<TITLE: Social History of Finland
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: social sciences
DISCIPLINE: social history
EVENT TYPE: lecture
FILE ID: ULEC020
NOTES: 

RECORDING DURATION: 89 min 50 sec

RECORDING DATE: 28.11.2002

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: unknown

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 3

S1: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Finnish; ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: male; AGE: 31-50

S2: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Polish; ACADEMIC ROLE: masters student; GENDER: female; AGE: 24-30

S3: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Japanese; ACADEMIC ROLE: undergraduate; GENDER: female; AGE: 17-23

SU: unidentified speaker

SS: several simultaneous speakers>


<S1> my name is <NAME S1> , and i'm going to give you a short lecture on finnish economic and social history , and i'm sorry about the last thursday i was supposed to be here then but i wasn't and , in a way it was not my fault because i had too many duties in the university administration and you know the administration always , goes before , education , so that sorry for that and and how many student there's <S2> [(xx)] </S2> [supposed] to be </S1>
<S2> (xx) probably most of them thought that the last week was the last meeting [(xx)] </S2>
<S1> [okay] yes it was logical <S2> yeah </S2> okay anyway i hope you put your name here . <SOMEONE ENTERS> welcome <P:13> and here is also some copies of of the pictures which i will show you , and she will be recording my speech 'cause she's doing research on people who try to speak english <SS> @@ </SS> and he he he (xx) and what kind of mistakes i'm making all the time . something like that </S1>
<SU> @well not so much like that@ </SU>
<S1> @okay@ <P:07> sorry i have i have now this desk here but i try to manage without it . so . my topic is social history of finla- finland from 1800 to 2000 but my , view to the time is that why finland developed that means how finland could avoid so-called poverty trap or has been able to avoid so-called poverty trap during the past 200 years so this is a broad description of of the social history of finland but er basically a description how finland became modernised . but my emphasis is of course economic and social history because i see modernisation basically an economic phenomenon . but i would like to start with this kind of picture . have you any idea what what this might be . it's of course said in french here <FOREIGN> (xx)finlandais </FOREIGN> . well that picture was that's from the year 1800 and it was drawn by an italian , er <NAME> he visited finland in 1799 and then he published a book about his journey to scandinavia and this picture is from from his book from the year 1804 and the book was published in london , and in this picture , it is accompanied by a- accompanied by text which explains that . this guy here giuseppe tries to get into the sauna which is er full of young ladies and he tries to get in but he can't do it because because er the sauna is too hot , and he , er then he er starts to explain the specific nature of the finnish people , how finns can take hot baths but he can't and the explanation is that , that the finns have different physical nature than italians i don't know if it's true , but , i took this example because in those days people commonly believed that each nation had a special character , as a , result of long term development , and not only language , and beliefs and habits were different or distinctive but also the physical shape of peop- of the people as well , and those special features of of of , of the nations had been shaped by nature by climate by diet and that's kind of physical things , and most important was that er the quality of people the qualities were inherited , so it was believed that the characters we people had also those characters which we call today culture were in the genes of the of the people . and also scientists of those days believed that a- that as a result of long term development some nations were more developed than the others so there were modified , better people and less developed nations and for example the british regarded finns as nomad people , deriving from the mongols and that was for a long time problem for the finns to to prove for the rest of europe that we are not mongols which was then regarded something er less positive , finns instead tried to prove that that that that the finnish nations finnish nation derives mostly from the german origin , and today if you have studied the the last er er results of the gene er studies er the finns are er nearest to the belgians which is somehow strange perhaps it's just an accident but anyway it proves that that all the europeans have sa- have the same genes just like all the people on the globe are of of the same origin that all the europeans have basically the same or let's say fully the same genes even though people have different hairs and so on . well that kind of stuff belongs . welcome . that kind of stuff and or beliefs belong to the 19th century but even today the dominating view to to finnish history . is that , that finland is something different something different from other european nations , and i think that is a still today so popular because people like stereotypes , they like to believe that in that kind of difference is between nations , and most people still in finland believe that because we have a a a distinct distinctive language that we have also somehow distinctive