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i9i4] GERMAN PENETRATION 257
be only by allying herself to Germany that Sweden
would have a chance of gaining, or rather of regaining,
anything.
In 1870 the sympathies of Swedish public opinion
were still ostensibly with France. From 1875 the
intimacy with Germany begins and soon obtains a firm
footing in Sweden.
All secondary countries, but particularly the countries
geographically eccentric and speaking a separate
language, need to link themselves to the central
civilisation of Europe through the medium of one of the
greatest participants in this old civilisation : France,
England, Germany, Italy, Spain. Sweden, who
corresponds exactly to the conditions quoted above, had thus
always had need of a "big-sister initiator." So that
when this sister was no longer France, her place was
naturally bound to be taken by Germany.
Finally, the great industrial and economic progress
made by Germany in the last fifty years helped to
establish and develop her influence in Sweden. Sweden,
generally speaking, does not possess either the
commercial spirit of Denmark or the naval spirit of Norway;
as I have said, the Swedish people have no inclination for
commerce, although they have first-rate technical ability.
With the development of the resources of the country,
Germany was the first to lend the asset of her commerce
to this development. Sweden imported more and more
German wares and used more every year. Sweden
developed her mineral production more and more;
Germany was there to draw as much as was possible of
the magnificent Swedish ore into the enormous and
insatiable Krupp steelworks; Sweden, who possesses no
coalfields, was more and more in need of coal. Germany
arranged to supply her with one-sixth of the coal required
(700,000 tons on 5,000,000), leaving the English to supply
the rest, but intending to increase her share in time.
Finally, the great German Bank was willing to finance
Swedish enterprises, and soon the most intimate terms
existed between the financial market of Sweden and that
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