It may be of interest in this connection to cite a rough calculation made by Dr. Mayr of the available material in European Russia and Finland combined, which he places at 4,500 million cubic feet, and of which he considers one-half available for export.
It is impossible to prognosticate what position Russia and Finland, together the largest wood producers in Europe, will take in the future world commerce, and how rapidly better practices, for which the machinery is already half started, will become generally adopted. At present, especially in Russia proper, the general corruption of the bureaucracy is an almost insurmountable obstacle to improvement.
THE SCANDINAVIAN STATES.
In the English language the Report on Forestry in Sweden, by Gen. C. C. Andrews, U. S. Minister at Stockholm, 1872, revised 1900, 35 pp., gives a statement of present conditions with historical notes.
A very good idea in detail of the wood trade of Sweden may be obtained from The Wood Industries of Sweden, published by TIMBER TRADES JOURNAL of London in 1896.
La Suède, son Peuple et son industrie, by G. Sundbarg, 1900, 2 vols., contains several pertinent chapters. It is an official work, very complete, and was translated into English in 1904.
The Economic History of the Swedish Forest, by Gunnar Schotte, 1905. 32 pp., in Swedish, published by the forestry association, gives a brief account of conditions and data of the forestry movement.
Norway. Official publication for the Paris Exposition, 1900, contains a chapter on Forestry by K. A. Fauchald, pp. 322-350, with a map of forest distribution.
Skogsvaesenets Historie ved Skogs direktoren, I Del, Historik, 1909, is an official publication of the Norwegian Forest administration, giving a full account of the development during the 50 years from 1857 to 1907, with notes of the earlier history.
Le Danemarc. Etat Actuel de sa civilization et de son organization sociale, by J. Carlsen, H. Olric and C. N. Starcke, 1900, 714 pp.
Denmark, its history and topography, etc., by H. Weitemeyer, 1891.
Bidrag til det Danske Skovbrugs Historie, by O. Lütken, 1900, was not accessible to the writer.
Extensive notes are found through the German, Austrian and French forestry journals. Especially an article in the Centralblatt für das gesammte Forstwesen, 1905 (briefed in Forestry Quarterly, vol. III, p. 292) and another (briefed in same Quarterly, vol. IX, p. 45) gives extended accounts of forest conditions in Sweden.
Under the name of Scandinavian States we may comprise the countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, which were settled by the same group of German tribes, the so-called Norsemen; they originally spoke the same language, which only later became more or less differentiated. The settlement of the country by these tribes seems to have been accomplished in the main by the end of the 8th century; and the separation into the three several kingdoms in the ninth to twelfth centuries, during which time they were sometimes united, or at least under one ruler, sometimes at war with each other, and always torn by interior dissensions bordering on anarchy.
In 1397, by the Calmar convention, a more permanent union into one kingdom was effected between Sweden, Norway, and Denmark under Margaret, “the Semiramis of the North.” After another period of variable fortunes, Sweden, about 1523, became an independent constitutional monarchy under Gustav Vasa, and Norway remained joined to Denmark under Frederick I.
Sweden then started on a career of conquest, being almost continuously at war with all her neighbors and especially with Russia and Poland, whereby, especially under Gustavus Adolphus and the adventurous Charles XII, her territory was greatly enlarged. With the treaties of Stockholm and Nystadt (1720 and 1721) she came into more peaceful waters, but permanent peace and a settled policy was not attained until the election of Bernadotte, one of Napoleon’s administrators, to the kingship, and by the peace of Kiel, in 1814, Sweden became a constitutional hereditary monarchy in the modern sense. At the same time, Norway was taken away from Denmark and forced to a union with Sweden, which persisted until 1907, when a peaceful separation took place by the action of the Norwegian people. The union has always been hateful to the Norwegians, although only the king and the department of foreign affairs (in which Norway was represented by a delegation from its Council) were in common, all other matters of administration being separate as well as the parliaments (Storthing in Norway, and Riksdag in Sweden).
Denmark, powerful in the 11th century under Canute, who subjugated not only Norway but England, losing both these countries shortly after his death, was shorn by Sweden of much of its territory in the 17th century, and, in 1814, was separated from Norway. Originally an elective monarchy, largely dominated by the nobility, the crown in 1661 became hereditary and absolute, and Sweden did not become a constitutional monarchy until 1849.