origin that we be- we became from the siberia about 10,000 years ago well , today it is self evident that finns have not come from siberia more than other europeans . there was a heroic story of course that er that that finns originally came from the east and then they moved westwards westwards and then they finally finally found christianity and then they became civilised , people so they became european . well that , that theory was created in the 19th century as part of the finnish nationalism and today that theory is not s- seen to be valid anymore , when finland joined european union in 1995 er everybody here has been emphasising we have always been europeans . so that's one version of finnish history but that's not my my version today my as i said my approach to finnish history , is to study the process called modernisation <COUGH> , and if we look backwards about 200 years , it is self evident that the most important er feature in in in the history of this society has been social change . and <COUGH> what is er still most still more important is that the change which has taken place in finland in the past 200 years is very much the same change which has taken place in the whole europe , so finland is not at all different from the rest of europe if we think of of the shape of of the society or if we think of economy and social structure that kind of things <COUGH> <P:07> but <COUGH> modernisation in finland , anyway has been to some extent different from the european average and by average we usually mean what has happened in germany in france or in britain , finland <COUGH> is not less average than greece or spain or so <COUGH> , and there are three aspects in which er er er finland is somehow different modernisation in finland started let's say later than in the european core areas and finland has been er modernised let's say basically or mostly in the 20th century and especially after world war two , and because of that late start modernisation in finland has been exceptionally rapid compared to another european countries things has have gone or changed more quickly , and thirdly modernisation in finland has taken place in a somewhat unique political context which is , between , east and west as a neighbour of soviet union <COUGH> it is also often said that finland is different or special due to it's nordic location , we easily believe that climate or environment are the most er characteristic pictures for the finnish society , in my mind nature has played a surprisingly small role in social change . for example or it is true that cold climate has a a somehow affect- let's say affected agriculture we have no wineries and that kind of things but on the on the other hand clod- er er er cold climate has also encouraged people to develop technology to overcome that kind of difficulties . and if you know something about forestry <COUGH> i can tell you that <COUGH> er nordic areas in finland are very favourable for forestry , and that is because cutting wood is easier in the wintertime it's easier to move in the forest because the er because the land has is frozen you can you can er drive by trucks in the forest in the wintertime not in the summertime , and if if the wood is cut in the winter it's not spoiled soon because it er keeps frozen until spring , so that's why you can have er huge piles of wood in the finnish forest but you can't find that kind of piles of cut wood in central europe , because all that (xx) animals would destroy , timber <COUGH> , and in the in the 19th century or or early 20th century er frozen lakes and frozen rivers er er very much helped to er to move er timber from from forest to to saw mills and you also certainly know that the first saw mills were er located by rivers and produced er hydropower of the rivers for sawing <COUGH> <P:07> if we try to er define modernisation i would say first that it is a very complicated thing , and modernisation is not just a change of social structures , towards what we have now but i would emphasise that modernisation includes also change in the ways of thinking , and that is important , and that means that during the past 150 years people have understood that the society is changing , and they have wanted to change things and change as such has been evaluated as a positive matter , because change has been seen as a promise of better future , so that people could have better future on earth not only in heaven , and this way of thinking has changed rapidly let's say since the 18th century , also in finland people , at least in the first half of the 19th century still believed that things go better if the if things (won't) change . and also two major ideologies of the of the 20th century i mean capitalism and socialism both have been aware very future oriented ways of thinking they both give promises from change towards a better society <COUGH> , so to sum to sum up clo- er shortly er modernisation has been a also a conscious and intentional project to change the world it has been or it is a mentality which values everything new everything which is new . is is seen something valuable , er modernisation has been of course criticised also here but in general modernisation in finland has always enjoyed large public support , the most visible opposition has been the church defending , the global materialisation of everyday life and things like that , but also intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century many intellectuals were ra- rather critical to modernisation because they were so much worried about