Prelude to Extreme Protectionism? Norwegian Agricultural Protectionism in a West-European Context, 1850–1940

Abstract

The topic of the article is to offer a new interpretation of the history of Norway's agricultural protectionism in a West-European context. Agricultural protectionism was not deeply rooted economically, politically or institutionally prior to the Second World War. Before the First World War the most commercially oriented part of Norwegian agriculture – milk production and the dairy industry – was export-oriented. Norway was the last country to join the protectionist wave in the late nineteenth century and in practice it followed the most liberal trade policies in agricultural products next to Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands. It is argued that the 1920s were generally relatively more important and the 1930s relatively less important for later developments than assumed in the most of the literature on agricultural protectionism.

Keywords:

• Norway
• agriculture
• protectionism
• trade policy

Acknowledgements

The work on this article has been partly financed by Landmarks legat.

Notes

¹Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Agricultural Policies Markets and Trade Monitoring and Outlook. Paris: OECD 1990, 266; OECD, Agricultural Policies Markets and Trade Monitoring and Outlook 1993. OECD: Paris 1993.

²Tracy, Michael, Agriculture in Western Europe: Challenge and Response, 1880–1980, 2nd edn. London: Granada 1982; Tracy, Michael, Government and Agriculture in Western Europe, 1880–1988, 3rd edn. New York: New York University Press 1989; Ingersent, Ken A., Agricultural Policy in Western Europe and the United States. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar 1999.

³Gardner, Bruce, Changing Economic Perspectives on the Farm Problem, Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 30, 1992: ; Gorter, H. de & Swinnen, J. M., The Economic Polity of Farm Policy, Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 45, 1994: ; Swinnen, J. & Van der Zee, F., The Political Economy of Agricultural Policies: A Survey, European Review of Agricultural Economics, vol. 20, 1993:.

⁴Notably Tracy, Agriculture; Tracy, Government and Agriculture; Ingersent, Agricultural Policy; Bairoch, Paul, European Trade Policy, 1815–1914, The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. VIII, Ed. P. Mathias and S. Pollard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1989. See also Josling, Timothy E., Tangermann, Stefan & Warley, T. K., Agriculture in the GATT. London: Macmillan 1996.

⁵The most comprehensive studies of Norwegian tariff and trade policies are: Lund, Carl, Det Norske tollvesens historie Fra 1814 til 1940. Oslo: Direktoratet for toll og særavgifter 1977; Fure, Odd-Bj⊘rn, Mellomkrigstid 1920–1940. Norsk Utenrikspolitikks historie Bind 3. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1996.

⁶Kindleberger, C. P., Group Behavior and International Trade, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 59, 1951.

⁷Baldwin, Robert E., The Political Economy of Trade Policy, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 3, 1989: 4, 120.

⁸Cf. Anderson, Kim & Yujiro Hayami, The Political Economy of Agricultural Protection: East Asia in International Perspective. London: Allen & Unwin 1986: 3; Swinnen & Van der Zee, Political Economy, 272–273.

⁹Tracy, Agriculture, v–vi; Tracy, Government and Agriculture; Petit, M., Determinants of Agricultural Policies in the United States and European Community (IFPRI Research Report 51). Washington, DC: IFPRI 1985; Ingersent, Agricultural Policy, 1ff; Koning, Niek, The Failure of Agrarian Capitalism: Agrarian Politics in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA, 1846–1919. London: Routledge 1994, 173.

¹⁰Tracy, Government and Agriculture; Ingersent, Agricultural Policy.

¹¹Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 16.

¹²Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 16.

¹³Lund, Det Norske, 50–90; Danielsen, Rolf, Det Norske Storting gjennom 150 år. Bind 2 Tidsrommet 1870–1908. Oslo: Gyldendal 1964, 350–351; Borgedal, Paul, Norges jordbruk i nyere tid Bind III: Økonomi og omsetning. Oslo: B⊘ndernes forlag 1968, 100, 125–127.

¹⁴In 1888, a duty of 0.20 NOK per kilo of butter was re-established and the duty on cheese was increased from NOK 0.20 to 0.30 per kilo (Lund, Det Norske, 91).

