Trade between Finland and Russia in 1860–1917

Abstract

In his thesis, published in September 1970, Dr. Erkki Pihkala traces the trade relations between Finland and Russia in 1860–1917 against the background of the development of trade and industry in the two countries and their political relations with one another. In addition to this main study he has published complementary minor papers on certain special aspects, all of which we review here.     

Incorporation and Company Formation in Australasia, 1790–1860

Nearly 260 companies were founded in and for the Australasian colonies between 1790 and 1860. A quantitative survey suggests that the patterns of incorporation mainly reflected ‘functionalist’ economic factors rather than ‘autonomous’ legal conditions, though the changing nature of company law did influence the various forms that incorporation took. In some sectors, outside factors and even historical accidents also pushed patterns of incorporation along distinct lines. The result was a tradition of adapting legal powers of incorporation to local needs which persisted beyond the introduction of modern company acts to the region in the 1860s and therefore shaped the subsequent evolution of the company in Australia and New Zealand.     

The Russian market in world trade, 1500–1860

Abstract

The Russian market has played a prominent part in world trade throughout the ages. In Viking times Russia was a source of furs and slaves for the Arabian caliphate. However, from about AD 1000 the situation changed and from then on western Europe provided the market for Russian products. The trade with Novgorod and later on also with Riga came to be a vital element in the activities of German merchants, and the Hanseatic League's counting-house in Novgorod was an important rallying-point. In early medieval trade it was fur and wax products that were the chief exports from the Russian market. In the later Middle Ages other important products emerged: flax, hemp, tallow, ashes and skins. Flax and hemp were key articles for the shipbuilding industry, being used as materials for the rigging, ropes and sails. Flax was also an essential raw material for the textile industry. Tallow was used for the manufacture of soap and candles and also in making cloth and leather. Ashes and potash had a variety of technical uses, for example in the textile and glass industries. Skins were the raw material for the manufacture of leather. The products enumerated were virtually monopoly goods of eastern Europe and were regarded as quality goods. In western Europe there was a constant demand for Russian products.     

Internal migration and industrialization in Finland, 1878–1939

Abstract

For the economic historian the statistics of population are quite as important as those of trade. To understand the economic development of a country it is necessary to have some knowledge I: 0 of the distribution of population at different periods, 2:0 of what changes have been effected by migration, and also 3 : 0 of the forces influencing migration. The analysis of these forces helps, moreover, to illuminate the nature of man's economic behaviour.     

The growth of patenting in New Zealand, 1860–99

Patent applications by male New Zealand inventors sharply increased in the early 1880s after initial official fees were reduced, and the requirement to advertise applications in newspapers abolished. Increasingly, however, applications lapsed, while applications by unskilled workers remained low. Non-fee costs were crucially important, with the 1870 reduction in fees failing to increase patenting, as hoped, because the doubling of mandatory advertising costs negated the fees reduction. Patenting by overseas inventors was less affected by fees, and steadily grew. Only one application was by an indigenous Māori person, while even in 1899 women made just 2.5% of applications.     

Iron ores and iron works in Finland, 1809–1884

Abstract

After more than forty years work, Prof. Laine has finally completed his study of the Finnish Iron and Copper Industries 1809–1884. His 2000-page account is extremely detailed. Vol. I aims at providing a synthesis of all the separate aspects of development. Vol. II contains monographs on all the iron and copper works, Vol. III on all the mines, bloomeries and metal factories. Thus, these. two volumes, apart from their independent value for local historical research, provide the main, though not the only, source material for Vol. I. This being so, it is understandable that Vol. I was not the first to be published; the printing of the third volume was delayed, however, for technical reasons, and it was, in fact, not published until after the synthesis.     

Patents,foreign direct investment and economic growth in Australia, 1860–2010

We examine the long run relationship between innovation and economic development in Australia, using 150 years of data on patenting activity, and aggregate and sectoral economic indicators. Our initial results point to several important causal relationships, particularly the effects of patents on real GDP and of private capital formation on patents. We delve deeper at the sector level and find important causal relationships of patents with real foreign direct investment (FDI) since World War II. Australia's dependence on FDI for private capital formation served as an important stimulus for knowledge creation in key sectors including manufacturing, agriculture and mining.     

