Desertions in nineteenth-century shipping: modelling quit behaviour

Ship jumping in foreign ports was widespread throughout the age of sail. Desertion by seamen was illegal, it occurred abroad, and men who deserted only seldom returned home. We analyse desertion quantitatively and link it to the broader question of quit behaviour and labour turnover. Though the better wages paid at the foreign ports were the main reason for desertion, the regression model of the determinants of desertion indicates that outside opportunities, such as migration, and monetary incentives played a significant role in the nineteenth-century labour market, characterized by rather strict control over labour supply, working conditions, and terms of trade. Copyright , Oxford Universi…

Early modern trade flows between smaller states : the Portuguese-Swedish trade in the eighteenth century as an example

The eighteenth century was a period of many great power wars and competition for colonies. However, despite the turmoil, smaller nations were able to carve their niches in the international trade of the period. Examination of new sources, used in a comparative fashion, indicates that bilateral trade still has much to offer for the analysis of international trade history. The pattern of bilateral trade between Sweden and Portugal indicates that they were not equally dependent on that trade, and that the products traded varied over time. Usually bulk commodities dominated this trade, as each country focused on its core competencies. Overall, the volume of trade and the number of ships travell…

The Ephemera of Success: Strategy, Structure and Performance in the Forestry Industries

Ammattiryhmittäiset palkat, palkkahajonta ja teknologiamuutokset

Johdanto: Tässä kirjoituksessa tarkastellaan viiden erilaisen ammattiryhmän palkkakehitystä. Tarkastelu perustuu lähes 200 000 henkilön otokseen yhdeltä toimialalta, merenkulusta. Tämä ruotsalaiseen tilastoaineistoon perustuva analyysi on kiinnostava ja opettavainen ainakin kolmesta eri syystä. Ensinnäkin aineisto kattaa havaintoja kolmelta eri vuosisadalta, alkaen vuodesta 1755 ja päättyen vuoteen 1937. Siten se tarjoaa poikkeuksellisen pitkän aikavälin ammattiryhmien välisten palkkasuhteiden muutosten tarkasteluun. Toiseksi käytettävä tilastoaineisto muodostuu yksilötason palkka- ja työpaikkatiedoista. Siten aineisto antaa kuvan yksilötason palkkahajonnasta, siinä tapahtuneista muutoksist…

Taloushistorian paluu ja liiketoimintahistorian nousu

Stakeholder relations as social capital in early modern international trade

Stakeholder relations that are available through networks of various sorts are one benefit from social capital. According to the stakeholder approach to organisations, those relationships that contain most of the important attributes – such as power, legitimacy, frequency of contact and urgency – hypothetically dominate the business environment. This has caused modern corporations to view chiefly the dominant stakeholders as important. This study tests the importance of these attributes in early modern international trade; in other words, which attributes played a major role in the relations between Finnish tradesmen and their foreign contacts? The archives of two major Finnish trading hous…

Let the best story win : evaluation of the most cited business history articles

Faced with intensifying competition for scientific impact measured in terms of citation counts, small disciplines are challenged to prove their importance as they lack the critical mass to accumulate large numbers of citations. This paper demonstrates that by emphasizing theoretical and methodological rigor even small disciplines such as business history can be competitive. Yet it still appears that readers of business history articles first and foremost seek interesting and useful subject matter, i.e. ‘best’ stories that can be used as background information and as tools in comparisons. However, articles advancing theory and methodology have increasingly gained interest and citations from …

Nuorten miesten ammatti? : ikä ja ammattitaito merenkulussa 1700-luvulta 1900-luvun puoliväliin

Research on Evolution and the Global History of Pulp and Paper Industry: An Introduction

The underlying assumption in the economic history of industries is the deterministic nature of the industry life cycle. That is, industries are assumed to follow a specific life cycle characterized by stages of nascence, growth, maturity and decline apparent in firm numbers, production volume and technological activity. This introduction gives an overview to the theme of this volume: the analysis of the birth, growth, maturity, and finally the decline of the mechanized pulp and paper industry from its inception in the early nineteenth century Europe to its current situation and future prospects in developing markets in Southern America and other regions.

Quantitative methods in business history: An impossible equation?