¹⁵The use of the concept farmer or peasant as a translation for the Norwegian term ‘bonde’ is difficult in the middle of nineteenth century as well as later. Both peasant and farmer have denotations much different from features characteristic of most farm and small holder households in Norway. Some writers have used the concept ‘peasant farmer’ (Cf. Haarstad, Kjell, A Historiographic Survey of ‘Det Store Hamskiftet’' in Norwegian Agriculture, Scandinavian Journal of History, vol. 8, 1983:.

¹⁶Koht, Halvdan, Norsk Biografisk leksikon bind 6. Oslo: Aschehoug 1934: 564.

¹⁷Hovland, Edgar, Den forhaanværende n⊘dstilstand. B⊘nder, organisasjon og tollbeskyttelse, ‘… det som svarte seg best’ – studier i ⊘konomisk historie og politikk. Festskrift til Stein Tveite, Ed. E. Hovland, E. Lange & S. Rysstad. Oslo: Ad Notam 1990: 114; Bj⊘rgo, Narve, Øystein, Rian & Kaartvedt, Alf, Selvstendighet og union. Fra middelalderen til 1905 (Norsk utenrikspolitikks historie, vol. I). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1995: 312–314, 348–360.

¹⁸Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 7–20; O'Rourke, Kevin H., The European Grain Invasion, 1870–1913, Journal of Economic History, vol. 57, 1997: 4; O'Rourke, Kevin H. & Williamson, Jeffrey G., Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-century Atlantic Economy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1999: 29–55.

¹⁹ Statistiske oversikter 1948. Oslo: Statistisk Sentralbyrå 1949: tabell 57 and 60.

²⁰Borgedal, Paul, Norges jordbruk i nyere tid Bind III: Økonomi og omsetning. Oslo: B⊘ndernes forlag 1968: 161–167; Tveite, Stein, Jord og gjerning: trekk av norsk landbruk i 150 år: Det Kongelige selskap for Norges vel, 1809–195. Kristiansand: B⊘ndenes forlag 1959: 247–255; Klokk, Olav, Oversigt over det norske landbruks utvikling siden 1750. Kristiania: Aschehoug 1920: 198–211; Johnsen, Oscar Albert, Norges b⊘nder: utsyn over den norske bondestands historie. Kristiania: Aschehoug 1919: 385–386; Haarstad, A historiographic, 3; Tandberg, G., Det Offentlige Landbruksvæsen i Norge indtil 1914. Kristiania: Landbruksdirekt⊘ren 1914.

²¹Gignilliat, John L., Pigs, Politics and Protection: The European Boycott of American Pork, 1879–1991, Agricultural History, vol. 35, 1961:.

²²Asdal, Kristin, Making Space with Medicine: The Dissolution of Norway's Union with Sweden and the Unexplored Role of Animal Trade, Scandinavian Journal of History, vols 3/4, 2006:; Gjerl⊘w, Olaf, Norges politiske histori : H⊘ires innsats fra 1814 til idag II. Oslo: Johan Grundt Tanum 1935: 145–146; Horne, H., Træk av veterinærvæsenets historie i Norge. Oslo: J.W. Cappelen 1925: 12–41, 198–209.

²³Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 45, 68.

²⁴Hunt, James C., Peasants, Grain Tariffs and Meat Quotas: Imperial German Protectionism Reexamined, Central European History, vol. 7, 1974:; Webb, Steven B, Agricultural Protection in Wilhelmian Germany: Forging an Empire with Pork and Rye, Journal of Economic History, vol. 42, 1982: 2; Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 88–92, 101.

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²⁷Dupré, ‘If It's Yellow’, 356, note 8; see also Gellerman, Olle, Staten och jordbruket 1867–1918. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksel 1958: 43–46.

²⁸Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 20–23, Bairoch, European Trade, 51–69; Gorter & Winnen, The Economic Polity, 317; Coppa, Frank J., The Italian Tariff and the Conflict between Agriculture and Industry: The Commercial Policy of Liberal Italy, 1860–1922, Journal of Economic History, vol. 30, 1970: 4; Gellerman, Staten och, 20; Huberman, Michael, Ticket to Trade: Belgian Labour and Globalization before 1914, Economic History Review, vol. 61, 2008:.

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³¹Simpson, James, Did Tariffs Stifle Spanish Agriculture before 1936?, European Review of Economic History, vol. 1, 1997: 1, 68.