Growth,employment and income distribution in Egyptian agriculture, 1964–1979

This paper is a study of the aggregate behavior of crop production in Egypt. We find that the output growth rate declined in the 1970s but there were some signs of recovery towards the end of the decade. This trend cannot be explained by the observed-cyclical movements in profitability and in the real price of aggregate output. On the other hand, investment in infrastructure goes a long way towards explaining the trends both in aggregate output and in land profitability. Increased investment in agriculture infrastructure tends to raise the growth rate of the sector and, at the same time, to increase labor's share in production at the cost of property share. Our observations also suggest that the demand for agricultural labor is rather inelastic with respect to the wage rate. Therefore, using the agricultural sector as an absorbent of employment shocks in the rest of the economy may lead to significant variability in income distribution.     

Trends in Job Quality for African-American Workers, 1979–2011

Economists expect that increases in education and work experience will increase workers’ productivity and translate into higher compensation. We use data from the March Current Population Survey (CPS) to show that over the past four decades, the “human capital” of the employed black workforce has increased enormously, yet the share of black workers in a “good job” --one that pays at least $19 per hour (in inflation-adjusted 2011 dollars), has employer-provided health insurance, and an employer-sponsored retirement plan-- has actually declined. The CPS data show that black women saw a modest increase in access to “good jobs,” but the share of black men in good jobs decreased. Despite improvements for black women, they were consistently less likely to be in a good job than black men in every year in our sample. Black workers at every age and education level were also less likely to be in a good job in 2011 than they were in 1979.     

Food policy and class transformation in revolutionary Nicaragua, 1979–1986

State grain policy in Nicaragua has represented both a short-run intervention in food production and a longer-run strategy of class transformation. The emphasis given peasant production of corn and beans has depended on both considerations, and has varied over the seven years of the revolutionary process. A class analysis of this policy reveals changing responses by the FSLN to external and internal political and economic conditions. Recent measures point to an acceptance of petty commodity grain production, which may or may not be compatible with socialist agricultural development.     

Reconstructing Scandinavian farms 1660–1860: Sources in Denmark,Iceland, Norway and Sweden

Abstract

The great economic and cultural variations to be found in the preindustrial peasant societies of nearly all European countries does not mean that any attempt to make generalizations about them must be abandoned. It does, however, imply that such generalizations as are made can be meaningful only if they are based on a large number of local case studies over as broad a spectrum as possible. In Scandinavia there is a powerful tradition, reaching back to the eighteenth century, of the writing of provincial, parish and village histories, although the scholarly standards achieved in these have been very variable, and some areas have been much better covered than others in this way. And individual farms have been looked at in detail in only exceptional cases.     

Was there a Fall in the Return to Educational Investment in Norway, 1885–1955?

Abstract

The main results from this study are that private educational investment has proved a profitable investment throughout the whole period, but that there was a long-term decline in profitability, most of all in investment in the Upper Secondary Schools compared to primary education, where, in the 1950s, the profitability was zero or even negative. An important finding also is that this was not due to the sharpening emphasis on the progressive personal taxation. Of three possible explanations, the most plausible seems to be that there might have been an excess supply of college and academy candidates over the whole century.     

The political economy of post-war Finland, 1945–19521

Abstract

The paper is primarily concerned with the Finnish government's management of the Finnish economic situation after the Second World War. Overall, post-war policies were dominated by three main goals, first, how to deal with the war reparation payments required under the harsh political terms of the 1944 Armistice Treaty; secondly, to ensure the settlement of the Karelian refugees and demobilised veterans; and thirdly, the raising of production and the standard of living, including the easing of the rationing system. The focus is especially in analysing how this was financed externally and by the state economy without hyperinflation and considerable indebtedness of the state. From the point of view of the government finances, the financing of the war was transformed to the financing of the war reparations, the compensations due to the war and the settlement of the homeless people. The paper has drawn on the findings of the Studies of the Economic Growth of Finland and other sources and can be seen as a sequel to a previous article on the Finnish war economy between 1939-1945.²     

Credits of export-import bank to Finland, 1945–48

Abstract

When Finland signed the armistice with the USSR and Great Britain in the autumn of 1944, Sweden promised considerable economic aid to the Finns, but she made it clear that because of her limited means she could not remain sole benefactor. Great Britain had announced that because of her difficult economic position, no credit could be considered; the Finns therefore turned to the United States, a move that even the Soviets expected.     

