Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part I
No. 439.
Mr. Andrews to Mr. Fish.
Stockholm, March 25, 1872. (Received April 19.)
Sir: * * * Herewith I beg to inclose a report which I have prepared on Swedish manufactures and business.
I am, &c.,
Report made to the Department of State by C. C. Andrews, minister resident at Stockholm, on manufactures and business in Sweden.
The national board of trade (commerce college) of Sweden, at the head of which is Count Manderstiem, formerly minister of foreign affairs, annually publishes a statistical report, among others, on fabrics and manufactures. The latest published report thereon is for the year 1870, and makes a quarto document of eighty pages. The two titles “Fabrics” and “Manufactures” are still used in the report, because originally the latter had regard more to work with hand-power, while the former related to work principally done by machinery. Both are again distinguished from a class of manufactures entitled handtberh, (mechanical-manual work,) on account of their being exempt from the regulations of guilds, which the latter was formerly subject to. The system of guilds, borrowed principally from Germany, existed in Sweden from the fifteenth century till 1846, when it gave place to more liberal regulations, whereby any one could freely engage in “handtberh” on his own account; also keep a shop in country or city, if a master workman, a fixed time of apprenticeship to become a master workman being thereafter dispensed with. The statistics on these matters are principally obtained through local tax-officers. In respect to the valuation of fabrics and manufactures, they are considered inaccurate, and as showing values very much less than the actual amount. Certain companies which have borrowed capital from the public mortgage or loan office are obliged to render sworn returns of their manufactures. These, though regarded as correct, cannot be identified from the rest in the report. The statistics have nevertheless a real value in enabling comparison to be made with the tables of previous years; also, in showing the number and sex of the operatives employed. Nothing is mentioned in the report as to wages. And if it should be attempted to give anything like an accurate and thorough statement as to the condition of the laboring classes in Sweden, investigation would have to be made independently of any published or official returns.
It will probably be unnecessary now to give more than a brief abstract of the report in question, inasmuch as my report on this subject for 1868 as published in “Commercial Relations, 1889,” pages 342–3, contains a list of the different manufactures of Sweden and their values. The total value of “fabrics” and “manufactures” in 1870 is stated to be 92,281,084 rix-dollars, or say $24,284,495 in gold. While it is to be borne in mind that this is much below the actual figures, it is further to be remarked that this amount does not include the value of “handvert,” the products of which are considered by good judges to be equally as valuable as “fabrics” and “manufactures.” Neither does it include the production of metals, wrought iron, charcoal, lumber, distilled spirits, beer, &c., &c. The value of fabrics and manufactures shows an increase over that of 1888 by $4,000,000. The value of each of the following manufactures in [Page 598] 1870 exceeded that of 1888 in the sum mentioned as to each: Porcelain, $100,000; paper, $100,000; cabinet-work, $60,000; sugar-refining, (nearly,) $1,000,000; matches, $226,000; cotton cloth, $397,000; clothing, $270,000; linen cloth, $60,000; silk, $50,000. The following manufactures had in 1870 decreased in value since 1868 in the amount stated as to each: Cohes,$6,000; nitro-glycerine, $32,000; ropes, $6,000; window-shades, or roll-curtains, $10,000; earthen stoves and ware, $7,600; tallow candles, $56,000; watches, $3,500; woolen cloth, $90,000; sail-cloth, $55,000.
In regard to silk manufacture, the value of which for 1870 is stated to be 748,462 rix-dollars, it may be interesting to remark that cocoons began to be produced in Sweden a century and a half ago. In 1770 there were two mulberry-plantations at Stockholm, one of which, on Ladugard’s laudet, contained 37,328 trees, no trace of which is now to be seen, the ground there being at present used for military manoeuvres. In 1854 the crop of one company amounted to 293 pounds of cocoons; but it would seem that the culture of the silk-worm is now scarcely attempted. The value of the manufacture of leather in 1870 is stated at 4,929,279 rix-dollars, or say $1,300,000 gold, an increase of $200,000 over that of 1868. The manufacture of boots and shoes, which must be very considerable, comes under the head of “hand-work” and the value is nowhere given.
number of factories, operatives, etc.
Number of factories in use, 2, 183; number not in use, 222. Number where machinery was worked by animals, 124; by water, 448; by steam, 317; total horse-power of all, 11,573. Number of machines and implements in use, 243,204. Number of separate proprietors: men, 1,846; women, 109. Number of companies, 317. Number of operatives employed, 34,587, of whom 807 were master-workmen. Of those eighteen years of age and upward paying poll-tax, there were men, 7,260; women, 2,524. Those eighteen years of age and upwards not paying poll-tax, there were men, 11,496; women, 6,263. Under eighteen years of age there were males, 3,841; females, 2,396.
The number of proprietors of “handt-vert” establishments in cities was, males, 8,224; females, 395; employing 12,928 male and 714 female operatives or laborers. In boroughs, 221 male and 9 female proprietors; employing 179 male and eight female operatives. In the country, 6,953 male and 39 female proprietors; employing 5,689 male and 67 female operatives. The report shows the number of persons carrying on “handvert” industry as to each county and as to each trade. Total number of operatives employed in the three classes of manufactures, not including hand-work proprietors, 54, 172.
The special tax paid by “Fabrikauter” in cities was 52,400 rix-dollars; in the country, 13,558 rix-dollars. By “hand-verkare” in cities, 61,000 rix-dollars; in the country, 4,630 rix-dollars.
The report shows the export and import of certain leading manufactures. It also contains a list of persons numbering 118 to whom patents had been issued during the year.
Business at the present time (March, 1872) is in an uncommonly active and promising condition. Some Swedish financiers express the opinion that enterprise has for the past year been pushed a little beyond the line of prudence. In 1871 the government confirmed the articles or organizations of 148 new private stock-companies for manufactures and various other enterprises, representing a minimum capital of 40,000,000 rix-dollars. The number of such companies thus organized in 1850, was 5; in 1860, 20; in 1865, 39; in 1868, 74; in 1869,65; in 1870, 97. The number formed in 1871 equaled the whole number formed the first fifteen years after the present share-company law went into force, which was in 1848.
The recent uncommon enterprise is owing, among other causes, to increased railroad facilities, to the good cereal crops of the last three years, and to the late remarkable rise in the prices of iron and lumber. From October, 1871, to the 1st of March, 1872, the rise in the price of Swedish wrought iron was $23 (gold) per ton. At the latter date such iron brought $110 per ton, delivered at the ship, in the port of New York; which, of course, is exclusive of the tariff duty, amounting to about $30 per ton. The price of lumber January, 1872, was 10 per cent, above what it was the same elate 1871. Instances have occurred in the past few months where a moderate fortune has been made in a single sale of iron. Much of the best finds a market in the United States.
One illustration will show the increased thrift in lumber business. In the two parishes of Transtrand and Lima, on the West Dal River, in the section popularly known as Delecarlia, is a timber estate belonging to the parishes, the value of the rent of which for fifty years was officially estimated last autumn at one and a half millions rix-dollars. The lease of it for fifty years, with the privilege of cutting timber therefrom that length of time according to law—no tree less than ten inches in diameter to be cut—has just been sold at auction for two and a half millions of rix-dollars; interest at 5 per cent. The annual income derived therefrom annually by the parishes will therefore be 125,000 rix-dollars.
[Page 599]About two-thirds of all the lumber now shipped from Sweden finds a market in Great Britain.
Stockholm, March 23, 1872.