The Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis and Air Pollution in Finland

Abstract

The historiography of mercantilism has been described as a series of disconnected still pictures which reflect the shifting viewpoints of economic thought.¹ However, historians have favoured different concepts of mercantilism not only in response to the shifts of economic science but also because they have held, explicitly or implicitly, different opinions on the problem of how economic ideas are formed and of the role they have played in historical development. The following reexamination of some of those ‘stills’ concentrate on such differences.²     

The economic background to the union of 1707

Abstract

The view that Scotland was in a state of economic stagnation in the seventeenth century, particularly in the years between the Restoration and the Union, is one which has long been held. Once economic and political historians have read Dr. Smout's book, however, this view will no doubt be greatly modified¹.     

Svenskt arbete och liv

Abstract

Among Eli F. Heckscher's works on economic history, his Merkantilismen (first published in Swedish, 1931) and Sveriges ekonomiska historia från Gustav Vasa (1935-50) are the most significant.     

New light on eighteenth century Sweden

Abstract

The second part of the late Professor Eli F. Heckscher's Economic History of Sweden,¹ with its 894 pages of text, together with notes, tables, diagrams, maps and index, is a large work even by comparison with the first part, which, in 707 pages of text, covered both the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In his introduction the author regrets that he was unable to retain the same clarity of layout. In fact, however, too concentrated an exposition would not have rendered justice to the astonishing research and the intensive thought, which have gone into the making of this book, and Heckscher's ability to capture the reader's attention by his lucidity of style and accessible presentation of his subject-matter is here shown to full advantage.²     

Swedish economic history before the 1980s

Abstract

The early days of economic history in Sweden — the many scattered, more or less important, contributions of the 19th century — have never been investigated. Hans Forssell's remarkable work on the 16th century has won well-deserved fame, but his was not an isolated case. Around the turn of the century, interest in the subject area increased, in Sweden as elsewhere. There were a few dissertations, formally in economics or in history (for instance, Eli Heckscher's in 1907). The first assistant professor of economic history to be appointed was Karl Petander, in Stockhohn in 1912.     

Mercantilism: a materialist approach

ABSTRACT

Historians and economists have shown renewed interest in mercantilism over the last couple of years. From this interest, a dispute has arisen about whether mercantilism should be seen as an incoherent economic thought or if it is possible to ‘reconstruct’ its basic principles. In line with this latter attempt, this paper is intended to provide a materialist explanation for varying degrees of belief in shared mercantilist assumptions. My hypothesis is that belief in mercantilist assumptions is significantly dependent upon how economic and security issues materially interact in a given time and space, with uncertainty and insecurity profoundly favouring mercantilist dispositions in economic thought. To analyse this hypothesis, the paper sets the first steps for relating the credibility of mercantilism with changes in British economic and military history from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Section 3 presents ideas to further investigate this hypothesis. Section 4 concludes the paper.     

Scandinavian economic history review the first ten years — A personal memoir

Abstract

Together with my good friend and LSE colleague, the late Donald Coleman, I was Assistant English Editor of the Scandinavian Economic History Review from 1952, when the work first started, to the tenth number which appeared in 1962 and was a Festschrift to Ernst Söderlund. Our association with the Review sprang above all from Söderlund's insistence, strongly endorsed by all his co-editors, that the Review should appear in well written English, not in Svenklish. Of course, since both Donald and I were economic historians, though specialising in very different fields, we were able to advise on academic questions relating to the subject matter as well as with linguistic niceties.     

The entelechies of mercantilism

Daniel Waldenström's debate article in this issue of the SEHR raises several interesting questions for discussion. I will not comment on his criticisms of Swedish economic historians' publishing practice and their international participation; I will state only that I think economic and business historians in the Nordic countries should increase their international activities and their publications in international journals. In my opinion this concerns particularly scholars in my own country, Norway. Waldenström makes, however, several normative assertions about economic history that concern the discipline as a whole, including the guiding principles of the editorial policy of the SEHR. His normative claims about content and the methodological foundations of economic history deserve an answer.     

