an
63 per cent. articles of manufacture, finished completely or in part.

The principal industrial products represented among these exports are
enumerated here:

Kroner
Wood products 1,912,000,000 $516,700,000[1]
Pulp and paper 134,000,000 36,000,000
Metal products 105,000,000 28,400,000
Machinery 56,000,000 15,400,000
Matches 16,000,000 4,300,000
Pottery products 15,000,000 4,000,000

[Footnote 1: The amounts in this column are close approximates.]

With regard to our exports, there have been especially large increases
in those of pulp and machinery. The principal types of machinery which
figure among the exports of Sweden are milk separators, oil motors,
telephone apparatus, electric engines, and ball bearings. In these
exports are plainly indicated the inventive genius of the Swedes and
their aptitude for technical and industrial pursuits.

With reference to the Swedish railroads, this fact is deserving of
mention: Sweden leads all Europe with 2.5 kilometers to each 1,000
inhabitants, (United States has 4.14 kilometers.) The mercantile marine
of Sweden has experienced powerful growth in recent years. In 1912, with
a net tonnage of 805,000, it held the sixth place among the merchant
fleets of Europe, being ahead of, among other countries, Spain, Russia,
and the Netherlands. Especially has the growth in Sweden's merchant
marine been pronounced since 1904, when the first regular ocean lines
with Swedish vessels were established. Today Swedish steamship lines are
maintaining regular traffic with all parts of the world. Thus, among
other things, Sweden has established freight lines, with steamers plying
to both the east and west coasts of North America. Quite recently,
despite the financial crisis brought on by the war, a company has been
formed with the object of establishing passenger traffic with Swedish
steamships of high speed between Gothenburg and either New York or
Boston.

After scrutinizing these figures the reader ought not to be surprised at
the assertion that Sweden is exceptionally well situated from an
economical point of view, and, perhaps, is among the countries which
have been least affected by the economical crisis consequent upon the
war. The national debt of Sweden, which was created very largely with a
view to financing the construction of the Government railroads and for
other productive purposes, is at present only 720,000,