Increased international integration is a prerequisite for more and better research in economic history

Abstract

In the article “Is Swedish Research in Economic History Internationally Integrated?” ¹ Daniel Waldenström, Is Swedish Research in Economic History Internationally Integrated?, Scandinavian Economic History Review, vol. LIII, 2005:2, 50–77 , I present new facts on the past international publications and conference participation activity of Swedish economic historians. In contrast to claims made in a recent large public investigation, my data show that Swedish economic historians have not published extensively in international journals, or books, in recent years. This can in part be explained by the custom to write predominantly monographs, to write mostly in Swedish, and to use hardly any quantitative methods or theory-based economic analysis. Naturally, I am well aware that there may also be some other factors at work, and that empirical investigations of this kind are always open to objections. Problems regarding sample selection, variable definitions and so forth cannot be avoided, and to focus mainly on journal article publications in a field where books and anthologies play an important role raises some concern. ² See, e.g., the discussion in my article on these issues relating to the works by Diana Hicks and others. However, my article does not advocate any methodological dogmatism and acknowledges that economic history research can be conducted and presented in many different ways, using several different methodologies. The important thing is to recognise that there is great potential in combining such an open-minded methodological attitude with an active interest and participation in the research that appears in the many international peer-reviewed journals. This would not be to import some foreign (American) methods or views of the field so much as trying to revive the true Swedish economic history in the spirit of Eli F. Heckscher. In my view, this is the most consistent strategy to ensure both more and better future Swedish research in economic history.     

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.     

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.     

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     

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.     

A discussion with academician Eino Jutikkala

Abstract

Academician Eino Jutikkala was closely involved in the founding and editing of the Scandinavian Economic History Review from the very beginning. Professor Ernst Söderlund's first letter to Jutikkala came in the spring of 1950. The letter plans a common Nordic meeting in the coming autumn. Söderlund had written to five Finnish scholars with economic and social history interests, namely Professors Jutikkala, Hugo Pipping, Carl Erik Knoellinger and Bruno Suviranta as well as Minister of Finance Nils Meinander. Söderlund proposed that about a dozen scholars should meet in the autumn. The first letter from Söderlund is cast in very polite terms and is suggestive of a somewhat remote or new relationship.     

Comment

Abstract

When I started the study which has been discussed in the preceding review, advertisements for an assistant were put into Le Monde and The Economist. There were about one hundred applicants, of which ten were selected for personal interview. One of them was Dr. William N. Parker who was at that time in the Ruhr, working on a study of the German steel industry. I have often said and I repeat it now, after having read his review of my book, that one of the greatest mistakes I have made was not to engage Dr. Parker as a member of my small research team. I am very gratified that he, nevertheless, has taken the trouble to penetrate so deeply into my study.     

Economics as Theology: Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations may be read as a work of natural theology similar in general style to Newton's Principia. Smith's ambiguous use of the word “nature” and its cognates implies an intended distinction between a positive sense in which “natural” means “necessary” and a normative sense in which “natural” means “right.” The “interest” by which humans are motivated is “natural” in the first sense, but it may not bring about social outcomes that are “natural” in the second sense. It will do so only if the social institutions within which agents seek their own “interest” are well formed. Smith provides a large-scale, quasi-historical account of the way in which well-formed institutions gradually develop as unintended consequences of private “interest.” In so doing, he provides a theodicy of economic life that is cognate with St. Augustine's theodicy of the state as remedium peccatorum. “If a great book such as Smith's Wealth of Nations is read repeatedly, on even a fifth or a tenth reading one continues to learn new things. I doubt whether anyone will ever fully apprehend all the things that Smith wished to express, and there is even more to learn from an interesting mind than its owner wished to teach us.” George Stigler (1982, p. 108)     

