Sawmills — Finland's proto-industry

Abstract

The concept of proto-industrialisation, propounded by Freudenberger and Redlich in the 1960s and since revived by Mendels and others, has not really caught the attention of Finnish historians. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, there has been a general lack of interest in historical generalisations. Secondly, and more importantly, proto-industrialisation — the idea of a pre-industrial stage which, fulfilling certain conditions, may be considered as the precursor of industrialisation itself — has not seemed applicable to the birth of Finnish industry. Moreover there seemed to be real differences between the way in which industrialisation took place in such technologically advanced countries as England, Germany and even Sweden, and the path followed by Finland. In fact, however, the more one reads about proto-industrialisation, the broader and less restrictive the concept becomes. Indeed, some of the special features peculiar to Finnish history enable certain types of industry to be classed, with some plausibility, as typical of proto-industrialisation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kai Hoffman

Kai Hoffman, born 1944, Ph.D. (Soc.sc.) 1980, lecturer in economic and social history, University of Helsinki. Previous studies concerning the history of Finnish saw-mill industry.