the moral degeneration of the lower classes , so it was said it was er said in this way that if your life becomes too easy then your morality will collapse so hard work keeps you working all the time and then you have less time for all kinds of sins . and of course young people have all been always been has been seen as er as a moral danger in the society , then some hard facts , i think you have this picture also in in the copies <PREPARING OVERHEAD, P:17> where where where is the pile <P:13> okay now we have enough , so in this picture you can see , three variables describing modernisation and these variables show very clearly how rapidly , finnish and all european societies have changed during the 20th century , and i have taken here these three because these are , close er indices of development which i see the most important , er er when we talk about modernisation of the society , so the first one and the most important is is growth of of of domestic product which is economic growth per capita , and for the first time in human history economic growth has been constant and rapid this has not happened before we can take 10,000 years er before and and the line would be something like this , this 10,000 years of no growth or one per cent annual growth and then suddenly this change and especially rapid change after world war two . this economic growth has been , or it's connected , to a s- rapid structural change of the economy which is here described by the share of agricult- agriculture in the number of emplo- employment so industrialisation has made has produced this decline of agriculture which has happened in all european societies but especially in finland and especially rapidly in finland during the past let's say 40 years , in the in the year 1960 majority of the finnish people still lived in the countryside , now the percentage is about ten to 15 and the number of of farmers of the (xx) population is three to four per cent . and the third er big factor has been demographic transition which i'll explain later more closely here is one er variable describing demographic transition that is fertility rate and fertility rate , tells you how many children there are per family in average that is the number of children has declined from five to 1.5 <P:07> this is average bec- because many of the women had eight to seven or even ten children </S1>
<S2> excuse me can you please er put the source of the erm the data what's the source , i mean who's the author </S2>
<S1> er the author is me @@ </S1>
<SS> @@ </SS>
<S2> [@okay@] </S2>
<S1> [but] . but . and the first page in the first page in the . of the copies is is is the contents of of a book of mine which has not been published @yet@ but the name of the book will be , er </S1>
<S2> it is (xx) </S2>
<S1> no it's it will be published in english </S1>
<S2> it is going to be published [or it is already published] </S2>
<S1> [yes it is] it will be published <S2> yeah but </S2> not yet [(xx) at least] </S1>
<S2> [uh-huh] but is it published in finnish </S2>
<S1> no , because i i have made it all in english , but you can find all this data also in the office of statistic of of finland which has been published in english so . i'm happy to tell you tell you that the office of statistics in finland has been published in english and in french and in partly in german and in swedish from the very beginning , so you can find those copies in the library if you try hard <P:08> well this er demographic change has produced a , a a continual decline of fertility decline of mortality and as result of that , er a lowering of population growth long life an ageing population i will show you some pictures about that later . well these features has been difficult have been difficult for all modernised and industrialised countries , and now these changes are taking place in some asian socie- african african countries . for example for example in china and it has all- already taken place in in in taiwan and singapore and those small asian countries , so finland has followed this kind of development path , but 200 years ago finland was a european periphery and a swedish colony , and 200 years ago finland was among the poorest places on earth and that was evidenced by many foreigners including thomas malthus who , who wrote in his famous book essay on population a s- a chapter about finland , and in in the in the in the later er print of the book and malthus predicted , that the finns will starve er in the er in the in the near future because of the extremely rapid population growth he found here , because malthus studied the finnish population statistics which were already then available and he found that the growth was in finland much higher than in in in central or southern europe and the food production in finland was let's say , poor that's why finland was a good example for him how the population is growing more rapidly than food production and he was right about finland then <P:06> the other nation which was as poor as finland was in (xx) was ireland . and you know about something about ireland in those days <COUGH> . well that means that 200 years ago finland was a a fully agrarian , society which was then in the so-called poverty trap so in a way finland was then a a typical developing country , and here i have listed some features what is meant that er that some er that a society is called developing country of course the term was not developed in those days , and we call this a funny term developing country prac- as you know practical units and undeveloped