NORWAY. The area of Norway is 124,445 square miles; and at the census of 1891 the population was 2,000,217, of which 76.3 per cent. were rural and 23.7 per cent. urban. Emigration to the United States was as follows: 1889, 12,597: 1890, 10,898; 1891, 13,249; 1892, 16,814; 1893, 18,690; 1894, 5,591; 1895, 6,153; 1896, 6,584. Fiscal Affairs. The following statement shows the principal items of the budgets of 1897 and 1898: 4,000,000 Civil list.. Customs... 24,000,000 524,022 665,500 Excise on spirits.. 4,000,000 3,000,000 The Ministries.. Excise on malt.. 3,900,000 3.700,000 Church and education.,. 7,096,117 7,552,663 Succession tax. 550,000 5,758,599 6,109,571 Judicial fees.. 1,000,000 463,300 State railways.... Roads, canals, ports, etc... Telegraphs.. 1,400,000 1,530,000 Finance and customs.. 2,876,284 2,886,354 Army. Navy. Mines.... Foreign Affairs. Miscellaneous.. The following shows the amortization, growth, and interest of the public debt, years ending Of the total area, 75 per cent. is unproductive, 22 per cent. forest, and 3 per cent. under cultivation. At the end of 1890 there were 146,355 farms, mostly worked by their owners. In 1890, the area under cereals was 185,605 hectares; potatoes, 39,128 hectares. The estimated yield of cereals was 5,962,353 hectolitres; of potatoes, 8,441,403 hectolitres. The total value of the produce was for cereals, 38,262,761 kroner; for potatoes, 24,807,136 kroner. The value of cereals imported (including flour) was 31,784,700 kroner in 1895; the principal article being rye, 14,647,200 kroner. The import of butter amounted to 1,667,900 kroner, and of bacon and meat to 7,261,900 kroner. The total value of the coastwise fisheries in 1884 was $6,137,261. The total area covered with forests is estimated at 26,320 square miles, of which 73 per cent, is under pine trees. The State forests occupy 3,870 square miles, administered by a forest staff under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior. The value of unwrought or partly wrought timber exported from Norway in 1895 was 27,777,800 kroner, and of wrought timber, 15,833,000 kroner. Foreign Commerce. The total imports and exports of Norwegian and foreign goods were as follows, in thousands of kroner: *Of this amount 19,131,560 kroner were applied to the redemption of a former loan. The values of the imports and exports, in thousands of kroner, were as follows: The countries comprising the principal portion of the foreign trade are: Sweden, imports. 33,535,100 kroner; exports, 23,141,000 kroner; Germany, imports, 58,590,200 kroner; exports, 17,414,900 kroner: and Great Britain and Ireland, imports, 64,277,200 kroner; exports, 47,881,600 kroner. For commerce with the United States, see Sweden. The values of the precious metals imported and exported by Norway from 1885 to 1895 are shown as follows: Shipping, Railroads, Post-Offices, and Telegraphs. (See Index.) Money. By a treaty signed May 27, 1873, with additional treaty of October 16, 1875, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark adopted the same monetary system. For gold and silver coins, see Index. The standard of value is gold. In Sweden, National Bank notes for 5, 10, 50, 100, and 1,000 kroner are legal means of payment, and the bank is bound to exchange them for gold on presentation. The case is the same in Norway, where there are also notes for 500 kroner. On December 31, 1896, the Norwegian coins in circulation were as follows: Gold coin, 15,858,510 kroner; silver coin, 7,781,050 kroner; bronze coin, 564,195 kroner; total, 24,203,755 kroner. There is no Government paper money in Norway. Banking. There are two State banks, the Norges Bank and the Kongeriget Norges Hypothekbank. The Norges Bank is a joint-stock bank, which is largely owned by the State. It has a head office at Christiania, and twelve branch offices. It is the only bank in Norway authorized to issue notes for circulation. The balance-sheets of the bank for 1896 show: Assets at end of year-Bullion, 34.788,810 kroner; outstanding capital, mortgaged estates, foreign bills, etc., 44,145,378 kroner: total, 78,934,188 kroner. Liabilities-Notes in circulation, 52,483,542 kroner; the issue of notes allowed was 58,788,810 kroner; deposits, checks, unclaimed dividends, unsettled losses, etc., 6,946,249 kroner (of which the deposits amounted to 6,440,058 kroner); dividends payable for the year, 1,578,243 kroner; total, 61,008,034; balance, 17.926,154 kroner. The Kongeriget Norges Hypothekbank, established in 1852, is properly a mortgage bank. Its capital is furnished by the State, and amounted to 14,000,000 kroner in 1896. The bank has, besides, a reserve fund amounting in 1895 to 1,000,000 kroner. At the end of 1895 the total amount of bonds issued was 110,840,400 kroner. The loans on mortgage amounted to 115,213,965 kroner. There are now 38 private non-issuing banks, most of them having but a small capital stock, and only seven a capital exceeding 1,000,000 crowns. The status of the savings-banks of Norway is shown by the following figures: --Amount to the Credit of DepositorsAt End of Year. Year. 1890. 1894. 1895. 