forefront in every domain, in the intense rivalry among representatives
of all the civilized races of the earth.
The Swedes are quite disposed to criticise their own nation severely, and
to show how, in material achievements, it has not attained to such a height
as, e. g., the Germans, the French, or the English. The comparison is misleading;
place a corresponding number of any of these in a land with the
natural resouroes of Sweden, and the result will in all probability be no
better than that which has been obtained in Sweden. Never in the days
known to history has this land attracted the migratoring peoples. The
only race so far as is known, that ever betook itself to Sweden in any
number, from a still poorer land, was the Finns, in beginning of the
17th century. ■
It may, therefore, be briefly asserted that the Swedish people have ably
administered that land in which they first settled, and that they have
adopted themselves unusually well to the conditions of nature.
Taking one step further, and enquiring how natural conditions mirror
themselves in the people’s vigour one easily quits the sure ground of
science and swings out into the broad, but insecure, realms of fancy. The
deepest psychology of mankind is so involved, that the reaction of nature
on it has hitherto escaped real scientific analysis. The only thing
gained is conjecture rather than knowledge.
The immense forests where villages have nestled, as in a hole hewn
out of them, and remote from each other, have indelibly stamped the Swedish
character. Many of its weaknesses, where the question is one of
economic rivalry, are perhaps a reflection of the solitary contemplative
life of the forest-dweller; but so are also, possibly, some of its best qualities,
the strong,- calm acuteness of the leading sons of Sweden. The climate,
with its cool summers and not too cold winters, has conceivably been among
the most important of those natural factors which, during centuries, have
built up the race, physically and intellectually sound, which now occupies
Sweden; and this — perhaps with greater justice than the Swedes themselves
are ready to acknowledge m I s not infrequently pointed to by
foreigners as the country’s greatest natural wealth.
II.
INDUSTRIES OF SWEDEN.
A GENERA!SURVEY.
Sweden is one of the larger European countries, extending mainly
from North to South. The consequence of this conformation of the land
is that greater divergences are contained within it than within most other
countries. Between the fertile plains of Skâne and the mountains of
Lappland the contrast is enormous, the extremes, however, being linked
together by multifarious transitions in climate and soil in the intervening
provinces. With her manifold and varied possibilities Sweden, so to
speak, forms a world apart. In configuration Sweden is one continuous
body of land, two-thirds bounded by seas, which, however, are mainly
inland seas. In the interior there are many large pieces of water with
outlets that form either navigable rivers, or streams with falls and rapids.
Out of the 44 786 448 hectares which constitute the total area of the
country, no less' than 3 685 255 are water, leaving 41 101 193 hectares
as the actual land area.1 The following Table 1 will show what portion of
this area is cultivable, what uncultivable, and- the proportion between the
different kinds of cultivation.
After this preliminary survey of the country as the arena of the various
activities of its inhabitants in pursuit of a livelihood, we shall proceed to
adduce a few data as to the inhabitants themselves, grouped according to
the chief occupations from which they derive their subsistence. Table 2
classifies the Swedish people into leading groups, ranged according to
occupations, at different periods during the last few decades.
These two tables, of Land and of People, afford a kind of bird’s eye
view of the industries and occupations of the people, as they now are,
as they have been in the past, and as they are tending to become. They
1 Cf. Part I, Table 1 with more recent figures.