Danske provinskobmaends vareomsaetning og kapitalforbold 1815–47

Abstract

During the 1950s and much of the 1960s foreign trade was a subject of intense interest to Scandinavian economic historians. Meticulous export statistics for the principal staple products appeared in both trade and business histories. The size and direction of trade flows, the working methods and importance of merchants, profitability of the different firms, and price movements, were all determined with the utmost care. Normally, however, not a great deal of effort was devoted to fitting such studies into the general social background. The interest in commercial history has declined during the present decade: most young economic historians seem to regard it as a subject of minor importance, and changes in trade were apparently considered as of marginal significance to the great social upheaval of the nineteenth century.