society something a society which will be developing perhaps . but <COUGH> in those days er it was typical for finland that , the productivity in agriculture was very low which means that for example the seed harvest ratio was between two and five and you know what that means <P:08> so it means that , if you hav- if if you have two see- if you have one seed you will get er two to five as a result of the of the cultivation . today the ratio is between er 20 and 30 <P:08> and burn-beating which was the method of agriculture cultivation in those days was really was really land usi- land consuming and ineffect- ineffective that way burn-beating means that you cut the wood and then you burn it you make you make the cultivation in the ashes , so it's a way of of <COUGH> . of cultivation , let's say , er er primitive way of cultivation and population growth exceeded economic growth in the first half of the of 19th century , and that is why food was imported to finland for many years , and by food is meant here , basic basic materials grain which were imported mostly from russia but also from germany and poland , and later from the united states even . there was no large scale industry at all in finland in the first half of the 19th century , and also very few artisans and helsinki was a tiny village about 5,000 persons living in helsinki in those days . the fertility and mortality rates were high which meant that people had many children but most of not most of them but about 30 40 per cent of the children died before their first year . because of the poor nutrition level this poor diet the whole standard of living was poor in in modern standards , low literacy rate means that most of the people could not read , and only few could write <COUGH> , and it's typical for that kind of so- that kind of society that administration is also autocratic there was no idea it's not even idea of democracy in those days . and there was minimum social and career mobility which meant , or we could say that poor people had no chance for (career) mobility even though there are some exceptions of course . finland was exporting something . in in in purpose to be in purpose to import grain and what was exported was raw materials like raw timber butter and tar , timber and tar were exported to mostly to britain and to netherlands and butter was impor- exported to er stockholm and and st petersburg <P:06> finns were lucky that there was there was high er demand for timber and and tar because the british navy was er was er expanding in those days and and they needed huge amounts of tar to cover the ships . it is said that there would be no british commonwealth or without the finnish tar <P:07> well it is it is always reminded that in the year 1867 and 68 finland experienced a huge a hunger crisis which is the last one in europe , and as much as 15 per cent of the population died in two years . for hunger and diseases , and that that was a deeper crisis er than the crisis of ireland 20 years earlier <P:06> and 15 15 per cent of the population is very much <P:07> people here in tampere er er didn't er suffer that much because there was a wealthy wealthy wealthy factory owner in tampere named nottbeck who brought cereals from st petersburg and there were also some englishmen living in tampere who who collected support support from from britain to to local people . and i i i didn't take with me but there's a one of the first pictures from this area is from those years and in that in that picture a number of englishmen is standing here in tampere and er behind a table er full of food and they took a picture of themselves before , they gave the food er to the poor they didn't take picture of the poor er , who who who got the . and then they sent the picture to to london to tell people that how they have been helping these poor (xx) <COUGH> . well since that , since 1860s the finnish economy began to de- develop to other direction , to a direction which we now see has been very positive <COUGH> . and why did that change to- take place , i think most likely for the same reasons as in other european countries and we can't say exactly what all the reasons were , but i can give you anyway a list of or explanation for the economic and social modernisation since that , and if you don't mind i go this list through <COUGH> <P:08> so what has happened to the past 200 years the most important thing has been the , economic growth . and . economic growth means as you know , in everyday life we see as growth or industry jobs better communications (xx) markets expansion of trade and , things like that . and when we speak about economic growth er , we must ask where does the growth come from . and <COUGH> . mostly the economic growth we have enjoyed , er has come from the rise of productivity in the manufacturing sector . and that is a result of as economists say the result of of inputs plus skills . that is , that we use the resources that we have more effectively than before . and in the very long run it is easy to see that we , have become become we are have become able to produce more products with less work and with less costs and as a result of that we get more material goods at lower price , which we then see as as a rising standard of living better food better clothes , better housing and finally better services <P:05> er i shall return this but i would say that er or to notify that er basically this economic growth is a very simple formula , we do more work with better tools . but as a result of that <COUGH> , the structure of