In the mid-nineteenth century, the Swedish credit market was still dominated by private financial networks and by a private supply of capital. Banks, discounts and other public financial institutions only played minor roles as financers of trade and industry. In spite of these circumstances private financial networks were embedded in public financial institutions and bankruptcy legislation. In this chapter, the authors describe the development of the bankruptcy system in Sweden between 1734 and 1849, placed in a European perspective. The Roman bankruptcy legislation ceased to function in conjunction with the disintegration of the Empire and its institutions. For a long time thereafter, a long-standing bankruptcy system was missing in Europe. The Germanic tribes brought their own right-system into the Roman territories of Gaul, Italy and Spain, where they often lived alongside the older, Romanized population and its laws.