Introduction

Efforts to maintain political neutrality and economic independence are some of the basic, historically rooted features of Swedish foreign trade policy. Although situated in a remote corner of Europe and rather small in terms of population, Sweden has developed into a technologically sophisticated industrial country, particularly since the Second World War. Compared to home market sales the volume of Swedish foreign trade, always relatively large and decisively important for economic growth, has increased proportionately as Sweden's economy, like that of other industrial nations, has gone through a prolonged process of concentration. To what extent the degree of concentration is comparable to that of other countries is hard to judge, as a comparative study of the development of Swedish enterprises along the lines drawn up by Professor Alfred D. Chandler, Jr, has yet to be made. Still lacking, too, is a modern history of the banking economy. However, these gaps should be filled before long. The purpose of this paper is to provide some insight into the interrelations between the Swedish export economy and the major powers.

Sweden as a strategic component of the economies of the Great Powers

Obviously, sustaining neutrality and independence involves special problems. Thus the lack of coal on the part of neutral states during the First World War enabled Britain to pursue a stiff price policy. Her coal exports served as an argument for depressing the prices of vital British imports.