525. The Scandinavian states; their position in recent commerce.—The Scandinavian states (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) held a lower rank among commercial countries than others which will be mentioned later, but in a geographical grouping they may be properly considered here; and their commerce was important, at least, in proportion to the irrelatively small population. These states were characterized, in general, by a lack of coal and by the slight development of manufactures; and by a soil and climate which are disadvantageous to the ordinary operations of agriculture. The difficulties of life have forced many inhabitants to emigrate, and forced those who stayed at home to make the most of their extractive industries (forestry, mining, dairying), the products of which they could exchange for the wares of more favored nations. The time when the Baltic trade was one of the great branches of world commerce was long past. The rest of Europe would have been but slightly affected if it had been separated from the Scandinavian countries, while such a separation would have entailed ruin on them.
526. Denmark.—The little state of Denmark, with a population of but slightly over two million, had taken advantage of modern commercial facilities to specialize in the dairy industry, in which it has been a leader and teacher of Europe. When we add to butter the pork products raised in connection with the dairies, and the eggs from Danish poultry yards, we have the articles which made up more than two thirds of the total value of the country’s exports.
527. Norway; Norwegian shipping.—In Norway, also, a country so barren that far less than 1 per cent of its area is suited to cultivation by the plough, dairying has been an important industry; and the dairy and forest industries supplied most of the exports. The difficulties of life on land were so great that the people were forced to take to the sea; they gained one tenth of the national income from the fisheries, and had, in proportion to their numbers, more merchant shipping than any other people. In 1913 Norway ranked second in tonnage of sailing ships (after the United States), fourth in total tonnage (after Germany), and fourth in tonnage of steamers. The position of Norwegian shipping was even higher before the use of iron ships had become general, and when Norway could utilize its forest products in shipbuilding. Norway enjoyed the most brilliant period of its shipping in the generation following 1850, when it took the place of the United States as one of the great carrying nations of the world.
528. Sweden.—Sweden was somewhat more fortunate than the other Scandinavian countries in its agricultural resources, and during part of the century has been able to export a surplus of grain. It has been recently, like the others, reduced to importing the cereals, and found its chief strength in products of the forest, the pasture and the mine. From its rich iron deposits it contributed raw materials for maintaining the iron industry in other countries, especially England.
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS
A profitable exercise on each of the minor countries treated in this and in the following chapters is a study of the statistics of present-day commerce, and a reduction of these statistics to the form of a graphic chart. [Statesman’s Year-Book.]
1. Experience of the chief Dutch colony during the Napoleonic wars. [Day, Dutch in Java, chap. 5.]
2. The culture system. [Same, chaps. 7, 8.]
3. Political and social conditions in the Netherlands. [Hough, Dutch life, N. Y., 1901; Campen in Westminster Review, 1890, 134: 479-492; National Review, 1890, 15: 748-763.]
4. Recent political history of Belgium. [Seignobos, chap. 8.]