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764

(1904) Author: Gustav Sundbärg
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Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - X. Manufacturing Industries. By Å. G. Ekstrand, Ph. D., Chief Engineer, Control Office of the Department of Finance

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764

x. manufacturing industries of 8weden.

induced by various means to settle in Sweden and invest money in industrial
enterprises. The most eminent of these foreigners was Louis De Geer (1587/1652),
a Dutchman; after having already embarked largely in business on Sweden at an
early period of his life, he settled in the country in 1627. As a naturalized
Swedish subject, he served his new country well and faithfully, while, in return, it
threw open to him its manifold natural resources, granting him very extensile
privileges and thereby rendering his opportunities and consequent gains greater.
All circumstances afford evidence of a remarkable policy, pursued with great
consistency by Gustavus Adolphus and Oxenstierna, of searching out men of the
greatest capacity in every domain and endeavouring to acquire them for the benefit
of Sweden, a broad and enlightened patriotism that has had the most beneficent
results. Louis De Geer did a great deal at Dannemora, but, above all, he transformed
Finspång into the chief seat of manufacturing industry in Sweden, erecting
blastfurnaces, tilt-hammers, and factories there, improving the forges on the French
or Walloon pattern, and putting up gun-foundries, etc. Norrköping became the
port from which were shipped the products of this increased activity and it
grew so rapidly as to rank from that time with the chief towns of Sweden.
In Norrköping itself, industrial establishments were founded, rifle-factories and
brass-works; the manufacture of cloth, that has since been a noted production
of the town, dates its origin from that period. (The first cloth-factory in
Sweden of any importance had been established at Jönköping about 1616). The
linen industry and leather manufacture attained a considerable development;
breweries were started on the model of those in Germany and England, and
also paper-works; the production of arms went on increasingly; the famous
copper-mine in Falun attained at this time its maximum output, while the
Eskilstuna-ware, in our days so renowned, began to be manufactured in the reign of Charles
X Gustavus (1654/60).

Charles XI (1660/97), whose energies extended over a very wide field, paid
attention to industry, too. Cloth-manufacture in particular developed with rapid
strides, largely owing to the King’s orders that the uniforms now introduced into
the army should be exclusively made of home-manufactured material. The
production of arms was further developed, and in that branch scarcely any other
country could vie with Sweden at the time; great quantities were manufactured, not
only in the larger factories but also by artisans and in the homes. Swedish
shipbuilding, an ancient industry, made important progress and, at Söderfors, an
anchor-forge was erected, which soon became famous throughout Europe.

To sum up, then, Swedish industry of the seventeenth century was by no
means insignificant. It may be said, however, to have been confined to a few
branches only, of which still fewer could boast of having reached a stage where
their products found a market abroad. A very large proportion of manufactured
articles had still to be imported, and the production of raw material was beyond
question the main source of livelihood for Swedes of that period. It was the
chief object of the eighteenth century to extend manufacturing industry to all
departments and to increase the export trade; changed political conditions caused
the part of promoter to pass over to the representatives of the people in the
Riksdag and to private individuals. Among the latter, the foremost place now
belongs to a Swede, Jonas Alströmer. That remarkable man was born at Alingsås
in 1685. He began his career as a merchant in London. It was not long,
however, before he conceived it to be his life’s work to make his native land
a participant in the flourishing industry that formed the basis of the wealth
of England; to accomplish this end, Alströmer laboured incessantly during the
remainder of his life, displaying those qualities of fortitude of purpose,
unselfishness, and unpretentiousness, that are often to be met with in our people when a
man has found an object in life to which to devote his whole energy.

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