“The Worst Invention Ever” The Number Lottery and its Critics during the Press Freedom Period in Denmark-Norway 1770-1773

Abstract

ABSTRACTDuring the so-called Press Freedom Period, 1770–1773, in Denmark-Norway, fierce and mostly anonymous criticism of the recently introduced number lottery emerged. This opposition went beyond mainstream patriotic discourse and produced narratives of players and lottery agents as socially irresponsible individuals. The article traces the initial development of a patriotic narrative concerning matters of morality, the deterioration of the labour force, and the perceived threats against the resilience of the state. We demonstrate how the focus of criticism – during the subsequent phase leading up to the closing of Press Freedom in October-November 1773 – shifted towards the practice of playing the lottery and the actors embodying this practice as victims or abettors of the operations of an ominous state-sanctioned enterprise. This rapid transformation of discourse was a unique feature of the Press Freedom Period.KEYWORDS: Lotterythe press freedom periodpatriotism18th centuryDenmark-Norway AcknowledgementI am grateful to the two anonymous peer reviewers for their valuable suggestions. Also, I would like to thank my colleagues Niklas Olsen, Søren Rud, Gunvor Simonsen and Karen Vallgårda at the Saxo Institute (University of Copenhagen) for much-appreciated comments on an early version of this article.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. On Danish-Norwegian lotteries in general see Helle Linde, ‘Lotterier’, Københavns Kronik, no. 43 (1989): 3–4; C.A. Clemmensen, Almindelig dansk Vare- og Industrilotteri (Copenhagen: O.O. Olsen, 1937)2. Royal Ordinance of 21 March 1738. Danish-Norwegian Royal Ordinances are printed in Jacob Henrich Schou, Chronologisk Register over de Kongelige Forordninger og Aabne Breve, samt andre trykte Anordninger, som fra Aar 1670 af ere udkomne, tilligemed et nøiagtigt Udtog af de endnu gieldende, for saavidt samme i almindelighed angaae Undersaatterne i Danmark, forsynet med et alphabetisk Register (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1777–1822). Every ordinance mentioned in this article can be consulted in this collection.3. Royal Ordinance of 29 June 1753.4. Royal Ordinance of 4 December 1767.5. James Raven, ‘Debating the Lottery in Britain c. 1750–1830’, Manfred Zollinger, ed., Random Riches. Gambling Past & Present (London: Routledge, 2016), 966. On the Danish-Norwegian Press Freedom Period see Ulrik Langen and Frederik Stjernfelt, The World’s First Full Press Freedom. The Radical Experiment of Denmark-Norway1770–1773 (Oldenbourg: De Gruyter, 2022)7. To some extent, the criticism of the lottery can be compared to the debate on the Royal Lottery in France in pamphlets and cahiers de doléances in 1787–1789; a specific opportunity making way for severe attacks on a state institution (or rather state-approved institution as was the case with the Danish-Norwegian lottery). See Robert Kruckeberg, ’The Royal Lottery and the Old Regime: Financial Innovation and Modern Political Culture’, French Historical Studies, 37 (2014), 47–488. Translation burrowed from J.C. Laursen, ‘David Hume and the Danish Debate about Freedom of the Press in the 1770s,’ Journal of the History of Ideas, 59, no. 1 (1998), 167–729. On Danish eighteenth-century patriotism see Johan Fjord Jensen (et.al.), Dansk litteraturhistorie. Patriotismens tid 1746–1807 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1983); Tine Damsholt, Fædrelandskærlighed og borgerdyd. Patriotisk diskurs og militære reformer i Danmark i sidste halvdel af 1700-tallet (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2000); Juliane Engelhardt, Borgerskab og fællesskab. De patriotiske selskaber i den