economy and o- and occupations change when less when less productive jobs jobs are replaced by more productive jobs . and that takes pla- that takes place in two ways or has taken place , people move from agriculture to industrial sector and to service sector because those jobs are better paid and they are and they are better paid because they are more productive . or the other way is that er agriculture production requires less and less hands because , they can employ machinery in agriculture production <P:05> there is among the copies er one er titled decline of of of of agriculture but i shall comment it later the other factor is or has been accumulation of knowledge which means investments in education and it is clear that higher education level the population it means higher , productivity men have better intellectual social and technical resources to work they are more capable to make innovations and people are capable to calculate the benefits which is not taking place let's say in a previous society . about 100 years ago , some finnish economists complained that finland was er at war with economy and finland would never become an industrialised society that was about 100 year ago and they found the basic reason for that er as in the national character of the finns . they claimed that the finns had no capitalist spirit . capitalist (xx) , the idea was taken from a (xx) song . <FOREIGN> der neue rhythmus </FOREIGN> (xx) spirit cannot be found in finland because finns were slow in their movements and slow in their thinking that is ignorant and stubborn or lazy and the same economist compared the finnish mentality to the british mentality or british and explained that when the british said that time is money , the finnish concluded that god created the world but mentioned no hurry , or there's another way so that there's no hurry because there is time coming more all the time <P:05> so it was believed that finland would never , industrialise because of this er poor level of education , that critics was right was basically right but also <COUGH> er but but not not totally right because already at the turn of the century that is about hundreds ago the education level of the finns was not that poor most finns went to school because it was compulsory the university was expanding rapidly many finns studied abroad especially in germany . and the finns had much educational and scientific contacts er with with with europe and also with united states , for example if you have been to a bar named plevna in in tampere you know the place yes it's the place where the electric light was er er was the first in in in in europe actually and electric light came to finland to finland tampere so early because the son of the factory owner younger mr nottbeck was working in new york as an assistant to thomas alva edison and that's why he took the lamp and immediately with him to tampere when when edison invented it . the second (xx) was was the group activism . and most important in my mind is that the number of girls in secondary schools in finland was in the turn of the 20th century higher than any other country . and that proved to be a very important thing because in the long run long run female education has everywhere proved to be a very good investment in social development <P:05> it liberated women from home work partly , and especially when women were educated they also were very interested interested in educating their children , so the education female education was very important for creating an education optimism in the society , that you can get benefits from education . er that happened in finland because it was it was emphasised by political leaders of those days that the nation can't be can't become strong only through education and that's that's why also girls were put into school , much more often than in sweden or in britain or in germany or france . the third factor in the modernisation has been . demographic transition which means the rapid decline of birth and death rates especially in infant mortality . and that change took place in finland in the beginning of the 20th century . and it meant that people began to be more healthy they found themselves that they live they live longer they took even life insurances and they began family planning to secure better life for themselves and for their children and that was a very important turn in , family planning began in finland quite quickly er er between years 1910 and 1920 . in the 30s an average family had only three children and 30 years earlier the number was about six . this er interactional family planning meant smaller families and in fact better resources for each , so that was the birth of modern nuclear family and this was not no not only a demographic or economic change but also a mental change , because that meant that people began to design their life course in the in the long run or in the long perspective , and it was realistic because people found that you can design your life . people didn't do that as we know a 100 years earlier because they believed that they can die any day that's why it's not worth planning too much . that was the kind of rationalisation of life and i think that has been very er important factor er er to make society let's say more effective or more planned . because er history tells us that you cannot combine . high economic growth with high population growth , you you have , you er one you can have only one of those and you know that today china is trying to modernise the society putting very