Regulating unemployment the Continental way: the transfer of municipal labour exchanges to Scandinavia 1890–1914

Abstract

Statistical knowledge, insurance and labour exchanges constituted the principal elements in the policies developed to handle the new social problem of unemployment in the decades before 1914. Political transfer, the exchange of ideas, problems and policies between reformers all over the modern world, contributed heavily to the making of unemployment. This article analyses the introduction of labour exchanges, a German innovation, in the Nordic countries. Special attention is given to the different settings, both extra- and intra-Nordic, for transfer and cross-learning. The aspiration that the municipal labour exchange, providing a free and impartial service to both employers and workers, would reduce unemployment and social tensions explains its swift introduction.

Keywords:

• Labour exchanges
• unemployment
• regulation of labour markets 1890–1914
• social reformers and experts
• social policy
• political transfer
• exchange and cross-learning
• transnational networks
• Scandinavia
• Nordic countries

Notes

 1. For a classic social history, Keyssar, Out of Work; for a conceptually oriented study, Topalov, Naissance du chômeur, 1880–1910.

 2. For Denmark, Nørregaard, Arbejdsforhold indenfor dansk haandværk og industri 1857–1899, pp. 342–51; for Finland, Åström, “Stadssamhällets omdaning”, pp. 69–78; for Norway, Seip, Sosialhjelpsstaten blir til, ch. 7; for Sweden, Edling, “Den svenska arbetslösheten tar form”, pp. 308–12.

 3. On the making of these programmes, Edling, “Limited universalism”, pp. 101–8.

 4. “Utlåtande i fråga om arbetslöshetens bekämpande, särskildt med afseende å förhållandena i Helsingfors”, Ekonomiska samfundet i Finland . Föredrag och förhandlingar 3, no. 5 (1904): 1–85, quot. p. 21 (translation by the author).

 5. See note 1 and Zimmermann, La constitution du chômage en Allemagne, ch. 1–3.

 6. “Utlåtande”, Ekonomiska samfundet, pp. 21–2, 70–3, 78–81.

 7. Finnish sources from the turn of the century are usually in both Swedish and Finnish, but the lion part of the modern research is in Finnish only. For the Finnish history I am therefore dependent on works published in English and the Scandinavian languages.

 8. Herren, “Sozialpolitik und die Historisierung des Transnationalen”, pp. 542–559. Two pioneering studies are, Herren, Internationaler Sozialpolitik vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg; Wikander, Feminism, familj och medborgarskap.

 9. For a pioneering study of transfer from a Nordic perspective, Hietala, Services and Urbanization at the Turn of the Century; idem, “Transfer of German and Scandinavian Administrative Knowledge, pp. 109–30. Transnational exchange is also a main theme in Topalov, Chômeur, e.g. chs 3–4. See also the detailed study on German social insurance in Britain, Hennock, British Social Reform and German Precedents.

10. Rose, Lesson-drawing in Public Policy, ch. 6.

11. Collier and Messick, “Prerequisites Versus Diffusion”, pp. 1299–1315. For critique, Kuhnle, “The Growth of Social Insurance Programs in Scandinavia”, pp. 126–31.

12. On transfer, te Velde, “Political Transfer”, pp. 205–10; Kaiser, “Transnational Mobilization and Cultural Representation”, pp. 403–5; Evans and Davies, “Understanding Policy Transfer”, pp. 361–85.

13. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings, pp. 11–20, 28–32, 59–75.

14. For the first exhibition, Horne, A Social Laboratory for Modern France, ch. 2; for the second exhibition, Rodgers, pp. 8–20.

15. Herren, Internationaler Sozialpolitik, pp. 59–60.

16. Rasmussen, “Les Congrès internationaux liés aux Expositions universelles de Paris (1867–1900)”, p. 24. See also Herren, Internationaler Sozialpolitik, passim.