danske helstat 1769–1814 (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2010). Press Freedom patriotism is mentioned in H. Horstbøll, U. Langen and F. Stjernfelt, Grov Konfækt. Tre vilde år med trykkefrihed 1770–1773 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2020), vol. 1, 171–7310. Bruno Bernard, ‘Aspects moreaux et sociaux des lotteries’, Bruno Bernard and Michel Ansieux, eds., Loteries en Europe. Cinq siècles d’histoire (Bruxelles: Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon, Loterie Nationale, 1995), 55–78. See also John Dunkley, Gambling: A Social and Moral Problem in France, 1685–1792 (Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation, 1985)11. Manfred Zollinger, “Dealing in Chances – An Introduction,” Zollinger, Random Riches, 5–612. A Royal Ordinance of 30 June 1735 banned foreign lottery agents from Copenhagen, and the prohibition was ‘renewed and increased’ by a Royal Ordinance of 20 December 1771. Still, this measure did not prevent the citizens of Copenhagen from playing foreign lotteries. Such banishments were part of a European trend (for instance, France in 1752, the Netherlands in 1763). See Marie-Laure Legay, Les lotteries royales dans l’Europe des Lumières: 1680–1815 (Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2014), chapter 7 (digital version, no pagination)13. Struensee subscribed for 47 shares in the lottery company, paid 4700 rix-dollars in cash to Koës and promised to pay the remaining 18,800 rix-dollars later. This he never did. Danish National Archives: The Royal and City Court: Justice Office: Tried Cases, 24 December 1772, Liste der Aktionäre. Memo from Koës, in which he informs about Struensee’s shares.14. On lotteries and public confidence see Legay, Les lotteries royales, chapter 8 (digital version, no pagination)15. Poul Thestrup, Mark og skilling, kroner og øre. Pengeenheder, priser og lønninger i Danmark i 350 år (1640–1989) (Copenhagen: Rigsarkivet/Gad, 1991), 3016. Adresseavisen, 20 January 1772, no. 10, 3 January 1772, no. 1 and 17 January 1772, no. 917. Adresseavisen, 10 July 1771, no. 111, advertisement for a number lottery sign; Adresseavisen, 30 September 1772, no. 16018. On the establishment of number lottery see Carl Bruun, Kjøbenhavn. En illustreret Skildring af dets Historie, Mindesmærker og Institutioner (Copenhagen: Det nordiske Forlag, 1901), vol. 3, pp. 367–73; Edvard Holm, Danmark-Norges Historie fra Den store nordiske Krigs Slutning til Rigernes Adskillelse (Copenhagen: Gad, 1890–1912), IV, 2, pp. 169–72. The anonymous booklet Vort Tall-Lotteries Historie (Copenhagen: P.H. Høecke, 1773) contains the Royal Charter, lottery plans, calls for investors and similar key documents.19. Adresseavisen, 3 February 1773, no. 19 and Kiøbenhavns politiske Veyviser, 1772, 266–6820. It was a common European tradition that young boys were employed to draw the tickets from the wheel. Eighteenth-century iconographic representations of blindfolded boys at the wheel are numerous, see Bernard and Ansieux, Loteries en Europe, passim. See also Raven, '‘Debating’, 9621. Kiøbenhavnske Tidender, 9 August 1771, no. 63. The staging of the Copenhagen lottery was quite similar to ‘the great theatricals’ attached to the drawings in Britain (as in many Continental cities), see Raven, ‘Debating’, 9622. Inga Henriette Undheim and Johanne S. Kristiansen have convincingly argued that maintaining a positive position towards the lottery was impossible within the patriotic discourse of the Press Freedom Period. ‘Debating the moral implications of the lottery in Denmark-Norway (1770–1773)’, unpublished paper presented at the 3rd Nordic Eighteenth Century Conference, Copenhagen 26 August 2022. In Horstbøll (et.al), Grov Konfækt (177–78) the anonymous pamphlet Tanker over det alleene