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Anna-Maria Rimm, Elsa Fougt som Kungl. boktryckare. (Elsa Fougt as Royal Printer.)

Elsa Fougt (1744–1826) was one of the most powerful figures in the Swedish book trade of her time. For nearly thirty years, she held the position of Royal Printer in the Swedish realm and accordingly ran the large and prestigious printing house Kongl. Tryckeriet. She also ran several enterprises that were attached to the printing house, including a publishing firm, a type foundry, and a bookshop that traded in foreign books.

While previous research about the late eighteenth-century book trade in Sweden has seen Elsa Fougt primarily as a passive figure, the widow of the Royal Printer Henric Fougt, this study argues that she was an active entrepreneur in her own right. Elsa Fougt worked independently for thirty years after her husband had died, and, moreover, she already worked as a married woman, although unofficially. Kongl. Tryckeriet was a typical family business in which each family member’s contribution was necessary for its survival. Elsa Fougt, being the daughter of the previous Royal Printer Peter Momma, had literally grown up in the business, and most probably received both the essential training and the network contacts that a future career in the trade required, even though, being a woman, she was not permitted apprenticeship as a printer. It is important to stress that the wives of entrepreneurs often worked in the family business. After her husband’s death, she was able to represent her companies officially, since widows were allowed by law to run businesses.

The fact that Elsa Fougt was a woman living and working in a patriarchal society does not seem to have particularly affected her role as Royal Printer. In comparison with her predecessors, her position as Royal Printer appears to have been remarkably strong. For instance, her recurrent demands to the authorities for higher financial compensation for printing and publishing official documents were accepted more often than those of her predecessors.

Elsa Fougt was a skillful business strategist who tried to consolidate her companies in many ways. Her most noteworthy tactic was to make use of her official position as Royal Printer and the prestigious trademark of Kongl. Tryckeriet for the purpose of benefiting her other, private, enterprises. Thus, it is evident that her different companies were tightly interwoven,even though the printing house Kongl. Tryckeriet held the most prominent place in her business empire.

This essay studies the Royal Printer Elsa Fougt’s (1744–1826) publishing house, and her role as a publisher. Elsa Fougt’s main enterprise was her large printing house Kongl. Tryckeriet – the Royal Printing House – which was responsible for printing and publishing the official documents of the Swedish realm. In addition, she published a number of other works, both scientific literature and fiction, particularly plays. The essay consists of two major parts. The first part deals with the books produced by Fougt’s publishing house between 1782 and 1811. The second part mainly investigates her relations with authors, as well as the different functions she performed in the book trade as a publisher. Finally, Fougt’s marketing methods and sales strategies are examined.