The Business of War in the Early Modern Baltic Sea Region, 1530–1765

Jaakko Björklund, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. His research focuses on early modern military history, ranging from the history of military thought to the broader economic and social dimensions of warfare. Björklund has published articles on transnational recruitment networks, war financing, military migration, and military identities. His dissertation ‘Masters of War: Military Entrepreneurship and Foreign Soldiers in Early Seventeenth-Century Sweden’ (2025) looked at the role of public–private interactions for Swedish military supply and state formation.

Sebastian Schiavone has a PhD in history from the University of Eastern Finland. He specialises in early modern military history and state-building, especially in the context of military networks, military migration, and military entrepreneurship. He works as a researcher on the project CREWS – Enhancing Capacities in Disaster Risk Reduction by Facilitating Public–Civil Cooperation at the University of Eastern Finland. Schiavone’s latest publication is his doctoral dissertation, ‘Sworn Swords and Unreliable Thieves: The Early Vasa King’s Attempts to Utilise and Control the Swedish–Scottish Military Network’ (2025).

Steve Murdoch is Professor of Military History at the Swedish Defence University. He has published widely on aspects of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and Maritime Warfare (1513-1713). His main monographs include Network North: Scottish Kin, Cultural and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (2006); The Terror of the Seas? Scottish Maritime Warfare 1513-1713 (2010) and, with Alexia Grosjean, Alexander Leslie and the Scottish Generals of the Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648 (2014). He has also published a number of editions including Unimpeded Sailing: A Critical edition of Johan Grönings ‘Navigatio libera’ with Peter Maxwell Stuart and Leos Muller (2019).

Anu Lahtinen is a Professor of Finnish and Nordic history at the University of Helsinki. Her previous publications include ”At the cutting edge of medicine. Master Markus and the occupation of an early modern barber-surgeon”, co-authored with Mirkka Lappalainen, in Shattered and Scattered Pasts (AMAF XXXI, 2025), ”In Defence of the Absent King. Baroness Ebba Stenbock and the Fight for King Sigismund, 1597–1599”, in Scando-Slavica (2022), and ”Maintenance of Armies and Its Impact on Rural Everyday Life. Local Experiences 1550–1750”, in Civilians and Military Supply in Early Modern Finland (HUP 2021).