Abstract In this article we want to evaluate how often quantitative tools and methods were utilized in the two premier journals in business history in the 1990s. Thus we tap into an important methodological discussion among the post-Chandlerian business historians. We found that simpler quantitative tools were employed quite often, but not necessarily going much beyond that.Also, it became apparent that the most cited business history articles were often written by scholars coming from‘outside’ the fluid disciplinary core of business history field.The analyses performed in the article revealed that the level of quantification seemed to have either no discernible impact (Business History Rev…

Multi-currency regime and markets in early nineteenth-century Finland

Pre-industrial money supply typically consisted of multiple, often foreign currencies. Standard economic theory implies that this entails welfare loss due to transaction costs imposed by currency exchange. Through a study of novel data on Finnish nineteenth-century parish-level currency conditions, we show that individual currencies had principal areas of circulation, with extensive co-circulation restricted to the boundary regions in between. We show that trade networks, defined here through the regional co-movement of grain prices, proved crucial in determining the currency used. Market institutions and standard price mechanisms had an apparent role in the spread of different currencies a…

Dissertations in economic and business history in Nordic countries in 2016

The discussion article by Ekberg and Jes Iversen in this number of the Scandinavian Economic History Review raises a number of important questions on the present state of business history research in the Nordic countries. To a certain extent, these concerns are generalisable to the wider economic history community in the Nordic countries, especially as regards the lack of relevant teaching and challenges in recruitment. Ekberg and Iversen suggest that a possible solution might be to intensify Nordic collaboration. Time and again the need for such collaboration has been raised as an issue, also on the pages of this journal (Ojala & Sogner, 2015). Nevertheless, the wake-up call by Ekberg and …

Yhteydet ja vertailu: Suomi ja maailma pitkällä aikavälilla. Juhlaluento 12.5.2010

Juhlaluento 12.5.2010

Från svenskt till ryskt system : det finska näringslivets samarbete med konsuler i utlandet på 1800-talet

I den här artikeln behandlas skillnaderna mellan de system som stödde den svenska respektive den ryska utrikeshandeln vid övergången mellan 1700- och 1800-talet. Efter att Finland hade blivit en del av Ryssland upphörde många av de system som stött handeln under svenska tiden att fungera, inklusive konsulsystemet. De utländska köpmän som verkat som konsuler för Sverige erbjöd emellertid också sina tjänster åt finländarna: de använde konsulstiteln i sin marknadsföring för att locka finländska handelsmän. peerReviewed

A Evolução Da Indústria De Papel Global

Supõe-se que as indústrias sigam um ciclo de evolução específico, caracterizado pelos estágios de nascimento, crescimento, maturidade e declínio, evidentes em números de empresas, volume de produção e atividade tecnológica. A indústria de papel e celulose não constitui exceção a esta regra. Muito pelo contrário. A história destas linhas de negócio parece seguir uma evolução dependente de uma trajetória semelhante em qualquer país considerado. Condicionada pelo crescimento do mercado, pelos recursos e tecnologia disponíveis, a indústria de papel e celulose passou por estágios de crescimento, maturação e até mesmo declínio em numerosas economias maduras. nonPeerReviewed

Sharing Mare Nostrum: An Analysis of Mediterranean Maritime History Articles in English-Language Journals.

This discussion paper is a follow-up to a previous bibliometric analysis of articles published in The International Journal of Maritime History and maritime-themed articles published in other economic and business history journals over the last 25 years. The paper looks more closely at articles dealing with the Mediterranean and articles written by scholars from the Mediterranean countries. The article is structured around five propositions about current trends in Mediterranean maritime history publishing in English-language journals.

Two Family Firms in Comparison: Ahlström and Schauman During the 20th Century

Ahlstrom and Schauman are among the most prominent companies in Finnish industrial history, being family firms engaged in different branches of economic activity. At first both were mechanical wood processing companies, but diversified later into the pulp and paper industry as well. Ahlstrom is even still today an important paper producer, whilst Schauman merged in 1987 with the Kymmene Corporation, and is nowadays a part of the UPM-Kymmene Corporation. This paper analyses the strategic decision processes undertaken in the named companies during the 20 century. The companies were not the most typical ones in the Finnish wood processing industry, but were, perhaps, typical examples of old fa…

Technological change, occupational composition, and wage premiums : evidence from linked employer-employee data

Young Lads and Old Tars: Changing Age Structure of the Nordic Sailors, 1750s–1930s

AbstractThis article analyzes the changing age structure of Swedish and Finnish sailors for almost 200 years. We show that the proportion of the youngest men increased during the age of sail (i.e., the older technology). The average age increased significantly during the early twentieth century as steam (i.e., the newer technology) replaced sail in Nordic shipping. Thus, a technological revolution did not displace the older workers, but rather diminished the demand for the younger ones. This study shows, however, that technological changes were not the only drivers of changes in the age structure of Nordic sailors. Institutional and societal changes also played an important role, though the…

Creating Global Markets : Seaborne Trade in Pulp and Paper Products Over the Last 400 Years