17. Epistemic communities,. Haas, “Introduction”, pp. 3–4; cf. Topalov, Chômeur, pp. 64–8.

18. Hietala, Services, esp. ch. 13–14; idem, “Transfer”, pp. 109–30.

19. Carlson, De institutionalistiska idéernas spridning , pp. 103–52; Sandelin, “The De-Germanization of Swedish Economics”, pp. 517–39. For Finland, Björkqvist, Den nationalekonomiska vetenskapens utveckling i Finland intill 1918, pp. 542–8.

20. The primacy of domestic legacies and policies is a key argument in Jørn Henrik Petersen's works on old age insurance, e.g. Petersen, “The Danish Act on Old Age Relief”, Journal of Social Policy, pp. 69–91. See also, Kuhnle, “Growth of Social”, pp. 126–31.

21. For a short introduction to these themes, Götz, “Norden: Structures That Do Not Make a Region”, pp. 323–41.

22. Kerstin Smeds, Helsingfors–Paris, p. 194.

23. The first Scandinavian political economy meeting was held in 1863, followed by four more up to 1888. For different reasons, the sixth meeting was held as late as 1920; Hedlund-Nyström, “Nordiska nationalekonomiska problem (i belysning av de nordiska nationalekonomiska mötena 1863–1935)”, pp. 115–30. The first jurist meeting took place in 1872 and 10 more followed in 1875–1902.

24. Hemstad, “Nordisk samklang med politiske dissonanser. Skandinavisme og skandinavisk samarbeid på 1800-tallet”, pp. 189–213; Nilsson, André Oscar Wallenberg, vol. 3, pp. 64–70.

25. Fostervoll, Arbeidarskandinavismen i grunnleggingstida; Nilsson, “Arbetsgivarstrategi i Finland 1909–1940 i nordiskt perspektiv”, p. 18.

26. Götz, op. cit., p. 338.

27. Hemstad, op. cit., pp. 213–25.

28. Petersen, “Constructing Nordic Welfare?”, pp. 67–98.

29. Rodgers, op. cit., pp. 4–7 (web of connections); Hietala, Services, p. 351 (frame of reference); Saunier, “Taking Up the Bet on Connections”, pp. 507–16 (local level).

30. Schmuhl, Arbeitsmarktpolitik und Arbeitsverwaltung in Deutschland 1871 –2002, p. 33 (Esslingen, Erfurt, Trier, Heilbronn and Elberfeld); Zimmermann, “Municipal Innovations versus National Wait-and-See Attitudes”, p. 92 (Strasbourg).

31. Schmuhl, op. cit., p. 35.

32. Degen, “Aus Armen wurden Arbeitslose. ”, pp. 97–99.

33. Jensen, “Om Kontorer for Arbejdsanvisning, navnlig i Tyskland”, pp. 113–32. The essay was dated October 1893.

34. Särskilde kommitterades betänkande angående arbetslösheten i Stockholm”, Bihang Nr 27 till Beredningsutskottets utlåtanden och memorial för år 1895, pp. 157–63. For Helsinki, “Komitén för afgifvande af yttrande och förslag i särskilda den lägre arbetsklassen rörande frågor”, Helsingfors Stadsfullmäktiges handlingar. Utlåtande N:o 24 1897, pp. 13–18.

35. Dehli, Arbeidsformidling, pp. 2–5. Dehli wrote the text in May 1895 with a postscript dated January 1896. Jensen, “Om kontorer”, saw the dangers of private profit-making and partisan use by workers and employers as the exchanges’ main problems.

36. Dehli, Arbeidsformidling, p. 1 (translation by the author).

37. Dehli, Indberetning om Arbeiderforhold og Arbeiderlovgivning i England og De forenede Stater; Jensen, Erindringer, pp. 124–6. Luihn, Arbeide og Samfunn, pp. 22–3, claims, without stating his sources, that Dehli had studied labour exchanges in Germany. Nothing in Dehli's survey or the biographical entries in dictionaries supports that. Unfortunately, Dehli left no known personal archive.

