Note 74 — Chapter V

July 13, 1523, a payment of about 17,000 marks having been already made, Gustavus wrote to Brask that Lubeck still demanded 200,000 guilders, which was equivalent to about 300,000 Swedish marks. This probably was an exaggeration for the purpose of getting a generous contribution from Brask. Another source states it as more than 120,000 Swedish marks. Svart, Gust. I.'s krön., p. 72. This clearly was too low an estimate; for we know that Gustavus paid at least 42,945 Lubeck marks (or 83,000 Swedish marks) in the course of 1523, and that in the following spring the amount claimed by Lubeck was about 240,000 Swedish marks. See Kon. Gust. den Förstes registrat., vol. i. pp. 109-110, and the documents in the Archives at Lubeck cited in Handelmann's Die letzten Zeiten der hanseatischen Uebermacht im Norden, pp. 165-170. The matter is ably discussed by Forssell in his Sver. inre hist., vol. i. pp. 134-138. Much confusion is caused by the fact that the debtor and creditor reckoned the sum each according to his own monetary standard, and there can be no question, too, that between the parties there was some dispute as to the exact sum due.