Teknologinen muutos Suomen teollisuudessa 1885–1920 (Technological change in Finnish industry 1885–1920) by Timo Myllyntaus, et al

Abstract

328 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Teknologinen muutos Suomen teollisuudessa 1885—1920 (Technological change in Finnish industry 1885-1920). By Timo Myllyntaus, Karl-Erik Michelsen, and Timo Herranen. Helsinki: Finska Vetenskaps Societeten, 1986. Pp. xii + 265; figures, tables, notes, bibliog­ raphy. Mk 167.00 (paper). It has traditionally been thought that industrialization, which started in Britain, follows the same pattern: weaving mills, ironmak­ ing, steam power. This was true in the leading industrialized coun­ tries, but there can be other paths to modern industry; Finland offers an example of this. Its smaller population and its natural resources did not allow it to follow the above pattern. However, Finland had other opportunities, and this book is concerned with technical and economic aspects of the most important period in the industrialization of Finland, the years 1885 to 1920. It is a great shame that the book, well planned around its central thesis and also well written, has been published only in Finnish. If it had appeared in a language with a broader appeal, it would have offered good comparative material on the history of the industrial­ ization of the small countries of Europe. It aims to depict the details of technological change, to measure the change, and to explain the relationship between technology and the economy in the metal industry, the sawmill industry, and the papermaking industry. In addition, a chapter is devoted to the economics of energy, which is held to be the indicator of the effectiveness of industrial activity. In international terms, Finland’s results in iron and steel, the basic areas of modern industry, were insignificant. Simply, the difficulty was that almost no iron ore suitable for mining had been found in Finland, and no coal at all. The iron industry, based on foreign ore and charcoal, fell a long way short of the technical standards general in Europe and this gap grew rather than narrowed. A typical feature was that the smelters had a small capacity. On the other hand, although production increased only slightly, it did manage to satisfy most of the raw material requirements of the domestic machine tool industry. While the metal industry lagged behind in international terms, the machine tool industry developed strongly; thus a profound structural change took place in the metal industry as a whole. Finnish machine tool manufacturers attained international standards, and before the First World War they were able to manufacture almost all the machines that the other industrial sectors required, except for very large steam engines, complete paper machines, and weaving looms. In fact, there was sufficient technology to build such machines but no financial point in doing so, since demand was limited to a few machines for the whole country. A shipbuilding industry producing TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 329 iron-hulled ships, principally for use around the coasts and on inland waterways, also emerged at this time. Furthermore, the Finnish machine tool industry was very important in other industrializing areas. The timber industry was a big source of orders and needed to turn to foreign producers for only a small part of its requirements. Indeed, the fast-growing timber industry provided the impetus for technological advances in the machine tool industry. The timber industry was responsible for the industrialization of Finland. Finnish sawmills changed from water-driven saws to steampowered ones, with a consequent manifold increase in capacity. The pulp and paper industry, based on the use of wood (in particular, spruce) and water, was born in the 1860s, but grew rapidly. The timber industry produced almost entirely for export, with a value of about 65 percent of the total value of Finnish exports. But interna­ tional markets forced the industry to be competitive technically, and Finnish sawmills and papermills could hold their own as regards productivity. The technology required for modernization was based partly on innovations from abroad and partly on domestic develop­ ment work. An especially interesting feature was that the new timber industry’s consumption of wood increased several-fold; the purchase of this wood and its felling and transport allowed money to spread to the rural areas. Income from modern industry was obtained by many people, much of it going to the remotest...