The declining cost of sea transport has been a necessary condition for the growth of the global pulp and paper industry, especially in regions remote from economic centres. Thus, pulp and paper industries and international shipping have coevolved, especially since the 1960s, enabling producers to tap global markets and develop global production chains. The paper products trade flows, however, have changed a number of times over the last 400 years. This chapter describes and explains these developments and shows how the technological solutions in global shipping and strategic choices among the pulp and paper companies have been interdependent, especially since the 1960s. peerReviewed

Sharing Mare Nostrum: An analysis of Mediterranean maritime history articles in English-language journals

This discussion paper is a follow-up to a previous bibliometric analysis of articles published in The International Journal of Maritime History and maritime-themed articles published in other economic and business history journals over the last 25 years. The paper looks more closely at articles dealing with the Mediterranean and articles written by scholars from the Mediterranean countries. The article is structured around five propositions about current trends in Mediterranean maritime history publishing in English-language journals. nonPeerReviewed

Increase in diversity: Nordic dissertations 2014–2018

This issue of the Scandinavian Economic History Review features a list of dissertations published in the Nordic countries in 2017 and 2018 (Appendix). As in our previous surveys (Ojala, Hemminki & ...

Technological change and wage premiums: historical evidence from linked employer-employee data

Abstract This study analyses the impacts of a technological change (the steam engine) on wage premiums. Using historical employer–employee panel data, we found that steam technology had both new skill-demanding and skill-replacing aspects. The former manifested itself as an increase in the demand for high-skilled engineers, the latter in a decline in the demand for intermediate-skilled, able-bodied seamen and an increase in the demand for unskilled engine room operators. Our panel data analysis, which controls for unobserved heterogeneity, implies that high-skilled labourers in abstract tasks and unskilled labourers in manual tasks improved their wage positions relative to intermediate-skil…

The Challengers: Kymmene, United Paper Mills, and Metsäliitto

Firms attempt to adapt themselves through their business strategies to the present and forthcoming (institutional and technical) environments. Whether these strategy choices are planned or implemented is the classic question in business history and strategic management. It is generally agreed that the basic aims of a firm is to be profitable (at least over the long term) and to survive. These basic assumptions seems to fit most of the current, publicly owned companies, but when we are dealing with e.g. governmental owned or cooperatives, this seemingly clear picture becomes fuzzy. This article aims to analyse three major Finnish forestry industry companies, namely Kymmene, United Paper Mill…

Bicycles in rush hour : Concluding neutrality and war

Helan respa ja tiedolla johtaminen

Ulkomaalaiset alukset ja paikalliset toimintamallit : Viipuri, Hamina ja suomalainen merenkulku 1700-1800-luvuilla

Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan ulkomaalaisten laivojen merkitystä Suomen ulkomaankaupassa 1700–1800-luvuilla. Meritse kulkeneen Suomen viennin ja tuonnin kokonaiskuva on ollut kyseisellä ajanjaksolla pitkään vaikeasti hahmotettavissa, sillä ulkomaalaisen tonniston merkitys erityisesti Kaakkois-Suomen ulkomaankaupassa on saanut aiemmin vain vähän huomiota. Tämä artikkeli keskittyy Viipurin ja Haminan merenkulkuun 1700-luvun lopulla ja 1800-luvun alkupuolella, joiden tarjoamien esimerkkien avulla tutkitaan ulkomaalaisten alusten merkitystä laajemmin Suomen merenkululle. Tutkimus tarjoaa uusia näkökulmia sekä suomalaisen että kansainvälisen ulkomaankaupan ja merenkulun historiaan, sillä var…

TUTKA ja julkaisufoorumien muutos : mitä tapahtui historialle?

Technological change and wage premiums: historical evidence from linked employer-employee data

This study analyses the impacts of a technological change (the steam engine) on wage premiums. Using historical employer–employee panel data, we found that steam technology had both new skill-demanding and skill-replacing aspects. The former manifested itself as an increase in the demand for high-skilled engineers, the latter in a decline in the demand for intermediate-skilled, able-bodied seamen and an increase in the demand for unskilled engine room operators. Our panel data analysis, which controls for unobserved heterogeneity, implies that high-skilled labourers in abstract tasks and unskilled labourers in manual tasks improved their wage positions relative to intermediate-skilled labou…

Compartiendo Mare Nostrum: Un análisis de artículos en publicaciones académicas sobre la historia marítima del Mediterráneo

