ABSTRACT
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Sweden experienced an intense industrial spurt that brought the levels of general economic progress and welfare much closer to those of the more developed countries in Western Europe. An important part of the industrialization process, which thus transformed Sweden from one of Europe’s poorest economies to one of its richest, was the parallel development of a modernized financial system. The internationally recognized Swedish financial historian, Lars Sandberg, has stated that an important reason for the successful transformation of the Swedish economy was the financial liberalization and growth from the 1860s. A large number of private banks were established, the institutional and organizational boundaries between private and public financial intermediaries were made clear and, most importantly, a wide range of new financial services were introduced to the general public.2
