Shipping in Sweden, 1850–1913

Abstract

Any description and analysis of Swedish shipping in the period 1850–1913 must of course take as its starting point the enormous expansion of international trade that took place during the period. Extensive studies by Simon Kuznets have shown that international trade was growing substantially faster than total world production. The most rapid increase appears to have occurred during the years 1840–70, with a rate of more than 50 % per capita per decade. The increase over the entire period 1850–1913 can be reckoned at about 30-35 %per capita per decade, whereas the rise in world production has been calculated at a considerably lower figure (about 20 % per capita per decade).¹

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Notes on contributors

Martin Fritz

Martin Fritz, born 1937, lecturer in economic history at the University of Gothenburg. His previous studies have chiefly been concerned with economic and social conditions in the Swedish mining industry around 1900.