Este trabajo es una continuación de un anterior análisis bibliométrico de artículos publicados en The International Journal of Maritime History y de artículos de temática marinera publicados en otras revistas de historia económica y empresarial en los últimos 25 años. El trabajo examina más de cerca artículos que tratan sobre el Mediterráneo y artículos escritos por académicos de los países mediterráneos. Este artículo se estructura en torno a cinco proposiciones sobre las tendencias actuales en la publicación de la historia marítima del Mediterráneo en publicaciones académicas en lengua inglesa. nonPeerReviewed

East-West trade and the Cold War

Book Review: Northern Shores: A History of the Baltic Sea and Its Peoples

Suuresti suunniteltu : Keiteleen kanavan vaiheita

Lukijaystävällinen teos maailman taloushistoriasta

Monelta kantilta : Ilkka Nummelalle omistettu juhlakirja

Trade between Sweden and Portugal in the Eighteenth Century : Assessing the Reliability of STRO Compared to Swedish and Portuguese Sources

The Evolution of Global Paper Indutry

Industries are assumed to follow a specific life cycle characterized by stages of nascence, growth, maturity and decline apparent in firm numbers, production volume and technological activity. Pulp and paper industries not exceptions to this rule. Quite the contrary. The history of these lines of business seems to follow similar path dependent evolution in any given country. Constrained with market growth, available resources and technology, pulp and paper industry has experienced stages of growth, maturation, and even decline in a numerous mature economies. nonPeerReviewed

Koronapandemian vaikutukset jatko-opintoihin: Humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellisen tiedekunnan keväällä 2020 ja 2021 toteuttaman kyselyn tulokset

Covid-19-pandemian vaikutuksia elämän eri osa-alueille on jo tutkittu ympäri maailman. Jyväskylän yliopiston humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellisessä tiedekunnassa haluttiin saada parempi käsitys pandemian ja siitä aiheutuneiden poikkeusolojen vaikutuksista jatko-opintoihin ja niiden suorittamiseen. Niinpä tiedekunnassa päätettiin toteuttaa keväällä 2020 jatko-opiskelijoille suunnattu kysely, jossa selvitettiin esimerkiksi poikkeusolojen vaikutuksia opintojen edistämiseen ja vastaajien poikkeusolojen aikana kohtaamia haasteita jatko-opintojen eri osa-alueilla. Kyselyyn vastasi 164 jatko-opiskelijaa tiedekunnan eri laitoksilta. Koska poikkeusolot pitkittyivät, tiedekunnassa päätettiin toistaa ky…

Taloushistoria : empiiristä historiantutkimusta vai teoreettista yhteiskuntatiedettä?

Keski-Suomen yritysten historiatietoisuus: Kyselyn tulokset

Tämä raportti on osa Jyväskylän yliopiston monitieteistä Menestystä menneisyydestä -tutkimushanketta, jossa selvitetään yritysten historiatietoisuutta. Raportin teko ei olisi ollut mahdollista ilman Keski-Suomen liiton ja Business Finlandin rahoitusta – kiitos molemmille tärkeästä tuesta tutkimushankkeelle. Kiitos myös Keski-Suomen Yrittäjille ja Keski-Suomen kauppakamarille, joiden verkostojen kautta kysely levisi keskisuomalaisyrityksille. Raportti on pohjana tutkimushankkeen seuraaville vaiheille, joissa sekä syvennytään tarkemmin yksittäisten yritysten historiatietoisuuteen että laajennetaan analyysiä valtakunnalliselle tasolle.

More or less equality? : Facts, debates, and policies related to the Nordic model

The topic of income inequality has become a new nexus of research among historians and social scientists recently.1 Piketty (2014) has famously argued: Inequality is shaped by the way economic, social, and political actors view what is just and what is not, as well as by the relative power of those actors and the collective choices that result. It is the joint product of all relevant actors combined. Given that redistribution is a core element of the Nordic model and understood as key to the development of social trust and cohesion, all debates about social and cultural polarization are also debates about economic inequalities and the possible policy choices related to those issues. Moreove…

Päijänteellä: Jyväskylän Veneseura ja sen edeltäjät

Tämä kirja kertoo Päijänteen veneilyharrastuksen kehittymisestä aina 1800-luvun lopulta alkaen Jyväskylän Veneseuran ja sen edeltäjäseurojen tarinoiden kautta. Vuonna 1970 perustetun Jyväskylän Veneseuran historiaa ei nimittäin voi ymmärtää huomioimatta Suomen sisävesien ensimmäisen pursiseuran, vuonna 1895 jyväskyläläisten ja lahtelaisten veneilijöiden yhdessä perustaman Päijänteen Purjehdusseuran (PPS) toimintaa. Päijänteen Purjehdusseuraa edelsi Vesijärvi-Päijänteen Purjehdusseura, joka perustettiin jo 1883. Ensimmäinen Päijänteen alueen purjehduskilpailu järjestettiin 1882. Vuonna 2020 tuli siis kuluneeksi 50 vuotta Jyväskylän Veneseuran perustamisesta, 125 vuotta Päijänteen Purjehdusse…

