Suecia y Su Economia

Question 1
Trade has for a very long time been of vital importance for countries around the world. In the case of Sweden trade has over gone a series of events that have taken it to be afirst-world industrialized country. In order to understand how Sweden got to the place it is now, it is essential to look at its history and all the different processes it went through.
Up to theseventeenth century, Sweden was a poor country that depended on its agriculture. It was in the late eighteenth century that Sweden had a breakthrough in production with the agrarian revolution. In thisstage, there was a substantial growth in agricultural production due to various factors such as the introduction of a “peasant-friendly” policy (1789) where farmers did not risk high taxes for increasedproduction and were now able to own their own land. This gave incentives to the farmers to produce more and in more efficient ways. Now rural communities became part of Sweden´s expanding exports,which led to “production surplus in this sector for an extended period.” The growth in the agrarian sector introduced technical advanced methods of cultivating land.
This led to growth in theindustrial sector as well. In this stage agrarian and industrial growth went hand in hand. This was a period where Sweden placed itself in the scope of the international economy. It was by 1880 thatSweden´s exports of grain composed 18% of the total value of its exports.
The first step for Sweden to become an industrialized country began around the 1850´s. In this stage the population of Swedenrounded in about 3.5 million of which only 10% lived in the cities. Factories were then built in the countryside for labor purposes as 80% of the population was engaged in the agrarian sector.
Onthe second half of the 19th century, other European countries were also in the industrialization stage. This led to the creation of the free trade movement that was of “crucial success for Swedish...