kroner. Foundries and mechanical engineering works in 1915 had an output of 339,600,000 kr. ; exports were valued at 115,600,000 kr., as compared with imports of 41,400,000 kronor.
During the war some industries throve exceedingly, as, for instance, those of iron, paper-pulp and paper; others suffered ap- preciably at times from the lack of raw materials, as, for instance, the textile industry. During the second half of 1920 and in 1921 industry was hit hard by the economic crisis.
Commerce. Sweden's foreign trade in 1916-20 presented a curious picture, inasmuch as the value of her exports during the war period exceeded that of her imports. In 1910 her imports amounted to 669,200,000 kr. and her exports to 592,900,000; the corresponding figures for 1914 were 726,900,000 and 772,400,000. The figures for the subsequent war years were as follow 1915, imports 1,142,500,000 kr. and exports 1,316,400,000 kr. 1916, imports 1,138,600,000 kr. and exports 1,556,400,000 kr. 1917. imports 758,600,000 kr. and exports 1,349,600,000 kr. ; 1918, im- ports 1,233,300,000 kr. and exports 1,350,400,000 kr. After the war the picture changes. In 1919 the figures were : imports 2,534,000,000 kr. and exports 1,575,700,000 kr. ; in 1920 imports 3,373,500,000 kr. and exports 2,293,600,000 kr. It will be noted now goods were regularly drawn out of the country during the war, while the im- ports were inadequate. The circumstance that home-grown wood was to a great extent used instead of imported coal also counted. When the war came to an end the country lacked reserve stocks and needed many articles of consumption. Importation increased, in part on speculative lines, from Germany and Russia, and with results which for the most part were unfortunate.
It may be interesting to give figures illustrating Sweden's com- mercial relations with the leading belligerent Powers. In 1913 im- ports into Sweden amounted to 846,500,000 kr. ; exports from Sweden to 817,300,000. Her imports from Great Britain amounted to 206,800,000 kr. and those from Germany to 289,900,000 kr. ; her exports to Great Britain amounted to 237,300,000 kr. and those to Germany to 179,100,000. Her transactions with Germany were somewhat in excess of those with Great Britain, but the latter country came first as purchaser of Swedish products. During the war a great reduction came. Imports into Sweden from Great Britain amounted to 183,800,000 kr. in 1914; 213,500,000 kr. in 1915; 164,400,000 kr. in 1916; 65,100,000 kr. in 1917; 148,700,000 kr. in 1918 and 668,900,000 kr. in 1919. Imports from Germany came to 238,600,000 kr. in 1914; 251,500,000 kr. in 1915; 420,200,000 kr. in 1916; 288,200,000 kr. in 1917; 447,900,000 kr. in 1918 and 269,100,000 kr. in 1919.
Exports to Great Britain amounted to 258,300,000 kr. in 1914; 329,600,000 kr. in 1915; 320,100,000 kr. in 1916; 216,100,000 kr. in '917; 252,600,000 kr. in 1918; 509,900,000 kr. in 1919. Exports to Germany came to 174,800,000 kr. in 1914; 486,400,000 kr. in 1915; 437,500,000 kr. in 1916; 352,100,000 kr. in 1917; 292,800,000 kr. in 1918 and 130,800,000 kr. in 1919. During the war years British coal imports into Sweden declined, and Germany largely made good the deficiency, being naturally anxious to secure imports from Swe- den. The figures for the Swedish importation of coal and coke, in thousands of tons, during the years 1913-7 were: from England, 4,916; 4,683; 2,816; 1,707 and 604; and from Germany, 431; 335; 2,174; 4,281 and 1,708. It will be seen how energetically Germany came forward in Great Britain's place as exporter to Sweden.
Shipping. The Swedish commercial fleet in 1910 included 1,214 steamers and motor-boats, of 842,460 total tonnage dead- weight; in 1915 1,278 vessels, of 984,799 tonnage; in 1018 1,238 vessels, of 894,260 tonnage. The figures for sailing vessels were in 1910 1,635, of 204,624 tonnage ; in 1915 1,422, of 161,650; and in 1918 1,295, f I 4 1 .396. The diminution was due partly to war-losses.
Communications. The Swedish railway system had in 1910 a length of 13,829 km., and in 1919 of 15,154, whereof 4,418 and 5,496 respectively were State railways. Through the thinly populated inner region of Norrland there runs a State railway line which has been opened for traffic between Ostersund and Vilhelmina. A single- line railway along the coast of Norrland has been planned out and begun with aid from the State. During the war the railways were sometimes quite overloaded, so that locomotives could not be re- paired to the extent they needed, and lubricants and good coal ran short. The increased costs drove up passenger and goods rates.
During 190916 the Trollhatte canal was reconstructed and deepened to four metres. The Sodertalje canal was in 192 1 in process of reconstruction and of deepening to five metres. Through the former operation navigation was made possible to the great Lake Venner and thus between Gothenburg (Goteborg) and the Western mining district, and through the latter a good waterway was being created to the harbour of Lake Malar.
