This article addresses the transformation of the representative public in late-medieval and early modern Sweden. While recognizing the importance of Habermas’s theory of the public sphere, the focus is on the progressive character of the royal administration and on how the interaction within the administrative setting eventually came to serve as a basis for political opinion. The interplay between local bargaining over taxes and political action at the national level is of critical importance. The state formation process served to empower new groups like peasants and burghers, who eventually learned how to wield rational arguments in order to defend their interests. This is demonstrated by here by focusing on the interaction between local officeholders and the tax-paying peasantry.