Sven Widmalm
Swedish participation in the international efforts to measure the transits of Venus in the 1760s was impressive considering the size and the relative youth of the mathematical and astronomical community in the country. In this paper it is argued that the relative success of the Swedish contribution may be seen as the result of an early-modern form of research policy. This policy was promoted by the progressive so-called Hat Party that came into power in the late 1730s, an event that coincided with the creation of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, soon to emerge as an organizational hub of astronomical research in Sweden and to some extent also on the European level. The close connection between the scientific and political elites in Enlightenment Sweden made possible the creation and international integration of a Swedish research community, not least in astronomy under the leadership of the Academy's perpetual secretary and astronomer Pehr Wargentin. The fact that these elites shared a common fate is also illustrated by their simultaneous decline from around 1770.
Manuscript: jad19_1b.pdf