³²Danielsen, Det Norske, 349–356; Rovde, Olav, Hundre år for bygd og bonde. Norges Bondelag 1896–1996: Band I: I kamp for jamstelling 1896–1945. Oslo: Landbruksforlaget 1995: 65–68, 103–196; Espeli, Harald, Lobbyvirksomhet på Stortinget. Lange linjer og aktuelle perspektiver med hovedvekt på næringsinteresser og næringspolitikk. Oslo: Tano Aschehoug 1999: 91–93.

³³O'Rourke & Williamson, Globalization and History, 113; Gellerman, Staten och.

³⁴Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 65–67, 87–89.

³⁵Lund, Det Norske, 93; Rovde, Hundre år, 66–68; Danielsen, Det Norske, 355.

³⁶Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 88; Bairoch, European Trade, 58–59.

³⁷Munthe, O., Jubilæumsskrift Den norsje Haandværks- og Industriforening 1871–1896 av foreningens sekretær. Kristiania 1896.

³⁸Lund, Det Norske, 96–108; Hovland, Den forhaanværende; Hodne, Fritz, & Honningdal Grytten, Ola, Norsk ⊘konomi 1900–1990. Oslo: Tano 1992: 69; Statistiske oversikter 1948, tabell 119.

³⁹Sendstad, Olav, Innenlandsk frihandel, Innstilling om Tolltariffens revisjon III Bilag. Kristiania: Finans- og tolldepartementet, 1923: tabell 1–3.

⁴⁰Estevadeordal, Antoni, Measuring Protection in the Early Twentieth Century, European Review of Economic History, vol. 1, 1997: 1, 104–113; cf. O'Rourke & Williamson, Globalization and History, 98.

⁴¹Liepman, H., Tariff Levels and the Economic Unity of Europe. Philadelphia, PA: Porcupine 1980 [1938]: 383ff; cf. Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 49; Bairoch, European Trade, 76; see also League of Nations, Tariff Level Indices. Geneva: League of Nations 1927.

⁴²Cf. Estevadeordal, Antoni, Measuring Protection, 90–98. Another example is the questionable use of consumption of solid fuels as a proxy for capital stock without controlling for different middle temperatures between the countries. It is also puzzling that the large Norwegian fish exports (nearly a third of the total export value of goods), defined as a raw agricultural product, led to such protectionist conclusions.

⁴³See also Irwin, Douglas A., Free Trade and Protection in Nineteenth-century Britain and France Revisited: A Comment on Nye, Journal of Economic History, vol. 53, 1993: 147.

⁴⁴Hjerppe, R., Finland's Foreign Trade and Trade Policy in the 20th Century, Scandinavian Journal of History, vol. 18, 1993: 1, 59–60; see also Jutikkala, E., Crisis in Finnish Agriculture at the End of the Nineteenth Century, Scandinavian Economic History Review, vol. 1 , 1953: 251–254; Liepman, Tariff Levels, 88–89, 394.

⁴⁵Morell, Mats, Jordbruket i industrisamhället 1870–1945: Det svenska jordbrukets historia Band 4. Stockholm: Natur og kultur/LT 2001: 99–101.

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⁴⁷Sendstad, Innenlandsk frihandel.

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⁵²Gordon, Margaret, Barriers to World Trade: A Study of Recent Commercial Policies. New York: Garland 1983 [1941]: 18; Tracy, Government and Agriculture, 120–122.

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⁵⁶Berg, Roald, Norge på egen hånd 1905–1920. Norsk utenrikspolitikks historie, bind 2. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1995: 229–244; Espeli, Harald, Fra hest til hestekrefter. Studier i politiske og ⊘konomiske rammebetingelser for mekaniseringen av norsk jordbruk 1910–1960, Melding nr. 2 Institutt for ⊘konomi og samfunnsfag Norges Landbruksh⊘gskole, 1990: 88–89.

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⁶³Rovde, Hundre år; Nielsen, May-Brith Ohman, Jord og ord. En studie av forholdet mellom ideologi, politikk, startegi og mobilisering hos den tredje pol i det norske partisystemet. Bondepartiet 1915–1940. Bergen: Universitetet i Bergen 1997; Nielsen, May-Brith Ohman, Bondekamp om markedsmakt Senterpartiets historie Band 1. Oslo: Samlaget 2001.

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⁸²Yates, Food Production, 394–397.

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