SEHR & IEHA — the early years

Abstract

In January 1952, Professor Astrid Friis asked me to accompany her and our colleague Aksel E Christensen to Stockholm for the inaugural meeting of a closed circle of Nordic historians who had set themselves the task of publishing an English-language journal of economic history. The meeting was arranged by Professor Ernst Söderlund. By way of introduction he brought us greetings from Eli F Heckscher, who by his work and debating ability had done more than anyone else to create respect for the subject of economic history in Sweden, and whose name was also renowned internationally thanks in part to his book on mercantilism. His latest achievement was the second volume of his mammoth work of Swedish economic history. Heckscher was in hospital at the time and died shortly afterwards. Thus it came about that the torch was passed on, but still it was clear that the Heckscher era was ebbing to its close.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

Dr. Utterström's dissertation completes the large project initiated in the 1930s under the auspices, and mainly at the expense, of Landsorganisationen (the Swedish TUC): the production of a comprehensive history of the Swedish working classes.Throughout the undertaking basic research in public and private archives has been necessary, the source material having been used before only to a very limited extent. The final work comprises 12 volumes, written by nine authors, including some of Sweden's leading political scientists and economic historians. This investigation of working class history became one of the main themes of Swedish research in social and economic history for several years; it has accordingly affected the direction of that research in several important respects.     

Eli Heckscher and natural monopoly: The nightmare that never came true

Abstract

In Eli F. Heckscher's conception of the world, what he called “distributary systems” (ledningssystem) played a dangerously crucial role. He used this term to denote the means of transport, communications and power transmission, that is, in substance those activities which are commonly termed natural monopolies. Until the 1920s he believed that these monopolies could be held in check by potential competition and technological change. During the 1930s and 1940s he feared that the state would seize control of the distributary systems and develop a power unparalleled in history. He was afraid that the state in fact would be able to strangle technological progress and so eliminate any change that might conceivably threaten its power. Heckscher's nightmare was one of total dictatorship and utter stagnation.     

Swedish foreign trade in the mid-sixteenth century

Abstract

For many years our image of economic conditions in 16th-century Sweden has been that depicted by Eli F. Heckscher: a medieval economy, reorganised by a central government of increasing authority in the person of King Gustav Vasa, and gradually transformed after his death in 1560. Sweden's foreign trade appeared to Heckscher as a particular example of his general rule. Its role in the national economy as a whole was very small: such commodities as were imported in exchange for exports were for the most part luxury goods; the only notable exception was the import of salt, to which Heckscher assigned extreme importance, because a vast consumption of salted food featured in his concept of the Swedish ‘medieval’ pattern of overall consumption. Heckscher saw no reason to postulate any major changes in the form and direction of Swedish trade during the reign of Gustav Vasa himself (1521–60); on the contrary, a theme vigorously argued in his book is that the political liberation of Sweden from the influence of Liibeck in the 1530s did not produce any shift of trade routes: most Swedish foreign trade still went via Lübeck. The customs ledgers of a single year, 1559, had an important influence on Heckscher's views.     

The Danish agrarian reforms, 1784–1814, and the historians

Abstract

In 1888, Edvard Holm brought out his still much-cited book, Kampen om Landboreformeme i Danmark.¹ By his title, the “conflict over the agrarian reforms”, Holm meant the clash of opinion which preceded and contributed to the reforms initiated under Crown Prince Frederik's de facto regency, beginning in 1784. But the debate begun by Danish landowners, officials, and opinion-makers did not end with the reform era itself. It was continued by Danish historians, who have pursued it with remarkable intensity and no small passion down to the present day.     

Swedish Financial Politics, 1815–18

Abstract

Dr. Per Gudmund Andreen's dissertation deals with a period in Swedish history which is of great interest both to the economic and the general historian. From 1812 to 1834, the year of the final currency reform, the problems created by inflation and by post-war crises dominated Swedish domestic politics; only the great issues of foreign policy engaged more of the government's attention.     