38. Jensen mainly used Blätter für Soziale Praxis, “Om kontorer”, pp. 126–9.

39. See the annual tables of contents, Centralblatt für Sozialpolitik 1–3 (1892–1894).

40. Lindbäck-Larsen, Opprettelsen av de offentlige arbeidsformidlingskontorene i Norge, pp. 13–37.

41. Rodgers, op. cit., pp. 25–26.

42. Mjeldheim, Folkerørsla som vart parti. Venstre frå 1880åra til 1905, pp. 366–7.

43. “Angående et Kontor for Arbeidsanvisning”, Sag 1896:118, Aktstykker vedkommende Christiana Kommune i Aaret 1896, vol. 1. Christiana Kommunerepræsentantskabs Forhandlinger (Forelæg): 1–9; Lindbäck-Larsen, op. cit., pp. 55–57.

44. Lindbäck-Larsen, op. cit., p. 58; “Forhandlinger i Repræsentantskabetsmødet 10 juni 1897”, Aktstykker vedkommende Christiana Kommune i Aaret 1897, vol. 3: Christiana Kommunerepræsentantskabs Forhandlinger, pp. 583–5.

45. “Indberetning fra forretningsfører Ole Groth angaaende en reise til Danmark, Tyskland og Schweitz for at studere de praktiske arbetsforhold ved derværande konotorer af lignende art”, Doc. 1898:29, Aktstykker vedkommende Kristiania Kommune i Aaret 1898, 2: De paa Kommunens Foranstaltning trykte Dokumenter, p. 11 (translation by the author). The other cities that figured in the report were Hamburg, Berlin – two cities without ‘paritätische Arbeitsnachweis’ – and Cologne.

46. “Kristiania arbeidskontor i aaret 1898. Første aarsberetning”, Dokument 33, Aktstykker vedkommende Kristiania Kommune i Aaret 1898, vol. 2: De paa Kommunens Foranstaltning trykte Dokumenter, pp. 23–4; Luihn, op. cit., pp. 25, 29–35 (about Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger).

47. Albrecht, Soziale Wohlfahrtspflege in Deutschland. Im Auftrag des Gruppenvorstandes der deutschen Untergruppe für soziale Wohlfahrtspflege , pp. 56–61.

48. For example, “Berednings betänkande i ärende angående inrättande härstädes af en kommunal arbetsansvisningsanstalt”, Göteborgs Stadsfullmäktiges handlingar 1902:51, pp. 1–33.

49. Engman, “Kuli-handel eller olovlig näring?”, pp. 32–4. Turku, Tampere, Kotka and Vyborg founded municipal exchanges in 1904.

50. “Betænkning af Udvalg at overveje Spørgsmaalet om Oprettelse af kommunale Arbejdsanvisnings-Bureauer”, Kjøbenhavns Borgerrepræsentanters Forhandlinger 60 (1899–1900): 2368–77.

51. “Kristiania arbeidskontor 1898”, Christiana Kommunerepræsentantskab, p. 24 (translation by the author); “Bilag Arbejdsanvisnings-Bureauer”, Kjøbenhavns Borgerrepræsentanter, p. 78. Wavrinsky also obtained information from the Ministry of the Interior about the plans for national legislation. Letter to Wavrinsky 28 October 1899, vol. Arbeidsformidlingskomitéen 1897–1902, Indredepartementet Kontor A & D, Norges Riksarkiv (National Archives, Oslo).

52. “Motion i Andra Kammaren 1900:152”, Bihang till Riksdagens protokoll 1900, coll. 1, part 2, vol. 2: Motioner i Riksdagens Andra Kammare, p. 9. See Wavrinsky, “Offentlig arbetsförmedling”, pp. 6–8, 34–7.

53. “Handlingar till frågan om inrättande af ett kommunalt arbetsförmedlingskontor i Stockholm”, Bihang till Beredningsutskottets utlåtanden och memorial 1902:10, pp.1–20.

54. Stockholms Stadsfullmäktiges protokoll 1904:15–16, pp. 194–211, 524–609.

55. Ansell, Schism and Solidarity in Social Movements , pp. 110–17.

56. Ormestad, Skandinaviske Arbeiderkongresser, p. 17.

57. Lindbäck-Larsen, op. cit., pp. 40–54 (quot. pp. 51–2, from a proposal at the Norwegian Social Democrats’ congress in 1893, translation by the author); Olstad, “Kamp mot kapitalen”, pp. 161–73; Lindbom, Den svenska fackföreningens uppkomst och tidigare historia 1872–1900, pp. 55–56 (states a British influence in Sweden).

