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192
iv. forestry.
Table 33. Exports of Wood-wares (all liinds) from the most important
wood-exporting countries. Values in thousands of kronor.
Country Tear Tear Year Tear Tear Annually 1 Tear
1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1906—10 1911
Sweden........ 236 465 244 484 217 474 212 784 264 736 235 189 274 138
Norway........ 79 709 81 858 75 311 73 512 79 490 77 976 78 059
Finland........ 109 154 110 659 101 964 108 011 125 056 110 969 131 458
Russia........ 187 776 206 360 213 064 242 579 264 250 222 806 271851
Austria-Hungary . . . U. S. A.1....... 253 006 273 065 233 634 225 289 245 795 246 158 269180
257 670 310 894 304 074 253 146 293 975 283 952 344 115
Canada1........ 189 165 183 070 166 571 199 638 193 980 186 485 172 756
1 For Canada and the U. S. A. the mercantile years given do not coincide with the
calendar years.
grew rapidly. The timber industry was also greatly promoted by the growth
and development in Sweden of commercial companies, thanks to the law of 1848
regarding joint-stock companies, by which measure the co-operation of several
persons for the purpose of establishing large industrial enterprises was facilitated.
We may add to this the enormous improvements the means of
communication underwent. Formerly the shipping of Norrland timber was performed
principally by sailing vessels from that part of the country, which could make at
most only two trips a year to the ports of destination in England and France;
a voyage to the Mediterranean and back took a whole year. The freight to
England might then amount to £4x/2 per standard. Since steamships have
begun to be used in the timber trade, and, consequently, the voyages altogether
have become more rapid, the cost of transport has considerably decreased. The
re-building of the Trollhätte Canal (1838—44) was a very great advantage to the
export via Gothenburg, and finally we only need to point out the revolution in
the transport system which has been brought about by the railways.
The saw-mills, when first established, had but little difficulty in getting their
necessary supply of timber. Although only the largest and soundest redwood
timber was cut, and all unsound inferior timber and white wood, together with
no inconsiderable proportion of the top-logs were left, still it was not necessary
to penetrate far into the forest from the sea or the great rivers in order to get
a sufficient amount of raw material. But, with the constantly increasing
demand from abroad and the increase in the number of steam saw-mills, this
state of things soon changed. The easily accessible, heavy timber nearest to
the watercourses began to be exhausted, and it became necessary to select the
raw material from the upper courses of the rivers. At the same time it began
to pay to make use of both white wood and poorer red wood and timber of smaller
dimensions, which had hitherto been despised and left in the forest.
For rather more than two decades from the founding of the first steam
sawmills, the saw-mill industry in Norrland continued, under the favourable conditions
to expand, and there poured in a regular stream of native and foreign
speculators, and of workmen from the southern part of the country. The workmen’s
wages now had risen to a very high standard, and the manner and habits of life
among the floating population of workmen were, too, in accord with that standard,
but, as long as the prices of timber continued to rise, everything ’ran smoothly.
In 1874, however, a turning-point was reached, the foreign market beginning to
fluctuate, and the prices, after having once more risen somewhat in 1877, sank
the next year at a breakneck speed. The average price of sawn timber in Sunds-
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