The master of Stockholm will also be the master of the valley of lake Mälar. This is what Earl Birger must have been thinking when he founded the town in the middle of the 13th century. Stockholm is mentioned by name for the first time in a letter of safe-conduct written by master Birger to the convent of Fogdö in 1252, and already in 1289 Dominican friars from Uppsala told that it was the largest town in the Realm. Throughout the Middle Ages Stockholm was also a very important port and every summer approximately a hundred ships arrived there mainly from Germany, bringing salt and beer, cloth and spices. The ships took back Swedish products, such as iron and copper of Bergslagen.