Privilegerede Lotterie til Landets almindelige Nytte, fattige Børns Opdragelse, og det fattige Væsens bestandige Underholdning i Kiøbenhavn (Copenhagen: A.H. Godiches Efterleverske, 1771) is erroneously interpreted as supporting the number lottery. This pamphlet was in fact a praise to the existing Royal Reformatory’s lottery, and, thus, at least implicitly hostile to the new number lottery.23. O.D. Lütken, Beviis at Lotteriers Fremgang er Europæ Fald og Staternes Ødelæggelse (Copenhagen: N. Møller, 1771).24. Nicolaus Friborg, Til Kongen! Om Tallotteriets onde Følger i de Danske Stater (Copenhagen: A.F. Stein, 1773), 1425. Anonymous, Almuens Øine opklarede i Anledning af den Daarlighed at vove sine Penge i Tal-Lotterier (Copenhagen: N. Møller, 1771)26. J.F. Baumgarten, Aarsager til Tall-Lotteriernes Forvisning af alle Riger og Lande (Copenhagen: N. Møller, 1771)27. Anonymous, Patriotiske Tanker i Anledning af Tal-Lotteriet Skrevet den 1ste Martii af Philoplebis (Copenhagen: J.G. Rothe, 1771)28. Anonymous, Vort Tall-Lotteries Historie, 40. These concerns about socially imbalanced consequences were a common feature in the anti-lottery discourse of the period. For instance, in 1787, Mirabeau attacked the Royal Lottery in France (established in 1776) for its negative impact on low-income people. This argument against the lottery was often repeated by debaters with increasing strength well into the period of the French Revolution. Robert Kruckeberg, “‘A Nation of Gamesters”: Virtue, the Will of the Nation, and the National Lottery in the French Revolution,’ French History, 31 (2017), 314.29. On lottery fever as a general phenomenon see Helma Houtman-de Smedt, 'La fièvre de la loterie et du lotto s’empare du Nord-Ouest de l’Europe au cours des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles’, Bruno Bernard and Michel Ansieux, eds., Loteries en Europe, 136–18530. Quoted from Bruun, Kjøbenhavn, 37231. Anonymous, Sende-Brev fra en Tydsk Skolemester i Kiøbenhavn, til General- Administrationen for det i Kiøbenhavn og Altona oprettede Tal-Lotterie. I Anledning af en paa een Side og egenmægtig for falsk erklæret Original-Lotterieseddel og i Henseende til deres forandrede Planer og Original-Billetter. Af VirtVs Grata Fidesque VincVnt. Oversat af det Tydske, I Aaret 1773 den 1ste Martii (Copenhagen: J.R. Thiele, 1773)32. Anonymous, Historie om Tal-Lotteriet og dets forunderlige Indflydelse paa det menneskelige Gemyt (Copenhagen: J.R. Thiele, 1773)33. Marius Warholm Haugen, ‘The Lottery Fantasy and Social Mobility in Eighteenth-Century Venetian Literature: Carlo Goldini, Pietro Chiari, and Giacomo Casanova,’ Italian Studies 77, no. 3 (2022): 253–7034. Jesse Molesworth, Chance and the Eighteenth-Century Novel: Realism, Probability, Magic (Cambridge: Cambridge University. Press, 2010), p. 2235. Robert Kruckeberg, ‘The Royal Lottery and the Old Regime: Financial Innovation and Modern Political Culture,’ French Historical Studies, 37 (2014), 2636. Anonymous, En kort, men fuldstændig Maade, at kunde vide 1 eller 2 Tal af de som trækkes i Tal-Lotteriet, ved Hielp af en her hosføiet grundig Tabel (Copenhagen: Sander and Mordhorst, 1773)37. Anonymous, Tall Lotterie Spionen. No. 1 (Copenhagen: H.J. Graae, 1773)38. H. Thueslev, Det kongelige Assistenshus: Københavns assistenshus og anden pantelånervirksomhed (Copenhagen: G.E.C. Gad, 1976), 10239. Friborg, Til Kongen, 7 and on40. Anonymous, Vort Tall-Lotteries Historie, 23–2441. Under the headline ‘Lotto Business’ agents were regularly advertising in Adresseavisen, see, for instance, 4 August 177242. Adresseavisen, no. 28, 19 February 177343. Anonymous, Sende-Brev, passim44. In her study of European lotteries, Legay lists numerous cases of fraud, manipulations of lists, false tickets etc. Legay, Les lotteries