58. Kjøbenhavns Borgerrepræsentanter 60, no. 2 (1899–1900): 761–2 (contribution by councillor Jens Jensen, chairman of De Samvirkende Fagforbund, the National Confederation of Trade Unions).

59. Sag 1896:118”, Christiania Kommunerepræsentantskab, pp. 1–2.

60. Särskilde kommitterades betänkande”, Beredningsutskottets utlåtanden 1903:100, pp. 26–37 (Stockholm); Betänkande jämte förslag till lag angående arbetsförmedling afgifvet af Föredraganden för arbetarefrågor , Helsinki, 1907, p. 9 (translation by the author).

61. Kuhnle, “International Modeling, States and Statistics: Scandinavian Social Security in the 1890s”, pp. 245–53.

62. “Sag 1896:118”, Christiania Kommunerepræsentantskab, pp. 2, 9–10.

63. “Bihang 1902:10”, Stockholms Stadsfullmäktige , p. 6 (translation by the author).

64. Elmquist, Offentlig arbetsförmedling, p. 4.

65. “Bihang 1895:27”, Stockholms Stadsfullmäktige, pp. 154–6. There is a substantial literature on the “unemployable”, e.g. Malcolm Mansfield, “Labour Exchanges and the Labour Reserve in Turn of Century Social Reform”, Journal of Social Policy 21, no. 4 (1992): 435–68; Welshman, “The Concept of the Unemployable”, pp. 578–93.

66. For example, “Kristiania arbeidskontor 1898”, Christiana Kommunerepræsentantskab, pp. 18–19; the debate in Copenhagen 1901, Kjøbenhavns Borgerrepræsentanter 62 (1901–1902): 959–69, “Årsberättelse 1904”, Göteborgs Stadsfullmäktige, p. 60; “Bihang 1903:100”, Stockholms Stadsfullmäktige, p. 73.

67. Nørregaard, op. cit., pp. 444–50. After 1907, the recognised unemployment benefit funds became the principal exchanges for insured workers, and this system, allegedly favouring the workers, soon came under attack from employers; Nørgaard, The Politics of Institutional Control, pp. 202–7.

68. “Bihang 1903:100”, Stockholms Stadsfullmäktige, pp. 65–66.

69. Betänkande arbetsförmedling (Finland): 11–12; “Bihang 1903:100”, Stockholms Stadsfullmäktige, pp. 35–36.

70. Falkenström, Om arbetsförmedling; Myhrman, Maktkampen på arbetsmarknaden 1905–1907, pp. 28–32; Knoellinger, Labor in Finland, ch. 4.

71. Rose, op. cit., pp. 44–7.

72. Östlund, Det sociala kriget och kapitalets ansvar, p. 287 note 523 and p. 289 note 530, pp. 282–92, 321–35.

73. The controversial and often debated issue was of course how the exchange should operate during conflicts.

74. For example, Harris, Unemployment and Politics, chs 5–6; King, Actively Seeking Work?, ch. 3.

75. Payre, “A European Progressive Era?”, pp. 489–97; ‘The nebula’, cf. the collection of essays on the networks of social reform in France, Topalov, Laboratoires du nouveau siécle.

76. Quotation from Hennock, op cit., p. 161.

77. “Protokoll från arbetsförmedlingskonferensen [i december 1909]”, Handlingar angående arbetsförmedlingskonferenser 1907–1912, Avdelningen för Arbetsstatistik, Kommerskollegium, Svenska Riksarkivet (National Archives, Stockholm).

78. Beveridge, Unemployment, app. A (pp. 239–54); Harris, William Beveridge pp. 134–7; Rudischhauser and Zimmermann, “‘Öffentliche Arbeitsvermittlung’ und ‘placement public’ (1890–1914)”, pp. 103–4.