1896. No. of No. of Deposits. Banks. tors. Kroner. Withdrawals. SWEDEN. Area and Population. The area of Sweden is stated at 172,867 square miles. The progress of population from 1800 to 1896 has been as follows: 1800, 2,347,303; 1820, 2,584,690, 1840, 3,138,887; 1850, 3,482,541; 1860, 3,859,728; 1870, 4,168,525; 1880, 4,565,668; 1890, 4,784,981; 1896 (estimated), 4,919,260. With the exception of (1890) 19,505 Finns, 6,846 Lapps, and some thousands others, the Swedish population is entirely of the Scandinavian branch of the Aryan family. The following table shows the leading occupations of the people in 1890, including the families and dependents of those directly employed: Sweden has sent a steady contribution of emigrants to the United States, as will appear from the following statement: The revenues and expenditures of the State are illustrated in the following budgets for 1897 and 1898, expressed in thousands of kroner: The liabilities of the kingdom, contracted entirely for railways, were as follows on January 1, 1897, expressed in kroner: Funded railway loans of 1860, without interest, 244,444; of 1880, at 3% per cent. interest, 103,346,100; of 1886, at 3% per cent. interest, 58,920,444; of 1887, at 3 3-10 per cent. interest, 48,566,500; of 1888, at 3 per cent. interest, 26,666,667; of 1890, at 36 per cent., 33,777.778; provisional loan of 1891 at 4 per cent., 44,640; and funded railway loan of 1894, at 3 per cent., 18,000,000. Total, 289,566,573. All the loans are paid off gradually by means of sinking funds. As the railway receipts amount to about two-thirds of the interest, the charge to the people is nominal. Industries. The number of farms in cultivation in 1897 was 329,930; of these there were, of 2 hectares and under, 70,529; 2 to 20 hectares, 214,158; 20 to 100 hectares, 32,447; 100 and above, 3,155. Of the total land area of Sweden 8.3 per cent. is under cultivation, 3 per cent. under natural meadows, and 45.9 per cent. under forests, the products of which form a staple export. The following table shows, in thousands of hectares, the area under the chief crops in 1895, and, in thousands of hectolitres, the yield in 1896: The value of all cereal crops in 1896 was estimated at 248.9 million kroner. Sweden is rich in minerals. In 1895 there were mined 1,904,662 tons of iron ore; gold ore, 459 tons; silver and lead ore, 12,045 tons; copper ore, 26,009 tons; zine ore, 31,349 tons; manganese ore, 3,117 tons. The amounts of the different sorts of iron produced in 1895 were: pig iron, 462,930 tons; puddled, for rolling, 188,726 tons; Bessemer ingots, 97,294 tons; Martin ingots, 96,475 tons; cast ingots, 551 tons; iron and steel bars, 168,270 tons; iron and steel hoops, rods, etc., 78,168 tons; wire rods, 26,038 tons; sheet iron, 12,028 tons. The coal mines, exclusively in the most southern province, yielded 223,652 tons. Gold production was 85 kilos; silver, 1,188 kilos; lead, 1,256,079 kilos; copper, 216,305 kilos. Foreign Commerce. The foreign trade (special) of Sweden was as follows, in kroner: 1890. 1891. 1892. 1893. 1894. 1895. 1896. 1889. Imports..... 376,963,711 377,187,739 369,698,254 360,315,855 332,689,289 351,173,005 344,290,000 358,315,000 Exports..... 301,725,097 304,591,863 323,498,082 329,300,154 328,271,667 298,625,234 311,444,000 340,283,000 The leading imports and exports (special trade), in thousands of kroner, were: The trade (special) with the principal countries, including bullion and specie, is shown as follows, in thousands of kroner: COMMERCE WITH THE UNITED STATES. The following shows the combined trade of Norway and Sweden with the United States: 1892. 1893. 1894. 1895. 1896. 1897. 1898. Exports into United States.... $3,754,952 $4,176,384 $3,112,066 $2,531,327 $3,320,321 $2,500,118 $2,673,889 Imports from United States... 6,579,381 4,084,704 4,391,046 4,652,601 5,038,766 5,463,597 6,313,786 The values of the imports from the United States for the year ending June 30, 1896, were: Agricultural implements, $150,851; breadstuffs, $381,451; cotton, unmanufactured, $1,105,531; fertilizers, $157,192; iron and steel, manufactures of, $158,859; leather, sole, $504,179; oils, mineral, refined, $816,423; provisions, $1,203,507. The values of the exports to the United States were: Fish, pickled or salted, $373,742; iron and steel, and manufactures of, $1,849,645; oils, whale and fish, $192,560: wood pulp, $293,608; gold, $3,461; silver, $70. Shipping, Railroads, Post-Office, and Telegraphs. (See Index.) Banking and Money. The Riksbank, or National Bank of Sweden, belongs entirely to the State, and is managed by directors elected annually by the Diet. The bank is under the guarantee of the Diet; its capital and reserve capital are fixed by its constitution, and its note circulation is limited by the value of its metallic stock and its assets in current accounts at home and abroad; its actual circulation is kept far within this limit. The larger portion of the banking operations of Sweden are done through private banks, and next in importance are the joint-stock banks. The following table gives statistics of the National Bank, private banks, and joint-stock banks in Sweden for January 1, 1897 : The savings-banks statistics (exclusive of post-office) are as follows: At the end of 1895, the Post-office Savings-bank had 408,288 depositors and 38,477,499 kroner of deposits. The monetary system is that of "The Scandinavian Union." See under head of "Norway." |