This article analyses the political contestation between the Swedish towns and the General Customs Lease Company, 1726–1761. It examines the agency of local groups, i.e. the towns, when they reacted and responded to policies introduced to them by the state, but pursued by a private company. The argument is that the introduction of the private Customs Company in 1726 altered the rules of political interaction. Usually, the conflict between the state and the localities can be described on the axis: local–central. In the case of the period of the Customs Company, the relation should rather be described as a triangle: local–private–central. This triangle, has implications for perceptions of how the state was supposed to function, and for questions about the common good. The introduction of the General Customs Lease Company, faced the towns with a fait accompli, and they were supposed to accept the new organisation. However, if the towns are regarded as political subjects, it is rather the start of resistance and contestation against the private company. Consequently, the example of the towns and the customs service illustrates how local and central politics became entangled with each other as a part of the early modern state building process. The contested customs in the eighteenth century is an example of the possibilities for the localities to have a say and gain support for their arguments in a specific question.