ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Great Depression and its aftermath. In Finland, domestic depression policies did not result in a radical revaluation of orthodox classical principles. However, after England's departure from the gold standard, it seemed evident that vital foreign trade had to be planned from a different perspective. Statisticians created new calculations of national income to assess how Finland had been affected by the depression. In contrast to other countries, there seemed to emerge a perception that Finland had become wealthier during the interwar period. When social democrats and the agrarian party formed a coalition government in 1937, the government justified an increase in public expenditure with a projected equivalent growth in national income. This political turn can be examined in the context of a social democratic growth conception. It also seems evident that although the depression was managed with classical principles, most liberals of the period expected that the next depression could not be managed with a similar toolkit. Increasing material welfare of all income groups with an export-oriented market economy emerged more explicitly in social liberal thought.
