The State and the Financial System: Regulation and Regime Change around 1900

The need for capital increased substantially in Sweden during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Behind this development lay the general industrialization process, which from the 1870s included traditional activities as iron and steel industry, but also engineering, wood and paper industry (see chapters 1 and 5, this volume) Investments in industry as well as agriculture resulted in an increased gross national product, which in a long-term perspective was quite impressive. Especially during the decades around the year 1900, the Swedish economy exhibited a high growth compared to both the European countries and northern America (see Table 10.1). The period between 1890–1910 was in a comparative perspective especially important in the development and distribution of industrial ideas. This was a period of more or less general economic expansion — except for Great Britain — but growth was especially sudden in Sweden. Thus, we can see that the industrial revolution did not result in any extensive economic growth until after the first financial revolution.