Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Page 110

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LE NORD
Planned price formation may under certain circumstances be high-
ly desirable in the trade between two countries, but it should of
course not lead to the fixation for an indefinite future of price
relations unfavourable to one party which have arisen under ab-
normal conditions. Here, as elsewhere, the real implications of
these and other economic schemes for the future depend alto-
gether on the spirit in which they are applied. Planning, the slogan
which so frequently crops up in discussions of post war economy,
is a term which may be applied to many different phenomena,
ranging from a compulsory planned economy to co-operation in
mutual freedom.
It is only natural that Swedes should frequently dwell upon
the enormous importance of freedom in the economic sphere
whenever economic future perspectives are being debated. In
the past centuries Swedish trade has more than once been up
against a choice of attitude towards new arrangements in the
economic order of Europe or of the world. Exactly as in other
countries, the economic history of Sweden has been, one may say,
one long process of adaptation. Looking back upon the develop-
ment of Swedish trade, it appears incontestable that no epoch
has been more advantageous to Sweden than the last century, in
which Sweden gained an ever increasing economic freedom. In
saying “advantageous to Sweden” I do not merely refer to the
incomparable improvement of our standard of living realized
during the last century; it is perhaps of even greater importance
that we have been able to develop the working capacity and
technical skill of the Swedish people as never before, and that
the ever widening possibilities for constructive work in the world
markets have offered new scope for Swedish initiative and eco-
nomic inventiveness.
This liberty to trade within the largest possible economic area
has, in fact, been one of the conditions of Sweden’s contribution
to the common economic life of the European Continent. We
should not have been able to pay for our import surplus as against
Continental Europe, let alone grant loans to the Continent
amounting to milliards of kronor, if our western trade had not
shown a very considerable export surplus. I would even go so
far as to say that Sweden’s importance to European trade is
conditioned by her liberty to trade with the entire world.
But we must turn both from airy speculations about the future
and from cautious truisms to the hard facts of present-day com-