Food consumption in the pre-industrial Nordic societies

Abstract

The article reviews different measures as to when the change from a survival society to a consumer society took place in the Nordic countries, and summarizes the results of earlier research. Among the measures used are foodstuff consumption, real wage levels, demographic development, and changes in human stature. The consumer revolution most likely started in Denmark before 1800 and in Norway and Sweden at the beginning of the nineteenth century, whereas in Finland and Iceland such change did not take place until after 1850.     

De noordse economische integratie

Summary The post-war attempts to achieve a Nordic regional economic integration have not yet been successful, partly as a result of the establishment of the European Free Trade Association. These attempts were apparently shelved when two of the four Nordic countries — Denmark and Norway — applied for a membership of the European Common Market. However pending the negotiations for entry to the EEC, a draft Treaty for the establishment of the Organization for Nordic Economic Co-operation (Nordec) was drawn up on the instruction of the governments of the Nordic countries. In this paper the possible effects of this regional Nordic Common Market, when established, are briefly analyzed. The author also investigates the increase in intra-Nordic trade since EFTA was created. In view of the interprenetation of Nordic trade flows resulting from EFTA, it is highly unlikely, that Sweden could remain outside a large, integrated European market, which Denmark and Norway had joined.      

Financial Crises and Current Account Surpluses

Atlantic Economic Journal - The Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have had persistent current account surpluses in recent decades. While oil production set Norway apart, the...     

Nordic Lessons from Exchange Rate Regimes

The Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden share common history, culture and institutions. Four, with the exception of Finland, have languages that stem from a common root. Yet the five countries have chosen different paths when it comes to membership in international organizations. Denmark, Iceland and Norway became founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization while Finland and Sweden decided to stay neutral. Denmark, Sweden and Finland belong to the European Union while Iceland and Norway only belong to the European Single Market. Only Finland of the three European Union member countries has adopted the euro as its currency, Denmark has a fixed exchange rate against the euro and Sweden has a floating exchange rate regime. Yet, in spite of different monetary regimes, the economic performance in recent decades is quite similar, casting doubt on the importance of the exact regime chosen.     

From a Northern Customs Union to EFTA

Abstract

When negotiations for a Scandinavian Customs Union were started in 1948 in connection with the Marshall Plan, the problems raised were by no means wholly novel. The idea of tariff co-operation had indeed played a conspicuous part in inter-Scandinavian discussions during the latter half of the nineteenth century, It had even been adopted to some extent as a guiding principle in the rules governing the trade between Norway and Sweden. In the end, however, that scheme, mellanrikslagen [the inter-state law], broke down and left the two countries more disunited than before its enactment in 1874.     

Crisis in finnish agriculture at the end of the nineteenth century

Abstract

The arrival of cheap American wheat in the European market the 1870's brought down the prices of agricultural produce, in particular those of grain. The resulting agricultural depression led in turn to the adoption in most countries of protectionist policies. In Scandinavia, however, only Sweden resorted to protection; Denmark, Norway and Finland adhering to free trade. Denmark was successful in her efforts to switch over to a many-sided dairy-farming; the agricultural policy of Norway was — according to O. A. Johnsen1 Norwegische Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1939, pp. 499-503. — not successful since not only the import of cereals but even the import of butter increased.     

Select Bibliography of Contributions to Economic and Social History Appearing in Scandinavian Books,Periodicals and Year-books, 1986

Abstract

This issue of the annual bibliography of the Review is arranged according to themes. Within each of the eight sub-divisions the contributors are presented in alphabetical order. The country of publication is indicated by ‘D’, ‘F’, ‘N’ and ‘S’ for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, respectively.     

Select bibliography of contributions to economic and social history appearing in Scandinavian books,periodicals and year-books, 1981

Abstract

This issue of the annual bibliography of the Review is arranged according to themes. Within each of the eight sub-divisions the contributors are presented in alphabetical order. The country of publication is indicated by ‘D’ ‘F’ ‘N’ or ‘S’ for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, respectively.     

Could Sweden have stopped the second world war?

Abstract

In a recent article in the Scandinavian Economic History Review, R. Karlbom raised an important issue, and one which had not up to that point received the attention it merited.¹ This issue is the degree to which Germany was dependent on Swedish exports of iron ore between her invasion of Poland and her defeat of France. Could Germany have conquered Norway, Denmark, France, Holland and Belgium without a regular supply of iron ore from Sweden? Could Sweden, as Mr. Karlbom implies, have stopped the war?     

Swedish Historical National Accounts, 1800–2000: Principles and Implications of a New Generation

Abstract

A new set of data and estimates of historical national accounts for Sweden is concluded with the project Structural Change in the Swedish Economy, 1800–1980: Construction and Analysis of National Product Series. This article provides a short overview of earlier efforts, beginning in the 1930s, to construct historical national accounts and an account of the present project. The new estimates resulted in partly new representations of economic growth and change. They are also compared with earlier data. Furthermore, effects of the deflation techniques ( i.e., double deflation) are analyzed by comparing the series with those resulting from single deflation. Finally, structural changes are analyzed using modern time series analysis.     

From expansion to panic and crash

Abstract

The object of this paper is to study, empirically and historically, the development of the Norwegian banking system from 1913 to 1924. The paper will also deal with bank-industry relations in the period. The ultimate purpose is to explain why the post-war slump of 1920–21 led to a major banking crisis in Norway in the twenties, more severe than in the other Nordic countries.     