Editor's Note

Always in crisis, always a solution? : The Nordic model as a political and scholarly concept

While campaigning for the 2016 US Democratic Party presidential nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders invoked the Nordic countries as a model for future politics. In a debate, he declared, ‘I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.’1 Hailing the Nordic countries, especially Denmark, as an example of ‘democratic socialism’,2 Sanders’s vision engendered a heated debate, with political opponents critiquing the implied political agenda, the prime minister of Denmark protesting the idea of Denmark as a socialist country, and journalists and pundits presenting corrective views of the economic and soc…

The curse of agility : The Nokia Corporation and the loss of market dominance in mobile phones, 2003–2013

We investigate how and why the Nokia Corporation failed to develop a successful strategic response to the threats of Apple and Google in the smartphone business and instead worsened its situation through several badly timed decisions. We identify key choices in technology and organisational design that jointly constituted sufficient cause for the abandonment of the mobile phone business. By focusing on choices instead of attributes (e.g. fear or hubris), we make progress in strategic failure research and simultaneously emphasise the strength of oral history methods and the philosophy of history as fruitful starting points for such an inquiry. peerReviewed

Comparing Post War Japanese and Finnish Economies and Societies

Part 1: Introduction 1. Comparing Japanese and Finnish Economies and Societies - Longitudinal Perspectives, Jari Ojala, Yasushi Tanaka, Toshiaki Tamaki, and Jari Eloranta 2. Longitudinal Comparative Historical Analysis: Challenges and Possibilities, Pavel Osinsky and Jari Eloranta Part 2: Welfare Societies 3. Two Paths to Building a Welfare Society: The Development of Work and Family-related Policies in Post-War Finland and Japan, Maare Paloheimo, Kota Sugahara, Tadashi Fukui, and Merja Uotila 4.Higher Education Systems and Labour Market Outcomes in Japan and Finland, 1950 - 2010, Anu Ojala, Yasushi Tanaka and Olli Turunen 5. Military Spending in Japan and Finland: From Warfare to Welfare S…

Strategy and business history rejoined : How and why strategic management concepts took over business history

Scholars at the intersection of business history and strategic management have argued for the relevance and importance of historical methods in the study of strategic management of organizations. We flip this argument and ask about the role of strategic management concepts in the study of business history. We analyze volumes of Business History and Business History Review and a representative sample of business history books using a comprehensive set of keywords, each related to a specific sub-discourse in strategic management. Our results show that as scientific communities, business history and strategic management have become increasingly similar in their conceptual overlap. This study c…

Thinking about industry decline : A qualitative meta-analysis and future research directions

We analyze historical and longitudinal research focusing on industry decline. Our analysis suggests that the literature’s general reliance on a few meta-theoretical arguments has important consequences for how decline is framed and explained. We identify four meta-theoretical clusters in the literature: politics and market dynamics are seen as exogenous factors with deterministic features, whereas technology and management capabilities are framed as firm-internal failures with causally questionable explanations of how firm-level characteristics explain industry-level decline. We propose that it is important to understand the limitations of distinct meta-theoretical arguments for an enhanced…

Approaching Europe: The merchant networks between Finland and Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Finland offers a good opportunity to study how international trade contacts were established and how they developed. Having been denied trading rights, several Finnish ports were granted direct access to foreign trade in 1765. The hypothesis is that the old business relations with Stockholm traders, the role played by the shipmaster and the government-based consulate networks were crucial in the development of the merchant network abroad during the eighteenth century. Business networks developed from interpersonal contacts towards interorganisational relationships during the nineteenth century. The business networks were in many cases, especially in the home town and with neighbouring towns…

Kuuleeko eduskunta tieteentekijöitä?

Viimeisen neljännesvuosisadan aikana eduskunnan valiokunnat kuulivat yli 10 000 kertaa tieteentekijöitä asiantuntijoina. Tutkijoiden osuus kaikista valiokuntien kuulemista henkilöstä on kuitenkin alle kymmenen prosenttia. Lisäksi tieteentekijöiden kuulemiset jakautuivat epätasaisesti valiokuntien, hallituskausien ja kuultujen tieteentekijöiden välillä. nonPeerReviewed

How to Sail a Sinking Ship : Adapting to the Declining Competitiveness of the European Shipping Industry