American shipping in the trade with Northern Europe 1783–1860

Abstract

As early as 1741 an American ship passed through the narrow waters of the Sound on its way to some port in the Baltic. Danish officials collected the traditional toll and recorded the fact in their account book. This was probably the first North American ship to visit the Baltic sea. The Danish records of ships passing the Sound indicate that altogether fifteen vessels declaring their home ports to be in the British North American colonies were reported before the American Revolution. The last of these was a Nantucket ship in the fateful year of 1776.²     

Patenting and Early Industrialization in Norway, 1860–1914. Was there a Linkage?

Abstract

The Norwegian patent system was formally established in 1839. For many years the interest in the patent institution and in patenting was moderate. The first real increase in patenting occurred in the 1870s and 80s. The paper will examine and analyse the development in patenting, and the patent institution (legislation, administration) from about this period until 1914. An explicit focus of the analysis is the relationship between patenting and industrialization. There has been an issue among Norwegian economic historians if or when there was an industrial breakthrough in Norway. So far, patents, patent policy and the role of the patent institution have not been related to this question. This paper will therefore investigate in which way the system was developed to stimulate modernization and industrialization.     

Swedish iron exports to the United States, 1783–1860

Abstract

For about half the period reviewed in this article, the United States was the biggest purchaser of Swedish iron, having particularly close links with western Sweden. An earlier work analysed in detail how the character of the American demand exerted an influence on the organisation of iron sales in Gothenburg. The present article lays the main emphasis less on the local and more on the international aspects.¹ The exposition divides itself into four periods: a) the beginning of the market, 1783-1808; b) the war years, 1809-15; c) the era of high sales, 1816-42; and d) adaptation to new conditions, 1843-60.     

New Investment Upsurge in Jinan

“There are people who want to emigrate to Canada,America or Europe where there is nicenatural scenery and convenient city construction.But those are not places that belong to me,or,to my nationality and my roots.A man as old as mewants a real life.I belong to Jinan.”These are the words of Wang Kezhang,chairman of Taiwan Businessmen Invested Enterprises Association Jinan and board chairman of Daziran Textile Industry(Jinan)Co.,Ltd.,and they reflect what most Taiwan businessmen in Jina…     

Sewers,wastewater and newspapers: the early environmental debate on water pollution in Turku,Finland, 1887–1934

Abstract

A century ago, city dwellers became increasingly aware of urban environmental problems caused by the waste products of industry and the growing population. Like elsewhere in Europe, water pollution became an acute issue also in the city of Turku, in south west Finland, The sewer system built after 1895 discharged all the municipal and rapidly increasing industrial wastewater untreated into the River Aura in the centre of the city, As a result, the quality of the river water worsened rapidly, and the first complaint on this was published in the local newspaper in 1899. In this study we document the press debate on river water quality and wastewater problems in the local newspapers of Turku for the period from 1887 to 1934, when the plan for a wastewater treatment plant was finally completed (the plant was, however, not built until 1966). The failure of the city administrators to present any solution to the river pollution problem caused the first major public environmental debate in the city at the turn of the 20^th century. Our results show that (1) sewers were recognized by newspapers as the primary cause of worsened river water quality, (2) the necessity of a wastewater treatment plant was understood long before the actual plan was drawn up, (3) the local industries were hardly ever criticized in public for water pollution, and (4) the initiative for improvements was considered to be the responsibility of the city administrators. The debate in the local press was often hectic, many decades before the 1960s, when the environmental debate is commonly said to have started.