Swedish-Polish trade negotiations at the end of the second world war and their results

Abstract

Commercial relations between Sweden and Poland have been important for many centuries. This was perhaps particularly true at the end of the sixteenth century, when the Swedish king Sigismund was monarch of both Poland and Sweden, and again in the seventeenth century, when successful warmaking enabled Sweden to conquer northern Poland and exploit the wealthy Polish ports to finance a large part of the war costs. Much has come to light concerning the very important trade of this period. Such relations were reestablished during the twentieth century.     

The Impact of US Uncertainty Shocks on Small Open Economies

In this paper, we investigate the impact of US uncertainty shocks on GDP growth in nine small open economies: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. We compare the impact of two types of shocks: i) stock market volatility shocks and ii) policy uncertainty shocks. Using quarterly data from 1986Q1 to 2016Q1, this issue is analysed using Bayesian VAR models. Our results suggest that policy uncertainty seems to matter more than stock market volatility. Stock market volatility shocks appear to robustly have significant effects on Danish GDP growth. Policy uncertainty shocks, on the other hand, reliably lowers GDP growth in all five Nordic countries in a statistically significant manner. Statistically significant effects of policy uncertainty shocks on the Anglo-Saxon countries in our sample are harder to establish and are, in our preferred specification, only found for the United Kingdom.     

Are children poor men's riches?

Abstract

Extract

Fertility declined fairly simultaneously in most western countries nearly a century ago. The question of which social groups were early in starting the decline is thought to have been answered: the common assertion is that the highest social groups started to control their fertility and, as time passed, that their new reproductive behaviour percolated down through the social layers. The current project on the secular decline in fertility in Norway has revealed that the families at the very top of the social hierarchy were the national pioneers in family limitation. The hypothesis in this article is, however, that family limitation in Norway also had an independent point of departure in the rural lower classes. In this article, I will therefore challenge the ‘general truth’ that there is always an inverse relationship between fertility and social status in the initial phase of the secular decline in fertility.     

J. G. Büsch's economic theory and his influence on the Danish economic and social debate

Abstract

In the economic debate that took place in Germany towards the close of the eighteenth century, Johann Georg Büsch is a key figure. He occupies this posi tion by virtue of a profound knowledge of economic theory and a mass of writings which achieved a wide distribution not only in Germany but also in the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, France and Russia, a number of his works being translated into the languages of these countries.     

Camilla Josephson,Growth and Business Cycles: Swedish Manufacturing Industry 1953–2001

Abstract

Danish historians, like those of other countries, have increasingly devoted their attention in the 20th century to the study of the economic and social aspects of historical evolution, in the belief that these aspects are of fundamental importance to the understanding of political and cultural history—indeed to the deeper understanding of the whole course of history. At present, however, the only complete account of the history of economic life in Denmark is one which appeared in a German series dealing with a number of different European countries. The series included Französische Wirtschaftsgeschichte by Henri Sée, Holländische Wirtschaftsgeschichte by E. Baasch, Norwegische Wirtschaftsgeschichte by O. A. Johnsen, and Allgemeine Wirtschaitsgeschiclite by E. Kulischer.     

Nations,clusters and culture: Nycomed and world leadership in the field of x-ray contrast media

Abstract

The topic of the article is to offer a new interpretation of the history of Norway's agricultural protectionism in a West-European context. Agricultural protectionism was not deeply rooted economically, politically or institutionally prior to the Second World War. Before the First World War the most commercially oriented part of Norwegian agriculture – milk production and the dairy industry – was export-oriented. Norway was the last country to join the protectionist wave in the late nineteenth century and in practice it followed the most liberal trade policies in agricultural products next to Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands. It is argued that the 1920s were generally relatively more important and the 1930s relatively less important for later developments than assumed in the most of the literature on agricultural protectionism.     

The beginning of the transatlantic market for Swedish iron

Abstract

From the commencement of the American Revolution until the expiration of the treaty of 1783,¹ the diplomatic relations of the United States with Sweden were determined mainly by political circumstances arising out of the relations of each of the two countries with the great powers of Europe. By the time the treaty expired in 1798, both the United States and Sweden had broken with Revolutionary France, and since Gustavus Ill's high hopes for Swedish-American commerce had failed to materialize, there was little direct intercourse between the two countries. With the turn of the century, however, a great change took place as the American market suddenly began to assume an increasingly important role for Sweden's greatest export product, iron. Within the first decade of the nineteenth century the United States became one of the greatest purchasers of Swedish iron, and Swedish-American commerce was to continue expanding well into the middle of the century. From this time to the outbreak of the Civil War, the political factors, which had previously been the link between the two countries, were overshadowed by the predominant part that the transatlantic market played in Swedish-American diplomacy.     

European trade liberalisation and the stillborn Nordic customs union in the 1950s

Abstract

Historical research on the aborted Nordic customs union of the 1950s has emphasised the conflicting commercial interests of the countries involved. This study identifies the common commercial interests that from 1954 committed governments to further progress in the customs union issue. It argues that increased frustration over the ‘hardening’ of the European commercial regime made the governments opt for a customs union to develop Nordic manufacturing industries.     

Pierrick Pourchasse,Le Commerce du Nord. Les échanges commerciaux entre la France et l'Europe septentrionale au XVIIIe siècle

Abstract

Scandinavia, and Sweden in particular, has long held a prominent place in studies of historical demography. This is explained by the simple fact that these countries began to hold population censuses and to establish the national registration of baptisms, burials and marriages in the eighteenth century long before other European countries. This lead has since been maintained, demographic data in Scandinavia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries being as a rule more comprehensive and reliable than that of many other countries.