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An Elusive Partnership: Europe, Economic Co-operation and British Policy 105
As soon as wartime conditions permitted it in 1944-45, Britain reasserted its economic
positions in the region, including Finland where substantial amounts of timber
and pulp were exported to Britain. Alongside Danish foodstuffs Sweden in particular
became a trade partner of prime importance. With its strong balance of payments position
it afforded Britain exports of vital raw materials effectively on credit in 1945-47, as
the Swedish government and central bank hoped that the transitory period would not
last for too long. 5 New financial ties that persisted long into the 1950s were thus established
between Britain and the Scandinavians in the name of economic stabilisation, reconstruction
and the hope for gradual normalisation of relations.
The other side of the British economic strategy towards Scandinavia was an attempt
to seize a commanding share of the northern markets for industrial goods as
long as German exporters were absent from the markets. 6 However, due to shortages
of exportable goods such as coal and steel and declining competitiveness of British
manufacturers, this strategy eventually failed to win such a preponderant position
for British traders as had been envisaged. A good example of Britain’s
economic decline in the region was how its shipbuilding industry lost its most important
export market – Norway – in 1945-67 when the world market for ships was
most vibrant. 7 None the less, still until the first half of the 1950s when German
competition was being fully felt again, the British managed to hold an unexceptionally
strong economic position in the region, if not much longer.
The Scandinavians, for their part, saw their post-war relationship with Great
Britain with certain ambivalence. An important characteristic of their economic relationship
with Britain was that it was more important for them than it was for the
British. The direct economic benefits from normal trade relations with Britain were
clear enough, as the ongoing processes of modernisation of the Scandinavian economies
and societies depended on their access to world markets of industrial goods
and raw materials in scarce supply within the region itself, and on their ability to
sell their own produce as freely as possible to the world. Foreign trade in general
and trade with Britain in particular was vital for all the Scandinavian economies,
which even in times of heavy protectionism remained open economies in the sense
of their high dependence on international in- and outputs of factors of production. 8
5. Ö. APPELQVIST, Bruten Brygga. Gunnar Myrdal och Sveriges ekonomiska efterkrigspolitik
1943-1947, Santérus förlag, Stockholm, 2000, pp.340-350.
6. Memorandum for M. L. John Edwards, MP (Parliamentary private secretary to the president of the Board of
Trade), undated (1945), FO 371/56223; Memorandum for Mr. Marquand (Secretary for the Department of
Overseas Trade, Board of Trade), 27 December 1945, FO 371/56223, Public Record Office (PRO), London.
7. L. JOHNMAN and H. MURPHY, The Norwegian Market for British Shipbuilding, 1945-1967, in:
Scandinavian Economic History Review, 2/XLVI(1998), pp.55-78. Issues such as price, failure to
meet delivery dates and to offer competitive credit terms are listed as explanatory factors for the
decline. Britain’s market share was taken over by Norwegian, West German, Japanese and Swedish
shipyards.
8. A sophisticated analysis of trade protectionism in an open economy is found in T. PAAVONEN,
Suomalaisen protektionismin viimeinen vaihe. Suomen ulkomaankauppa- ja integraatiopolitiikka
1945-1961 [Finnish Protectionism and International Economic Integration, 1945-1961], Suomen
Historiallinen Seura, Helsinki, 1998.