A. Introduction

• Late start
• Rapid growth rates
• How to avoid peripheralisation/exploitation?

B. Outline of economic development

1. Sweden:

• industrial heritage - copper, iron (bruk - rural ironworks) exports to UK
• Early C19th: population growth, agricultural transformation; grain exports
• From 1850s: expansion of timber exports; technical innovation: steam saw.
• Emigration.
• Investment: Stockholms Enskilda Bank 1857 (Wallenberg). State investment in railways.
• Tariffs 1888.
• Engineering industry: ASEA (electric motors and generators); SKF (ball-bearings); L.M. Ericsson (telecommunications):
• Exports, multinational investment. Swedish Match Company. Iron ore exports to Germany

2. Denmark:

• Grain production to c. 1870
• Agricultural crisis; shift to dairying: cream separator - Nielsen 1878, de Laval 1879; producers' cooperatives - first in 1882; 940 by 1900; then bacon industry (pigs fed on skim milk).
• Folk High School movement from 1840s (Grundtvig).
• Railways: national enterprise post-1864; Esbjerg built 1867-74; 60% of exports to UK (butter & bacon).
• Industry: early start but gradual growth. Credit: Privatbanken 1857 (Tietgen).

3. Norway:

• Early C19th: agricultural revolution; population growth; end of union with Denmark.
• Expansion of export industries: fish, timber, shipping.
• From 1840s: beginnings of modern industry; credit institutions: Den norske Creditbank 1857.
• Railway construction.
• Emigration.
• Modernisation of timber and wood-processing industries.
• Late C19th/early c20th: development of hydro-electric power; nitrates industry: Norsk Hydro (Birkeland & Eyde). Concession Laws 1909 (restricting foreign investment).

4. Finland:

• Late development (1820: 3.7% of population working in industry; by 1920 still only 13.3%).
• Timber exports to western Europe - rapid expansion from 1870s; paper and pulp from 1860s.
• Iron exports to Russia until 1886 - blocked by Russian tariff.
• From 1890s: industrial expansion - engineering, electrification.

C. Explanations for Scandinavian growth

1. External stimulus

• Foreign demand (Hodne, Jörberg, Youngson)
• Globalisation (O'Rourke, Williamson)

2. Scandinavian response

• Entrepreneurs (Hodne)
• Technology transfer (Bruland, Myllyntaus)
• Innovation (Gustavson)
• Capital
• Labour force
• Population growth
• Agricultural transformation
• Emigration
• Social/cultural preconditions (Sandberg, Youngson, Myllyntaus)
• Internal demand (Bergh)
• Infrastructure
• State (Tillotson, Sejersted, Myllyntaus, Gran)
• Tariffs (Sejersted, Senghaas)
• Economic nationalism (Sejersted, Myllyntaus)