Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Side 61
ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION
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were forced to raise their duties on certain goods, and in some
cases even had to introduce other measures of trade control, but
with the exception of Denmark, which occupies a special position,
such measures have been exceptional and only adopted to a limited
extent. Trade in the North is on the whole less restricted than
elsewhere in the world, and with the exception of Denmark it is
completely free from any restrictive regulations with regard to
foreign exchanges.
Similarities in the economic conditions of the Northern Coun-
tries have been dealt with above. It has also been emphasised
that there are undoubtedly many points of dissimilarity, and
even of opposed interest as well. Indeed, the very existence of
similarities in the economic structure of these countries may evoke
mutual competition. In the general picture, however, the common
features prevail.
Each country must of course in the first instance protect its
own interests, safeguard and develop its natural opportunities of
profitable production, and see that its products find a market
abroad, but as the Northern Countries to a large extent produce
the same kind of goods for exportation to the same markets, and
import the same foreign products, it is to their mutual interest to
co-operate among themselves.
A considerable measure of co-operation in regard to economic
matters was, of course, more or less natural and has developed
spontaneously, embracing by degrees more and more important
aspects of trade. The industries have established various forms of
co-operation, from loose contacts to organised conventions, and
the authorities have furthermore been co-operating in some fields
for a long time. An early form of this co-operation was the Scan-
dinavian monetary union which existed in Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden from 1873 to the Great War.
During the War Sweden, Norway, and Denmark — Finland
had not yet become an independent State — maintained a cer-
tain measure of economic co-operation in the form of e. g. State-
controlled exchange of such commodities as were scarce in war-
time. Indeed, trade between the three countries at this time
reached enormous proportions, only to fall off again at a later
date.