Sweden is a thinly populated country in northern Europe, out-stretched with a concentration in its southern part up to its capital Stockholm, situated by the lake Malaren. Its political and economic history has largely been influenced by its position between Western and Eastern Europe, and its long coastline along the Baltic Sea.
When Sweden was formed as a state in the eleventh century, it served as an exchange post — also as a producer of iron — in the lively trade with silver, slaves and goods between Western Europe and Imperial Persia.
During the late Medieval period the main Swedish harbour cities became entangled within the great Hanseatic League, and its predominantly trade with iron was in the seventeenth century dominated by Dutch Merchants.In the eighteenth century, the trade hegemony of Amsterdam was replaced by England as a main importer of iron and steel — which was also a major factor behind the first wave of industrial breakthrough in the 1850s, stimulated by an upsurge of demand for Swedish sawmill as well as iron and steel products. Around the turn of the century (1900) industrialisation had become self generated, with the establishment of many new firms, especially in the mechanical engineering industry (Ericson, Alfa Laval, SKF, Atlas Copco). Also a growing domestic market helped to increase economic growth and income. However, still in the early 1920s agriculture was dominating in terms of employment. The 1930s saw the rise of the Swedish welfare state and growth rates peaked during the 1950s and 1960s, making Swedish per capita income one of the highest in the world. After a period of sluggish growth and structural problems following its major 1990s crisis, Sweden has emerged once again as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with a high profile concerning welfare and high levels of employment.
Although being one of the oldest centralised states in Europe with a rather homogenous ethnical composition, its position between west and east, but also connecting to central Europe in the south, has been a strong influential factor concerning its intellectual development in general and perhaps economic thinking and writing in particular. For Sweden as well as elsewhere the word ‘influence’ must be used with caution. Certainly, Sweden was open to new ideas and modes of writing and thought originating from outside. However, such imports can not be regarded as immediate reflections but should rather be understood in terms of an active process of translation in which concepts and theories were transformed and changed according to the peculiar political, social and economic institutions formed through history. Hence influences came from different corners, and what might look like bleak imports from abroad should rather be looked upon as adaptations making sense in a specific institutional and cultural context.