Carl-Axel Nilsson

Nordic historical National Accounts since the 1880s

Abstract In many respects the history of National Accounts (NA) and of Historical National Accounts (HNA) is common to all the Nordic countries, The first rudimentary accounts can be found by the end of the nineteenth century while the first income tax statistics of the early twentieth century provided a further stimulus. It was the 1920s and the 1930s, however, that saw the real breakthrough. In Sweden it took the form of HNA, and in the other countries the form of NA, with Denmark and Norway in the lead. The commodity-flow method provided the common characteristic. Later developments somewhat differed in the individual countries. All participated in the Kuznets project ofHNA. Denmark and Norway had obtained new series by the mid 1960s and the early 1970s. Sweden and Finland came later, at the end of the 1980s, and consequently today have the most up-to-date series. These though reveal differences in methodology and a new project has been started, whose aim is to revive the spirit of Nordic community.

The transition from sail to steam in the Danish merchant fleet, 1865–1910

Abstract The most recent authoritative work on the modern economic history of Denmark gives a survey in broad outline of the development of the Danish merchant fleet and shipping industry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.1According to this account there was a traffic revolution during the 1860s taking the form, as far as the merchant fleet was concerned, of a substantial increase in steam-tonnage. The faster and more regular conveyance provided by steamship is emphasised and the steady extension of the route network during the second half of the century is regarded as a consequence of it. The expansion of the merchant fleet was accompanied by a separation between the shipowning and trading sides of the business, and the capital requirements of regular traffic meant that steampship companies were usually formed on a joint-stock basis.2 The 1890s brought a new turning-point for Danish shipping: the rise in freight rates caused tonnage to double in a single decade, and steamships were now whol...

Relative income levels in the Scandinavian countries

Abstract Denmark, Norway, and Sweden all have national accounts tlut cover more than a century and that are, at least in principle, similarly constructed. The Danish series start already at the beginning of the 19th century, while the Norwegian and Swedish ones start around 1860, From the point of view of quality, the Swedish series seem to be considerably more uneven than the Danish and Norwegian ones. 1

Economy and history — A dissiden journal

Abstract Before the 1940s, research in economic history in Sweden was conducted in the history departments, which usually meant studies using traditional historical methods applied to economic source material. Furthermore, historically interested economists studied economic history using economics methods. However, there was one outstanding character who specialised in economic history proper, Eli F. Heckscher. After completing his doctoral thesis on an economic history topic in 1907, he held a chair in economics at the Stockholm School of Economics but was then appointed to a personal chair in economic history in the 1930s.

Some remarks on the use of prices when constructing volume series

Abstract In the intermittent debate over the revision of the Danish historical national accounting data, the question is sometimes raised as to how an intensified empirical effort, along with a reprocessing of the available data, might contribute to the construction of a second generation of national product and income series, which may be expected to become one of this decades research fields in Danish economic history. The issue was last ventilated vigorously by G. Viby Mogensen,1 and has, by the way, gained additional prominence by the considerable efforts which English and Swedish economic historians have made in this field during the most recent years.

Consumption and production of bicycles in Denmark 1890–1980

Abstract In the first half of the 1890s the bicycle took on broadly the appearance it has today. The technical uniformity attained signalled the solution of a number of practical problems: the diamond frame of hollow steel tubing combined adequate strength with lightness and elasticity. Ball bearings in the headtube, bottom bracket and hubs united minimum friction with durability. Finally, pneumatic tyres solved the suspension problem, while roller chain drive to the rearmost of the two now equal-sized wheels, along with the latters construction of heavy tangential steel spokes to steel rims, rendered the transmission of power considerably more efficient.

The export trade in Swedish oats in the 19th century

Abstract For a relatively short period towards the end of the 19th century, grain came to be one of the most important Swedish exports. For some years during the 1870s, grain exports even achieved second place by value after timber; in absolute terms, they reached about four million barrels annually, of which almost 90% consisted of oats.