Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 156

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LE NORD
trade with the North, while Norwegian and Finnish trade with
Germany approximately equals the trade of these two countries
with the North. Furthermore, the trade of Norway, Sweden, and
Finland with the U. S. A. exceeds their trade with any individual
Northern country.
One conspicuous fact which emerges from the above is that
the inter-Northern trade occupies a less prominent place in the
economy of Denmark than in those of the other Northern coun-
tries, in spite of the fact that, as regards natural resources, Den-
mark differs more from Norway, Sweden, and Finland than these
three States differ from each other.
In earlier times the importance of the inter-Northern trade
was somewhat greater, and Denmark more especially used to take
a greater share in the import trade of Sweden and Norway. Thus
more than 15 per cent. of Sweden’s imports came from Denmark
in the period 1870—85. As late as the turn of the century this
was the case with over 12 per cent. of the Swedish imports, but
already before the Great War the figure had declined to under
7 per cent. In 1875 about 12 per cent. of Norway’s imports came
from Denmark, but already about 1900 Denmark’s share had
sunk to the present figure of about 5 per cent.
During the period about the end of the Great War there was
a strong, but short-lived revival of the inter-Northern trade, espe-
cially the trade between Denmark and Sweden. Thus Sweden’s
share in the export of Danish goods of domestic origin rose from
2 per cent. in 1916 to 8.7 per cent. in 1917, and 23.3 per cent.
in 1918, only to fall again to 17.8 per cent. in 1919 and 12.5
per cent. in 1920, until it reached its present level of about 4 per
cent in 1922. Sweden’s share in Denmark’s import trade rose from
8.6 per cent. in 1916 to 12.4 per cent. in 1917 and 24.9 per cent.
in 1918, only to fall to 7.5 per cent. already in 1919.
The trade between Denmark and Norway also increased con-
siderably during the same brief period, though not so much as
that between Denmark and Sweden.
This revival of the inter-Northern trade was the result of a
very pressing scarcity of goods, which in its turn was due to the
war and the blockade. Under these extraordinary conditions it
was of great value to the Scandinavian countries that they were
able to maintain and extend their mutual exchange of goods.
Danish cereals and cattle-farming produce were exchanged for
Norwegian nitre and Swedish iron and wood, the differences in