g t t & g S while our importation of the same class of goods
^ ST f ” m ""ll fa-8'5“'0” “ 1896
of th e ^ I I m B B Sh0ws the development ot the most important articles. in onr export
:------- :------ Fishery products;
--------------------- Forestry products:
..------- - Agriculture and cattle-raising;
........................... Other exports.
V. THE COUNTRIES MOST IMPORTANT TO OUR
COMMERCE Ip
The countries that are of the greatest importance to the
commerce of Norway, will be apparent from the following table
giving the average value of the commerce carried on with each
of them m the years 1866f|70, 1891- 95 and 1898. (See the
table next page).
I t will thus be seen that Great Britain and Ireland and
Germany are now, as they were a generation ago, unquestionably
the most important countries for our commerce. The commerce
hasis I f Îhp SWdyillS f l Statements “ ¿ figures presented in this chapter on the
hasis of the Norwegian commercial statistics, it must be kept in mind th a t the
goods are considered as having been imported from the country whence they
are V»t sent, and as having been exported to the countiy to which they were first
ipped, even if these be not the original place of purchase oAhe final destination.
Countries
Value of imports—
(millions of kroner)
Value of exports
(millions of kroner)
Total commerce
(millions of kroner)
1866—70 1891—05 1898 1866-r70 1891—95 1898 1866—70 1891—95 1898
71. Gr. Brit,
and Irel..
24.7 58.7 81.0 21.6 45.5 66.3 46.2 104.2 147.3
2. Germany. 30,1 56.4 82.2 11.6 16.1 23p| 41.7 72.6- 106.3
3. Sweden . 6.1 28.7 23.6 6.2 20.8 15.4 12.3 49.5 39.0
4. Russia . . 7.8 18.8 22.9 3;6 3.4 4.6 11.4 22.2 27.6
5. Holland . 2.8 8.5 12.0 6.4 6.3 9.3 9.2 14.8 21.3
6. Denmark. 17.5 10.4 -14.4 4.1 4.6 6.9 21.6 15.0 21.3
7. Belgium .
7.8 12.5 1.2 4.6 6.7 2.5 ' 12.4 19.2
8. U.S.Ame1.3
rica“ . . ., 0.1 - ; 10.3 14.2 0.1 1.5 1.3 0.2 11.8 15.6
9. -France I 1 3.9 5.0 6.1 8.7 7.8 6.9 12.6 12.8 12.0
10. Spain . .
0.8 <L9 2.4 6.1 12.9 8.5 6.9 13.8 10.9
11. Other
countries 6.6 '6.7 9.9 4.1 8.9 10.3 10.7 14.6 20.2
Total 101.7 211.2 280.2 73.6 132.4 169.3 175.3 343.6 439.5
with Great Britain, however, has developed faster than that with
Germany, in as much as the share the British Isles have in our
aggregate commerce has gone up from 26.4 °/° iu 1866-H70 to
33.5 % in 1898, while that of Germany has only risen from 23.8 %
to" 24.0 °/o. As regards our imports, the two countries are on
about the same level, but as a market for Norwegian products,
Great Britain and Ireland are far ahead of all other countries,
as in 1898 no less than 41.6 % of our exports went to that country.
We may also mention that the commerce with Sweden, on
account of the above-mentioned change in the customs relations,
was much smaller in 1898 than in 'the year immediately preceding;
but it is nevertheless larger than it was 30 years ago, Sweden’s
share in our total commerce amounted "in 1866—70 to. 7 %, in
1891—95 to 14.5 Vo and in 1898 to 8.9 °/o.
Denmark’s share in our commerce, on the contrary, was much
larger in 1866—70 than it is now, especially, as regards the imports,
as at that time more than 17 °/o of our imports came from
Denmark (now only 5.2 %), and Denmark, next to England and
Germany, was the most important country for our commerce. —
Our trade with France has also relatively greatly decreased, especially
as regards exports. This is chiefly due to the prohibitory