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-317 vii. manufacturing industries.
mercantile ideas that were pursued in Sweden with the utmost consistency, gave
rise to many industrial enterprises not adapted to the conditions of the country ;
it was subsequently found that they had been doomed to failure from their
very inception. The end of the decade 1751—60 was, most probably, the
summit of the development just mentioned; in the next decade a crisis occurred,
that swept away many of the creations artificially brought into being, and entailed
ruinous effects on different parts of the Swedish industrial life of the period.
But, though the edifice built up by Alströmer and his helpers and supporters,
partly broke down, one element of their work was not lost, viz., the industrial
education which they imparted to their countrymen, for that is, in a great
measure, owing the economic progress that has come about in later times.
The reign of Gustavus III (1771—92) was of import for Swedish industry
up to a certain point, in so far that a more liberally-minded legislation
contributed its quota towards placing industrial enterprises on a sounder basis. The
credit of this improvement belongs principally to the great financier J.
Liljencrantz (1730—1815). Generally speaking, this period, though poorer in
initiative, was on the whole characterized by a quiet progressive development.
With the dawn of the nineteenth century came the vast revolution in the
industrial world entailed by the discovery of steam as a motive power. Sweden
appropriated the epoch-making discovery at a very early date, a circumstance
due to the efforts of A. N. Edelcrantz (1754—1821), a very versatile official,
scientist, and literary man. He went to England in 1804, returning with four
steam-engines of the best construction, on Watt’s system. To set up these
engines he procured the services of an English engineer, Samuel Owen (1774—
1854), a man who earned the gratitude of Sweden for what he has done in
many branches of work. The mechanical workshops that Owen established (1809),
at Kungsholmen, Stockholm, mark the beginnings of mechanical industry in
Sweden. The series of eminent foreigners who have worked as pioneers to
promote the industries of Sweden is headed by De Geer and closed by Owen.
It was Owen’s merit that Sweden came second only to England among the
nations in applying steam-power in the service of navigation.
From this time forward, the history of Swedish industry becomes one of the
several special branches into which activity in this direction resolved itself; many
of the more important features of each will be briefly touched upon in the
following pages. The most important events in the general history of legislation
on the subject during the nineteenth century are the emancipation of industry
from antiquated restraints in the years 1846 and 1864, the French commercial
treaty of 1865, whereby the system of free trade was introduced, and the
subsequent return to a modified system of protective duties in the years 1888 and
1892.
The number of people gaining their livelihood from industries of all kinds,
including handicrafts, was estimated in 1870 at 613 000, i. e. 14"7^ of the
whole population; the number in 1910 had risen to 1 831 000, or 32’2 % of the
whole population. Agriculture, on the other hand, which, in the first named
year, gave employment to 71’9 % of the population, was pursued in 1910 by
only 48’2 %.
The development of Swedish manufacturing industries during the last
ew decades may be roughly given by actual figures, though those for
the earlier periods are not verj’ reliable. It is not, indeed, until 1896 that
the statistics on this point can be fairly trusted. It must be noted, that,
from the 3^ear mentioned, the figures are not only more exact but also
include a greater number of industries — amongst others, chiefljr the
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