Introduction

Abstract

The Scandinavian Economic History Review was started 50 years ago in 1952 albeit the first issue did not appear until the summer of 1953. Professor Ernst Söder-lund of the University of Stockholm was the initiator and first editor of the journal. According to Söderlund's words in the first issue: “The Scandinavian Economic History Review has a dual purpose to fulfill: the publication of the research of Scandinavian historians and that of other historians whose subjects lie within the field of Scandinavian economic and social history. Despite the difficulties inherent in the presentation of material concerned with local and national institutions for which there are no foreign counterparts and for which-the terminology of a foreign language is understandably deficient, we regard the international nature of social and economic history as a sufficient reason for attempting the publication of this journal in an international language.”¹     

Dutch-Asiatic trade in the 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

Dr. Glamann's study of Dutch-Asiatic trade marks a new approach in the treatment of European-Asiatic relations during the centuries of European invasion and rule of the Indian peninsula and the Indian archipelago. About 1600 the Dutch and English East India Companies became the competitors and successors of the Portuguese in that area. These companies, however, have often been treated in historical writings primarily as the precursors of Holland and England as Empire-builders. Such a view is all too sweeping. It is true that the role of these two companies in the transition from medieval partnerships and regulated companies into modern joint-stock companies has not been overlooked by former historians. But this role is worthy of consideration as a major problem and Dr. Glamann has devoted attention to it, in addition to the trade proper of the Dutch company which was the central theme of his investigation.     

The problem of railway ownership in 19th century Finland

Abstract

Dr. Oredsson's extremely able and original doctoral dissertation! is concerned primarily with the issue of state versus private railway policy in certain countries. So far as Finland is concerned, he confines himself to strategic considerations, dismissing the subject of ownership with the statement: ‘All railways of major importance were built by the State’ (p. 23). The impression gained by the reader is that from the outset State ownership was regarded as self-evident in Finland. This, however, was not the case. My intention in this note is not to criticise Oredsson, but to supplement his account of the railway policy of Sweden's eastern neighbour.     

Eli heckscher and the problem of synthesis a methodological note

Abstract

If the economic historian Donald McCloskey, well known for his rhetoric and his metaphors, is to be believed, the accomplished exponent of the discipline of economic history ought to possess two vital qualities. The scholar in question must be driven by “the historian's lust for facts and the economist's lust for logic.”¹ In a drastic analogy with the circus world, he likens this scholar to a tightrope walker who, to provoke the applause of the public, forces himself to cycle blindfold over Niagara Falls balancing an eel on his nose! I leave aside the question whether anyone has ever managed to perform this feat or is ever likely to. But the problem is challenging and interesting.     

A theorist on basic questions of economic history

Abstract

The author of this slim, essay-like book—now translated into Swedish¹—s-is a leading economic theoretician, noted for his contribution to the development of Keynesian theory and to the theory of the short-run dynamics of the trade cycle, as well as to modem theory of macro-economic growth. He is, however, known to a generation of modern economists above all as a ‘market’ theorist within the Walrasian tradition. In the present book he abandons his role as a strict market theorist, concerned with such things as the ‘existence’ and ‘stability’ of market equilibria, and attempts to explain the historical emergence and development of the market system or economy as an institution or set of institutions. He disarmingly forfeits any claims to expertise on this topic, and I think wisely so; but he is far from being altogether a layman or a newcomer to economic history. He professes an early love of the subject, and although it was a romance that never resulted in marriage, he has, through constant association with leading British economic historians and through his own writings in the history of economic thought, preserved and developed some of the faculties of a historian. Yet, this book-as its title indicates-is essentially theoretical. Hicks develops a set of interpretative hypotheses mainly by a priori reasoning. The empirical references must be looked upon more as illustrations of his theses than as evidence in support of their empirical validity.     

The way to industrialisation: A Finnish town history

Abstract

Scientific research on urban history in Finland dates from the end of the 19th century. The pioneer was Professor Carl von Bonsdorff, whose study of 17th century Turku (Åbo) is still a standard work in this field.¹ At the beginning of this century Professor Väinö Voionmaa added to the literature on the old pre-industrial towns his investigation of the rapid growth of Tampere (Tammerfors).² This city, ‘Finland's Manchester’, is a young industrial town; in order to survey its development before the beginning of the 20th century Voionmaa had to take a new quantitative approach. Since then Finnish research on urban history has grown to an extent that is quite out of proportion with the fact that urbanisation here is a late phenomenon. Historical studies now exist of practically every town, generally written by historians with professional training. In Finland historians have perhaps devoted themselves to a greater extent than elsewhere to research in local and thus also town history. The most ambitious attempt to produce a comprehensive history of a town from its foundation to the present is the history of Helsinki on which about ten historians are collaborating, six volumes of which have so far been published.³