Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 56
ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION BETWEEN THE
NORTHERN COUNTRIES AND THE JOINT
DELEGATIONS FOR ITS PROMOTION
By Hj. J. Procopé.
IT is both natural and essential that close political, economic,
and cultural co-operation and intercourse should exist be-
tween the Northern Countries: Denmark and Iceland, Fin-
land, Norway and Sweden — not only on account of general
conditions under which these countries live, but also because of
the importance and the interest to the North as a whole and
to each individual Northern country, of achieving such co-opera-
tion. This is all the more important as the North occupies, in
this respect too, a position of its own in the world. The Northern
Countries maintain a close contact with the Continent of Europe,
and perhaps an even closer contact with the United Kingdom
and the other Anglo Saxon Countries of the world, but in spite
of this intercourse with these and other parts of the world, they
nevertheless form a separate unit among themselves.
There are many reasons for the economic solidarity of the
North. Geo-politically, Fenno-Scandinavia forms an entity, be-
tween the constituent parts of which lively intercourse has been
maintained since time immemorial. Historically, the Northern
Countries have had a more or less common development; kindred
culture and similar social conditions have established strong ties
between the peoples of the North, and from a purely economic
point of view there are many similarities in the general structure,
as well as in the general economic and commercial interests of the
Northern Countries.
In spite of the rapid advance of industrialism in the last few
generations, which has placed the North in the foreground among
manufacturers of industrial products, agriculture and allied oc-
cupations still retain first place in all the Northern Countries, both
with regard to the actual number of people employed and the
gross value of the produce. The distribution of land is very
similar in all of them, showing a predominance of small and me-
dium-sized holdings, and although the soil of Fenno-Scandinavia
is not particularly rich or fertile, hard work and tenacity of pur-
pose have enabled the Northern Countries to satisfy their own de-
mand for agricultural produce to an increasingly greater extent.