantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ntnu.no\/blogger\/lotteryfantasy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}