Social Conditions. Democracy has a strong hold on the Swedish people, owing to the high degree of education reached by the masses and to their inherited respect for the sanctity of law. Familiarized from an early date with self-government, Sweden had begun already in the closing decades of the igth century to build up a kind of net- work of nonconformist religious associations, Anglo-Saxon in their character, temperance unions and friendly societies. When, as the outcome of advances in industrialism, the labour movement began to take shape, it was able to utilize these habits of organization and thus secure a position of considerable power comparatively quickly.
Now more than 60% of Sweden's wage-earners belong to trade unions; at the beginning of 1921 these had over 400,000 members, of whom 280,000 combined to constitute the so-called " Lands Organisationen," which may be translated as " The National Or- ganization," while simultaneously the political side of the labour movement, Social Democracy, became a force of the first order. Swedish Social Democracy has relied more and more on parliamen- tary methods of reform, thereby awakening opposition on the part of the labour extremists, with the result that in 1917 a new Socialist party of the left came into existence, formed for the most part of young men. a large number of whom were strongly influenced by Russian Bolshevism. In the spring of 1921 these latter formed a Communistic party connected with the Third International in Moscow. The bulk of Swedish workmen, however, hold aloof from revolutionary tendencies, thanks to the great extension which has been attained by cooperation. While workmen constitute a typical class party, another class party formed by the association of farmers and countryfolk, under the title of the Bondeforbund," dated its origin from 1917.
In 1913 a law was passed instituting compulsory old-age and dis- ablement insurance for the entire population. In 1916 a similar accident insurance law was passed. The law passed in 1919 for an eight-hour day was the most advanced of any in Europe. The national administration includes a special social department, as well as a number of boards for dealing with social questions.
The communes also, especially the large towns, have instituted important social reforms; for instance, by creating public labour exchanges, which have been State-endowed since 1907 and are under State guidance and control. In common with the State, moreover, the communes contributed to the general pensions in- surance. The guardianship of the poor used to rest on the primary communes, but, through a new Poor Law, passed in 1918, this burden is now in certain cases transferred to the provincial assemblies (Landsting) and the State.
The first decade of the 2oth century was marked by the creation and swift growth of employers' associations (notably that known by the name " Svenska Arbetsgivare Foreningen," whose members in 1920 employed nearly 300,000 workmen) and also of associations of landowners ; and in several great conflicts, as, for instance, in a five-weeks' general strike in the summer of 1909, in which 300,000 workmen took part, the victory fell to the employers. For a long time the State's only action in the matter remained the passing of a law in 1906 for the intervention of a Conciliation Court in labour disputes. By reason of the high standing, however, of the trade- union organizations, and as the result of frequent collective agree- ments on both sides, certain conventional methods of treaty came into vogue in the field of labour disputes. In 1920 the Riksdag passed a law instituting a central State conciliation and arbitration court, as well as local courts of the same kind, to pronounce judgment in labour disputes on the basis of their collective agreements.
The Liquor Question. For close on a century past the alcohol question in Sweden has been a subject for the most serious considera- tion and for constant measures of reform. The unhappy results of the excessive consumption of gin at the beginning of the igth century called forth an energetic temperance movement, led bjr a clergyman named Peter Wieselgren (1800-1877), a " domprost, ' or dean, of the Lutheran Church; and in 1855 a law was passed which abolished the right to manufacture gin for home consumption and which granted concessions to companies, with no financial interest in the traffic, to sell alcoholic drinks under public control. This " Gothenburg System," as it was designated, brought about considerable improvements in many respects, and the great tem- perance societies, with a total membership of 450,000, have worked in the same direction. It was, however, only by the new law re- garding the sale of liquor which was passed in 1917, and which came into force in 1919, that the underlying principle (" disinterested management ") of the Gothenburg System was consistently put into general practice. By this law the selling to individuals of drinks containing more than 3-6% of alcohol was confined exclusively to the so-called " systembolag " (" system company "), with about 150 branches, over the management of which the State authorities have decisive control and which pays over all its profits to the State Treasury except for 5 % interest on the capital invested. The con- trolling of this " system company " is entrusted to a central in- stitution known as " Kontrollstyrelsen." All persons who wish tc purchase such liquors for home consumption are registered and receive a pass-book ; the total amount of liquor allowed to them being limited to a maximum of four litres a month. The abuse of alcohol is attended by further restrictions or by the absolute withdrawal of the right to purchase. The amount of liquor which may be sold to a customer in a restaurant is also strictly limited and confined to meal-times. This system of liquor-dealing, which was set on foot in Stockholm in 1913 and organized by Dr. Ivan Bratt (coming to be known as the Bratt system), was supplemented by a special measure regarding the treatment of alcoholists. The system had remarkable results, proportionate in large degree to the activity of the leading members of the various companies. The consumption of spirits decreased in many places, for instance in Stockholm, by nearly 50%. The number of cases of drunkenness, which was formerly somewhat high, was reduced throughout the country in Stockholm and in cer-