A finnish textbook in economic history

Abstract

There is, to my knowledge, no work exactly corresponding to Professor Jutikkala's in any of the major languages. Uudenajan taloushistoria is a comprehensive and very skilful exposition of the economic development of the modern world and certainly much more than simply a good textbook in which material from generally recognized standard works, partial surveys, and particular investigations is brought together and rearranged. However much Professor jutikkala may have drawn upon the available modern literature, upon the writings of Heckscher, Clapham, Cole, Ashton, Ashley, Sombart, and other authorities, his book is stamped first and foremost by his own great familiarity with the vast field of his subject, by his own research and experience-especially in the field of agrarian and social history—and by his great versatility as a scholar. The author is not simply a historian with an economic training; he is also very conscious of the fact that economic development never occurs in society in forms which allow of a purely economic exposition. His method is—to     

The introduction of the gold standard in Finland in 1877

Abstract

Dr. Björkqvist's voluminous dissertation covers a wide field. The problem of introducing the Gold Standard in Finland in 1877 was in the first place an economic one but negotiations with the Russian authorities also brought up, to a large extent, questions concerning the political relations between the then Grand Duchy of Finland and the Imperial Government of Russia. Dr. Björkqvist considers both these aspects and also approaches the problem from a third angle, the statistical one. He has compiled figures from various sources and turned them into handy time series. Viewed as a whole, however, the book must be classified as a study in economic history.     

In defence of Heckscher and the idea of Mercantilism

Abstract

In his recent reappraisal of Heckscher's Mercantilism ² Dr. Coleman raised certain questions concerning Heckscher's methodological approach which transcend the immediate problem of the nature and validity of the idea of ‘mercantilism’ and have a bearing upon the broader issue of the relationships between economic conditions, ideas and policy. To the present writer, the danger that Heckscher's development of the idea of mercantilism will drive yet another wedge between the political and the economic historians as Dr. Coleman fears,³ is less serious than the danger that Heckscher's apparent reluctance to admit the influence of economic conditions upon economic ideas,⁴ and his readiness to pass directly from generalizations about economic ideas to generalizations about economic policy, will widen the existing gap between economic historians and historians of economic doctrine, two groups of scholars whose mutual services should be considerable. To the student of economic ideas who seeks to rescue his discipline from the sterile pursuit of tracing the genealogy of particular analytic propositions, of which some of his colleagues seem inordinately fond, the matter is one of crucial importance.     

The banks and the financing of industry in Sweden,c. 1900–1927

Abstract

In the recently published third volume of Fagerstabrukens Historic, Professor E. F. Söderlund has given a detailed and penetrating account of the formation in 1927 of the Fagersta concern, resulting from the amalgamation of five leading Swedish iron works. ¹ Cf. Professor B. Boëthius' article above. pp. 174. His analysis offers a most useful background for a discussion of certain general problems of industrial finance and ownership, and of banking, in Sweden during the First World War and the 1920s. To provide such a discussion is the purpose of this article, and to that end it will be necessary to summarise Professor Söderlund's narrative. As, however, the story is in all essential respects the same for each of the works, a brief resume of the main facts in the history of one of them, Fagersta Bruk, will suffice.     

A hundred years of Swedish timber exports

Abstract

This is a memorial publication issued by the Swedish Wood Exporters' Association (Svenska Trävaruexportföreningen) on the occasion of the Association's 75th anniversary. Professor Soderlund of Stockholm University has both edited the work and written the largest single section - the history of the timber exporting industry during the period 1850-19°0. The second half-century has been shared by Miss Annagreta Hallberg and Mr. Jan Sandin, with 1922-23 as the dividing line.     

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.     

The growth of a population research group in economic history

Abstract

In Sweden there is a long tradition of studying the relationship between population and economic and social history. We have only to mention names such as Eli Heck-scher during the 40s and Gustaf Utterström during the 50s. Now population studies within the discipline of economic history are centered on the University of Lund. In the other departments of economic history population studies have had an occasional character. In Lund, however, they have been more “institutionalized” and for ten years have formed a special section of the Department, the “Research Group in Population Economics” with its own seminars, courses, etc. The causes are obvious: the different institutions are too small separately to carry out such a cost- and resource-intensive topic. A dispersion of the resources would also be an obstacle to develop its necessary research-continuity. In the following short survey of the development of the topic in Sweden it is therefore natural that I should concentrate on the population group in Lund. To characterize our research profile in a few words I emphasize     

