Abstract
The peculiarity of Finnish energy history is best to be examined in a transnational framework, where energy use and industrialization are closely connected to each other. This relationship is often considered an international pattern, a key regularity of modern global economic history. Therefore, it is claimed to be a decisive characteristic of globalization, featuring the expansion of trade in goods and services as well as the migration of population. At first coal, ‘black gold’, in the nineteenth century and then oil, ‘the global juice’, in the twentieth century have been regarded to power mass production and consumption culture throughout the modern world (MacGilliway 2006).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In postwar years, Finland built up close trade relations between both Eastern trade organization The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (In Russian: Coвeт экoнoмичecкoй взaимoпoмoщи, Sovet ekonomicheskoy vsaymopomoshchi, CЭB, SEV, English abbreviation COMECON, 1949–1991) and a Western organization European Free Trade Association (EFTA, since 1960). A principle of the Finno-Comecon bilateral trade was that within each period of the Soviet 5-year plan, Finland’s imports from the Soviet Union and its Comecon partner countries should be equal with its exports to those countries. The imbalances in Finno-Soviet trade could be levelled by triangular trade with some other Comecon country. In the early 1960s, Finland became an associate member of Comecon and EFTA. See, for example, Bideleux and Jeffries (1998); Müller and Myllyntaus (2008).
References
Bideleux, B., Jeffries, I. (1998). A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change, London: Routledge.
Brimblecombe, P. (1986). The Big Smoke: History of Air Pollution in London since Mediaeval Times. London: Routledge.
Deane, Phyllis (1965). The First Industrial Revolution, London: Cambridge University Press.
Ellwood, W. (2001). No-nonsense Guide to Globalization, London: Verso.
Energy Statistics (2003). Helsinki: Statistics Finland 2004.
International Energy Agency. (2001). Energy Balances of OECD Countries 1999–2000. Paris: IEA.
Kocka, J. (1988). German History before Hitler: The Debate about the German Sonderweg, Journal of Contemporary History, 23, 3–16.
Kunnas, J., Myllyntaus, T. (2009). Postponed leap in carbon dioxide emissions: The impact of energy efficiency, fuel choices and industrial structure on the Finnish economy, 1800 – 2005, Global Environment. 3: 128–163.
MacGilliway, A. (2006). A Brief History of Globalization, London: Robinson.
Mathias, Peter (2001). The First Industrial Nation: The Economic History of Britain 1700–1914. London: Routledge [1969].
Mattila, T. (2001). ‘Räppänästä ryöriin: Lämmitystekninen vallankumous Suomen maaseudulla 1800-luvulla’ [The revolution of heating technology in the 19th-century Finnish countryside], in Tekniikan Waiheita 19: 2, 13–20.
Melosi, M. (2006). Energy Transitions in Historical Perspective, Energy and Culture. Perspectives on the Power to Work. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Müller, M., Myllyntaus, T. (Eds.) (2008). Pathbreakers, Small European Countries Responding to Globalisation and De-globalisation. Bern: Peter Lang.
Myllyntaus, T. (2001), ‘Tavallansa talo elääpi, puulla pirtti lämpiääpi,’ Energia Suomen historiassa,” in Tekniikan Waiheita. 19(2), 13–20.
Myllyntaus, T. (2008). Energy in Finnish History. Forthcoming in 2013.
Myllyntaus, T. (2009). Summer frost, A natural hazard with fatal consequences in pre-industrial Finland. In Mauch, C., Pfister, C. (Eds.) Natural Disasters and Cultural Responses: Case Studies toward a Global Environmental History, (pp. 77–102). New York: Lexington Books.
Myllyntaus, T., Mattila, T. (2002). Decline or increase? The standing timber stock in Finland, 1800–1997. Ecological Economics. 41(2), 271–288.
Myllyntaus, T., Tarnaala, E. (1998). When foreign trade collapsed. Economic crises in Finland and Sweden, 1914 – 1924. In Myllyntaus (Ed.), Economic Crises and Restructuring in History. Experiences of Small Countries. (pp. 23–63). St. Katharinen/Germany: Scripta Mercaturae Verlag.
Pfister, C. (2003). Energiepreis und Umweltbelastung, zum Stand der Diskussion über das “1950er Syndrom, in Wolfram Siemann, Umweltgeschichte, Themen und Perspektiven. (pp. 61–86). München: Beckische Reich.
Pollard, S. (1981). Peaceful Conquest: The Industrialization of Europe, 1760–1970. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Schurr, S., Netschert, B.C. (1970). Energy in the American Economy, 1850–1975: An Economic Study of its History and Prospects. Chicago: Johns Hopkins Press.
Tekniikka & Talous [Technology and Economy], 26 October 2006, 14–21.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Myllyntaus, T. (2011). Farewell to Self-sufficiency: Finland and the Globalization of Fossil Fuels. In: Järvelä, M., Juhola, S. (eds) Energy, Policy, and the Environment. Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation, vol 6. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0350-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0350-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-0349-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-0350-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)