Customs administration, the Royal Board of Customs has to act as a Court of
first instance in settling disputes between the owners of goods and the local
Customs authorities, and to give official information beforehand concerning the
Customs treatment of goods. Executive details are handled by the local Customs
authorities, which in Stockholm and Gothenburg are divided into special sections :
the Custom-house, the Collector’s Office, the Confiscation Office and Counting
House, Warehouse Inspection, Bonded-Warehouse Office, and Preventive Service.
The country is divided into 48 Custom-house Districts, one for each staple-town
(see too page 556). In addition to those in the staple-towns, there are Customhouses
in Lund, Borás, Falun, and Ostersund, and at the railway stations of
Mon, Charlottenberg, Storlien, and Riksgransen. Besides these fully equipped
Custom-houses (Tullhamrar), there are a number of minor centres for Customs
and Fróntierguard service known as “inspelctioner , stationer , and expeditioner ,
but of these only those on the frontier have unlimited rights for Custom purposes.
For the training of candidates for Oustoms-service, and for existing members
of the service, the Customs Department has a special Customs Training School
(Tullverlcets Undervisningsanstalt), where instruction is given in articles of merchandise,
customs-regulations and living languages.
The Coastguard Service (Kustbevahningen) in the Stockholm Custom-house
District is under the chief preventive officer in that town; in Skâne and Ble-
kinge and also in the Ians of Halland, Gothenburg and Bohus, it is under the
Coastguard Commanders; and elsewhere it is managed by the Surveyors of Customs.
The Coastguard has at its disposal a coastguard steamer and a considerable
number of revenue cutters (usually motor-boats) and smaller vessels.
The Frontier-guard Service (Gransbevalcningen) in Dalsland, "Varmland and
Dalarne is under a Frontier-guard Commander; elsewhere, under certain Surveyors
of Customs.
To conduct suits concerning breaches of Customs regulations there are special
Customs Prosecutors (Tullfislcaler) established 'in certain districts.
The State’s Customs expenses amounted to the following percentage of the
receipts: in 1870, 11*7 in 1890, 5*8 and in 1913, 9 3 %.
Commercial Policy.
Although in most countries State intervention in commercial matters
is now far less extensive than formerly, it is nevertheless of great importance.
Home trade is, indeed,-left entirely free nowadays; but foreign
trade is regulated by means of customs duties, commercial treaties- and
also by direct measures for facilitating export. A brief review of the
recent history of this subject, supplemented by a conspectus of existing
conditions will serve to show how matters have shaped themselves in
Sweden.
Sweden’s commercial policy enters on its modern phase in the middle o f the
late ’fifties. As early as the twenties of the nineteenth century considerable modifications
had indeed been made in the rigorously prohibitive economic policy,
in the spirit of the Mercantile System, which had long been traditional, but it
was not until the ’fifties that it was definitely broken away from. In conformity
with the views then generally held, a change was made tó a system rather
favourable to free trade; all the prohibitions against import that still survived
were abolished, articles of food and most raw materials were made free of duty,
and the remaining duties were lowered.
When these reforms were introduced into Sweden, nearly all the countries
on the continent of Europe still adhered to the old Mercantile System; Sweden
was thus, one of the very first, countries to follow England’s example in this
respect. Theoretically, however,- free-trade theories were everywhere in vogue,
and in the ’sixties these theories were actually carried into practical effect. The
first step Was “Cobden’s Treaty”, the free-trade Treaty concluded between England
and France in the year 1860. On the basis of that Treaty, France concluded a
series of similar treaties with most Western European countries. Sweden’s turn
came in 1865, when, partly in response to French demands and partly of her
own free will, her customs tariff, was further revised decidedly in favour of
free trade. At this time, the easy and rapid victory of free trade was looked
upon all over Europe as a foregone conclusion; the committee which was appointed
in Sweden to draw up proposals for the new customs tariff, in submitting
its proposals in 1865, recorded as its opinion that free trade was the
only policy and avowed that it looked upon its own proposals merely as a transitional
step to a free-trade system.
At the end of the seventies, however, an abrupt revulsion of opinion
occurred on the continent of Europe. Bad times and falling prices, more especially
those of cereals, soon gave rise to a powerful movement in favour of a
rigorous protective policy, embracing all branches of industry. It was then that
“protection” in the modern sense of the word became a vital factor in practical
politics, and as early .as the eighties customs duties on articles of food and increased
"* protective duties were introduced in several countries: the definite
transition to the present system came in the course of the early nineties, when
many commercial treaties expired.
In Sweden no steps were taken until the latter period. The eighties were
occupied with a violent struggle between free-trade and protection, in which, as
in several other countries, the latter come off victorious. In the year 1888,
the introduction o f duties on articles of food was resolved upon, and even
as regards general industries protective duties were to be increased as soon as
the expiration of treaties made untramelled action possible; this occurred in
1892. This step laid the foundation of Sweden’s present system of protection;
for a long period merely minor alterations were made, of which the majority
entailed a further increase in protective duties; the chief of these was the
raising of the duties on cereals to their present figure, in the year 1895.
The most momentous recent event in Swedish commercial policy was the commercial
treaty with Germany and the consequent revision of the customs ta riff.
When the old commercial treaties expired in the year 1892, Sweden, like
several other smaller countries entirely abandoned the system of tariff treaties.
The later treaties, therefore, did not contain any mutual concessions as to the
amount of the duties imposed, but merely the “most favoured nation clause”,
i. e. that each party is as a matter of course to enjoy such advantages as are
granted to any other power. Sweden’s position was under such conditions
extremely favourable. She had full liberty to raise her own duties and was
under no obligation to make any concessions; she entered, as it were, automatically
into the enjoyment of all such reductions as the various countries conceded
to each other, without having to grant any favours in return.
The country which felt this condition of things most was, for obvious reasons,
Germany. That country in fact decided to compel Sweden, as well as some
other minor countries in a similar position, to enter into a regular tariff treaty.
Accordingly, in the new tariff which was issued at the end of 1902, some
duties specially levelled at Sweden were introduced, e. g. upon paving stones
Aud red whortleberries, besides which the duties on coarser joinery, separators,
etc., were greatly increased.