Judiskt liv i Stockholm och Norden: ekonomi,identitet och assimilering 1850–1930

Abstract

The Viking Age has a remarkable place in Scandinavian economic history. The source material for this study is copious and takes the form of lots of silver coins minted during the Viking Age in many different places, chiefly in the Caliphate, the Byzantine Empire, Central Europe and England and exported to Scandinavia, particularly to Gotland, where they were hoarded and sometimes buried. Those which have been recovered, some two hundred thousand, are now preserved in various museums, chiefly in the unique collection in Kungl. myntkabinettet, Statens museum för mynt-, medalj- och penninghistoria, (The Royal Coin Cabinet, National Museum of Monetary History), Stockholm.     

Birgit Karlsson,Egenintresse eller samhällsintresse,Nazityskland och svensk skogsindustri 1933–1945

Abstract

In Vol. XV (1967) of this journal, Alan S. Milward and Jorg-Jöhannes Jäger published criticisms of my article on Swedish iron are exports to Nazi Germany.¹ Turning first to Milward's contribution, this is based on the assumption that the German economy was a ‘blitzkrieg war economy’ in the period preceding the attack upon the Soviet Union. This view, which has been expressed before by B. H. Klein, undoubtedly brings a number of valuable refinements into the hitherto exaggerated estimates of the level of German armaments at the outbreak of the Second World War.² But when he goes on to say that ‘in such a war economy all considerations of potential armaments-producing capacity were rejected in favour of present armaments-producing capacity’,³ Milward palpably oversimplifies a complex problem. In fact, the demand for an armaments programme ‘in depth’, to quote General Thomas, did make itself heard long before the autumn of 1941.     

Finnish mortality in the eighteenth century: The sources and the reality

Abstract

Mr. Niels Steensgaard, in his ‘Consuls and Nations in the Levant from 1570 to 1650’¹ referred in note 4, p. 14, to my article on the beginning of Anglo-Turkish relations, and stated: ‘Apparently Horniker is not aware of the existence of the French capitulations of 1569’. There is no point in arguing whether or not I am aware of them, but later on I will give my reasons for omitting reference to them in my article. The implication of Steensgaard's statement, however, is that they were new capitulations, which, of course, they were not. They were a renewal, in the form of a grant,² by Sultan Selim II of the treaty concluded between his predecessor Suleiman I Kanuni and Francis I in 1536.³ Revised capitulations were granted to France in 158l.4 These, and the treaty of 1536, gave the French certain exclusive privileges in the Ottoman Empire. And until 1593, when Elizabeth I of England obtained capitulations which gave her subjects the same privileges as those enjoyed by the French, France was the paramount capitulatory nation in the Levant.     

Between micro and macro — what economic history can learn from modern economics

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of economic history to modern economic theory. Taking my point of departure from the division that still haunts economic history — between micro and macro approaches — the paper argues that economic theory today is significantly different from what it was only twenty or thirty years ago. Hence, for example, the division between micro and macro has been upset in modern economics. Also the development of institutional economics, the use of concepts like “bounded rationality” or “path dependence” makes it necessary for economic historians to learn from and confront modern economic theorizing. Many economic historians criticise a version of (neo-classical) economics) that belongs rather to the past than to the present.     

Recollections of My Career

Editorial Note:Professor Sumitro Djojohadilcusomo is one of the principal architects of Indonesia's post-independence economic policy. He has held key economic portfolios in both the immediate post-independence era and in the New Order. In addition, as Professor of Economics at the University of Indonesia, and as a tireless lecturer and writer on economic issues, he has been instrumental in shaping the education of several generations of economics students in Indonesia, many of whom are now in key government positions. At the end of August, Professor Sumitro generously agreed to be interviewed on his long career by two members of the BIES editorial board, Anne Booth and Thee Kian Wie. In preparing this interview for publication, the editors have tried to preserve Professor Sumilro's own words to the greatest extent possible; his lucid and entertaining remarks are thus reproduced with a minimum of editing. The interview began with a question to Professor Sumitro about his early training in economies.