Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - XX. Economic Progress During the Bernadotte Period - F. Trade and Transportation - XXI. Political and Social Progress - A. Establishment of a Riksdag of Two Chambers
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Political Progress 343
usual ability made him an exceptional leader for the
great enterprise. The work went forward with rapid
strides. Many private lines have also been built. The
two systems furnish Sweden a network of railroads
which in proportion to population is larger than that
of any other European country.
The railroads of Sweden, as indeed those of nearly
every other country, have contributed more toward the
shifting of population than any other one thing. They
have brought the markets, as it were, to distant mines
and farming communities, and made them prosperous
as never before. As an illustration might be mentioned
the case of Kiruna in the far north. In 1809 it is said
to have consisted of one hut. In a few years after
the railroad reached it, there was a city of 7,000 peo-
ple. It was the railroads that aroused to life the "Norr-
land mines with their slumbering millions."
CHAPTER XXI
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
A. ESTABLISHMENT OP A RIKSDAG OP Two CHAMBERS
Abolition of the Four Estates. Half a century had
passed since the adoption of the new constitution of
1809, and yet none of the plans proposed for the re-
organization of the Riksdag had won the approval of
both the king and the Riksdag. Then Louis De Geer
entered the council as minister of state. He was the
man who should accomplish it. He was not a genius,
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