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Swedish trade policy and its economic impact (1873–1913)

G. Szabó

Published 2024 in Economy & finance

ABSTRACT

Protectionism and the debate surrounding it have a long history. The phenomenon can be better understood by examining a past era characterized by sharp ‘turnarounds’ in trade policy practices. For that purpose we have examined Sweden at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The focus of our research was primarily on uncovering the driving forces behind the economic policy practice that broke with free trade, as well as presenting its impacts on the economy, which we aimed to do by relying on the available historical sources. We also sought to answer the question of whether the Swedish protectionist experiment can be considered a model to follow in present times. In summary of our findings, it can be concluded that the impact of tariff increases primarily affected the structure of imports, rather than their volume. Although the increase in tariffs affected the overall price level, there were certain products whose prices were more significantly impacted by global market trends. While the measures proved ineffective in achieving a lasting improvement in the balance of trade, they provided significant additional revenue for the state budget. The process of industrialisation was not interrupted by import restrictions; in fact, there are examples of successful import substitution. In terms of economic convergence with the European core countries, the protectionist period proved to be more successful than the decades of free trade. Despite its relative success, we cannot consider Sweden’s trade policy of the late 19th century as a model to follow today, because its results were achieved under the unique conditions of a specific historical era.

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