Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Manufacturing Industries. Introd. by [G. Sundbärg] K. Åmark - 2. Textile and Clothing Industry. By G. Sellergren
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vii. manufacturing industries.
that the weaving mills have considerably increased their output,
especially of pattern fabrics and stuffs of better quality.
The exports of textile manufactures go principally to Norway. After
the revocation, in 1897, of the Special Commercial Treaty
(mellanriksla-gen) between Sweden and Norway it has considerably diminished —
though not in the proportion shown by Table 78. As we shall several times
have occasion to remind our readers, the Swedish figures for the exports
to Norway are, in fact, very incomplete and especially so after 1897.
The Swedes have, from time immemorial, displayed considerable liking and
natural taste for the textile arts. But even though Swedish native textile art
goes back to remote ages, and the textile manufacturing industry to the days of
Gustavus II Adolphus, nevertheless, this manufacture was always intended primarily
to supply the actual necessities of the country. One consequence of this is that
the fabrics produced in this branch of industry are generally of a simpler sort,
suitable for use by the people at large. The home market is not extensive
enough to repay the expense connected with the manufacture of new or special
products. And if the native manufacturer is, with any hope of success, to
compete with the foreigner who is flooding the Swedish market with his products,
he must avoid embarking on this too precarious venture, but confine himself to
the simpler and cheaper goods already known to his customers.
There has been a remarkable change in this respect, however, during the
last few years, more attention having been devoted to the manufacture of the
better qualities of cloth.
The first place in the textile industry of Sweden — chiefly, however, in the
cotton-industry — is occupied by the Län of Älvsborg, with a
manufacture-value of about one-fourth of that of the entire country, the town of Borås
and the neighbourhood being the centre of the business. The chief seat of the
Swedish woollen industry, on the other hand, is in Östergötland Län, the
principal centre being Norrköping.
For promoting skill in the textile industry, there are two Weaving schools,
originally started by private persons, viz., John Lenning’s Weaving School at
Norrköping, and the Borås Technical Weaving School. The former was founded
in 1879, by means of a donation of 300 000 kronor by a manufacturer, named
John Lenning. This school has a higher course for training manufacturers, foremen,
designers, etc., and a lower one (chiefly with evening lectures) for workmen and
apprentices in the trade. The weaving school in Borås was originally a private
establishment founded by a teacher of weaving, named S. F. Krebs, but, in 1866,
at the suggestion of the Board of the Borås Technical School, it became a public
institution, and, at the present time, receives a grant from the State of 4 800
kronor per annum and 2 900 kronor annually from the Älvsborg Län County
Council. — Besides these, there are, in other parts of the country, a large
number of weaving-schools for promoting domestic industry amongst which may
be especially mentioned the Weaving School of the society called "Friends of
Art Needle-work" in Stockholm; the Tullgarn Weaving School, established and
supported by H. M., the Queen; Miss N. v. Engestrom’s School in Örebro;
Johanna Brunsson’s Practical Art Weaving School in Stockholm; Thora Kulle’s
in Lund, etc.
Woollen Industry.
The real improvement in Sweden’s native breed of sheep did not begin
until after 1715, when Jonas Alströmer, rightly called "the father of
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