trading in the rural districts, although under certain conditions and at specified
distances from the towns. The ordinance of June 18, 1864, was more radical
and permitted almost unconditional freedom of trade. By later ordinances,
however, peddling has been made subject to special permission from the local
provincial authorities.
The important old fairs, at which trading in all kinds of goods was free,
have lost a great deal of their importance in our own days and are becoming
superseded by the more frequently recurring market days and
monthly meetings, at which agricultural produce and the products of
home industries (hemslojd) etc. are sold, and by regular cattle markets.
The inland trade of Sweden is largely carried on by means of very
numerous, but generally small, steamers, which maintain a brisk traffic
in the innumerable lakes and water-ways, and along the coast. During
the most recent decades, however, the railways have entered into keen
competition for this trade. The highroads, along which in earlier days
there passed an endless succession of gigantic loaded waggons — which
provided the chief means of subsistence over large stretches of the country
— have, however, lost more and more of their importance for inland
trade, except for the more distant regions of North Sweden, where, to a
large extent, things 'have naturally remained where they were.
Commercial Education.
As far back as 1734 a Trade Statute prescribed a certain period of
apprenticeship (generally from 11 ^ to 12 years) as a condition for the
right to carry on a trade, and also enacted that the applicant should
be examined in commercial subjects by two business men. The employer
was certainly required to give his apprentice not only 'practical experience,
but also a theoretical knowledge of his trade; but i t is clear that these
amounted to very little as a rule, and with the expansion of trade and the
increasing importance of the mercantile community, the need of real commercial
schools became more and more pressing.
The first known commercial school of any importance was founded towards
the end of the 18th century at Oringe in Halland by Councillor Wurmb, without
doubt the same man who had previously aided in the establishment of the Commercial
School at Hamburg. The number of its pupils at times reached 40,
and many of the merchants who, at the beginning of the 19th century, were
regarded as the most prominent merchants in Gothenburg had received their
mercantile education there. However, about 1790 the founder and owner of the
school went into bankruptcy, and the establishment was closed.
The manifest decline in the commerce of Sweden during the second and the early
part of the third decades of the 19th century caused public attention to be directed
once more to the lack of business training among the mercantile community.
The Riksdag of 1823 therefore urged the desirability of establishing commercial
schools or a central “Commercial and Navigation Institute”. The motion was
referred to the Gothenburg Mercantile Society, and led to the establishment of
the Gothenburg Commercial Institute, which was opened in 1826 under the auspices
J
of the Society. Its existence was assured as far as finances go — in 1829 by a
yearly grant of 2 090 Rdr; bco. (— .3 000 kronor) from the town. At first about
30 pupils were instructed at the Institute, which number diminished considerably
in the forties, but soon rose again to about 40. On the model of the Gothenburg
Commercial Institute was founded, in 1865, the Stockholm Merchant Society’s
commercial school, Frans Schartau s Practical Commercial Institute, named
after the man who, by his energetic intervention, effectually contributed towards
mitigating the consequences of the commercial crisis of 1857. But a really
marked advance in commercial education had to wait till the early nineties,
when the institutes first received Government grants. In 1893 the Riksdag
voted a grant of 15 000 kronor for the year 1894 to the two existing commercial
institutes. The grant was renewed in the years immediately following, at
the same figure, but was increased in 1898 to 20 000 kronor, and in 1902-to 28 000
kronor. With the support of the communal authorities, new commercial institutes
were; founded (1904) in Malmö and Halsingborg. The Malmo institute participated
in 1908 in the government grant, which was raised in that year to
38 000 kronor,, and in the year following to 42 000 kronor. The same support
was granted in 1912 by the Riksdag to the Halsingborg institute.
The Government appointed a Committee in 1908 to investigate, and make
suggestions for systematizing, the commercial education of the country. However,
the.] report of this committee (1910) gave the Government no inducement to
propose any general brganizing of commercial education; but in 1913 the Riksdag
agreed in the main to, the Government’s proposal to raise the grant to the
higher commercial institutes, which were to be known in future as “commercial
gymnasiums1”. The regular estimates included a grant of 85 000 kr. to the commercial
gymnasiums in Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Malmo. In 1914 the Riksdag'decided
upon the establishment of two new commercial gymnasiums, in Örebro
and Norrkôping, and at the same time raised the ordinary grant to 115 000
kronor. The Halsingborg Commercial Gy&nasium received an extra-ordinary
grant of 10 000 kronor per annum.
In 1909 was opened, in Stockholm, the first High School of Commerce (Commercial
University) in Sweden, about which more information is given below.
A. H igh er C om m e r c ia l E d u ca tio n . The Riksdag having made considerably
increased grants to higher commercial education in 1913, the
Government issued a communication on November 28th of that year, which
stipulated the conditions on which these grants may be enjoyed. But in all
essentials the-various School Boards have retained their old functions.
The most important change is the reduction of the fees to 150 kronor per
annum for pupils in the two-years’ course.
The instruction is afforded by the five State-supported commercial gymna
stums, mentioned above, in Gothenburg, Stockholm, Malmo, Halsingborg, and Ore
bro, together with the Gavle Borgarskola, which was accorded equal rank with
the other institutions. The commercial gymnasium in Norrkoping has not yet
begun operations.
The organization of these institutions is similar.
The course takes two years to complete. At the commercial institutes in Gothenburg
and Stockholm there is also a one-year’s course.
To gain entrance to the two-years’ course at the State-aided schools, applicants
must, as a rule, have attained a standard of knowledge equal to that of the
1 A »commercial gymnasium» is a higher commercial school.