royales, chapter 8 (digital version, no pagination)45. Adresseavisen, 17 July 1772, no. 11546. Adresseavisen, 20 July 1772, no. 11647. Adresseavisen, 15 February 1773, no. 2548. Anonymous, Vort Tal-Lotteries Historie, 23–2449. Anonymous, Vort Tall-Lotteries Historie, 4150. Bruun, Kjøbenhavn, 36951. Rescript of 2 July 1772.52. For instance, Danish National Archive: The Royal and City Court: Justice Office, consideration records, 1772–1773, fol. 334–35, record of sentences, 1772–1774, no. 769 + 770 and Tried Cases, 24 December 177253. Anonymous, Vort Tall-Lotteries Historie, 2554. J.F. Baumgarten, Tydeligere Forklaring paa Tall-Lotteriet til Nytte for Lotteriet, og Oplysning for dem, som ey kan begribe dens Indretning (Copenhagen: A.H. Godiches Efterleverske, 1771); Anonymous, Afhandling om Gevinsternes Forhold imod Tabet, samt Lotteriets Kasses Fordeel udi Tal-Lotterier (1771); J.R. Schumacher, Underviisning for Elskere af Tal-Lotteriet hvorefter enhver kan udregne sit Haab til de store Gevinster (Copenhagen: Mummes Boglade nr. 5, Børsen, 1771); Anonymous, En kort, men fuldstændig Maade, at kunde vide 1 eller 2 Tal af de som trækkes i Tal-Lotteriet, ved Hielp af en her hosføiet grundig Tabel (1773).55. This inspiration is evident from titles like Den italienske Tallvælgere, som opdager den i Genua hemmelige Kunst, ved hvilken, formedelst tvende Tærmnger, enhver kan fordeelagtig indsætte sine Penge i Tall-lotteriet (Copenhagen: Morten Hallager, 1774) [The Italian number picker, who discovers the secret art in Genoa, by which, by means of two dices, anyone can advantageously insert his money in the number lottery] and Drømmebog for de som spille i Tal-Lotterie: Af det Italienske (Copenhagen: Hallager, 1774) [Dream Book for those who play the Numbers Lottery: Of the Italian], the latter presenting long lists of words and numbers that could be used in dream interpretation. On divination manuals see Haugen, ‘The Lottery Phantasy’, 356. See for instance Lystig Underretning om Drømme-Tal i Tal-Lotteriet, som viser Maaden man skal tage Tallene efter paa det man har drømt, No Printer, 1774; En lystig Lotterie-Viise. Synget af een, som havde drømt om Støvle, Kruus, Paryk, Skoe, og tog derpaa: No. 5, 7, 9, 2 (Copenhagen: Morten Hallager, 1774)57. Tilskueren i Kiøbenhavn, no. 7, (1788), 99–10458. Tilskueren i Kiøbenhavn, no. 9, (1788), 131–14459. A moral and economic debate on the lottery occurred in the intellectual periodical Minerva in 1789, see A. Petersen, Bidrag til den danske Lotterie-Krønike (Copenhagen: Schiøtz & Mandra, 1817), 11–13. Otherwise, the post-Press Freedom criticism mostly confined itself to fragmentary sarcasm or minor repetitions of the most common statements. The literary journal Kritik og Anti-Kritik (1790, no. 12, vol. 5, 180) mentions how lottery players become '‘unfit for useful labour’. In the serial story Rigsdalersedlens Hændelser (1790, No. 2, chapter 5, 19–20), radical writer P. A. Heiberg states that the lottery ‘is the incognito under which the devil, death and misery’ are travelling around the country. In early nineteenth-century treatises on the economy, such as Christian Olufsen’s Grundtræk af den practiske Statsoeconomie (Copenhagen: J.H. Schubotes, 1815, 263–64), the opposition resembles standard anti-lottery scepticism: ‘It is dangerous making the citizens used to expect happiness from blind chance and not by industry. Not to talk about the extremely damaging influence the lottery specifically has on morality’.Additional informationNotes on contributorsUlrik LangenUlrik Langen is a professor of history and has published on a variety of subjects within the field of cultural and social history. His latest book is The World’s First Full Press Freedom: The Radical Experiment of Denmark–Norway 1770–73 (De Gruyter, 2022).