strong emphasis on on birth and birth control , the fourth factor which has not been also discussed so much but it is but it is important is political stability . er and i believe that political stability has very important precondition for success for modernisation . it has been said that capitalism and democracy need each other , and it is a and it's true that democracy has won , everywhere where we find economic success and vice versa , and that is because success for business needs both liberty , and predictability which is stability , which is democracy usually , in finnish history we often mhm overemphasise the role of political crises that we had these difficult years with the russia then we had civil war then we had second world war and so on er that is true but in my mind more difficult for the finnish society than those political crises has been political stability er , i can give you one example when we had civil war in 1918 only two years after that the finnish republic was er im- emerged and the strongest political party two years after civil war was the same socialist party which began the revolution two years ago . so the er er the the red part which which lost the civil war were not excluded from the society but taken in er rather rapidly and that was very important for stabilising that er the society , for example in tampere <COUGH> which was is which played a major role in the civil war , already six months after the struggles of tampere there was election here and the socialist party won majority in the civil council and they er run the city have have ha- have been running the city since then . and in the early 20s er crucial social reforms were carried out in finland the land reform er communal reform parliamentary reform and so on , and also the modern welfare state in finland is based on political political and social com- compromise which we call consensus and today the central role of the state in the finnish society this is a very state run society , it is not challenged even by the big companies because they feel that the that the strong state in a society like finland is actually or actually supporting er with business for example education (xx) , and the fifth factor which is , i think perhaps the mo- most boring but in my mind the most important of of which i know most the favourable position in the world economy that is to say that er economic success or economic change which has taken place in finland , er has not been made by the finns alone at all , it is a fact that finland has been in many ways in a very lucky position in the global economic development . but because we have not been so lucky in political terms we often forget that we have been very lucky in economic terms , that is to say that finland has benefited from its connections to the world economy more than many other countries er i describe you some of these features of these things (xx) . we can er take five phases of of how the finnish economy has been connected to world economy , and the first one is the phase of early industrialisation since 1840s until the first world world war and in those in that time when finland was part of the russian empire er finland had a kind of double linkage to world economy we were a part of the western economy and also a part of the eastern er economy mostly the economy of of russian empire which was also huge kind of system , and , we benefited from that situation so that finland could export tar timber butter and that kind of raw materials to the western markets where there was a expanding or growing demand for that kind of of of of products because most of the europe was urbanising rapidly , for example the consumption of er of butter in london was growing much more rapidly than the finns than the finns could make but , on the other hand there was a a growing a a demand for er for manufactured goods in the russian markets so the finns were able to export to russia er er especially paper and the finnish paper industry which is nowadays world famous for its high technology and productivity and so on it was fully er based on the russian market in the in the 19th century there wouldn't be finnish paper industry without er the demand of of st petersburg . and on the other hand finn- finns could import cheap food stuff from the russian market , and so on and still <COUGH> as finland was part of the russian empire (xx) very special customs arrangements , the finnish products were er protected by high russian customs from the competition er er of the of of the western countries . so well and er and in the same time er er the export of finnish products to the russian markets was duty free , so finland was in a in a very special situation legally , and i can give you one example from tampere you know the finlayson co- cotton mill which used which which used to be the largest enterprise in scandinavia about 100 years ago <COUGH> er it was found by founded by scotsman but the capital for the company came from russian merchants and from london and the owners were actually germans (xx) germans named nottbeck and rauch and they educated their children in berlin and and switzerland . and the bookkeeper of the company was of course german . er who always who is said to be famous for his saying that <FOREIGN> (xx) </FOREIGN> so you need a protestant to be a a good to have a bookkeeper , and the engineers of the company came from britain and france er and germany the foremen came from sweden the machinery was imported from germany and from belgium and the cotton was imported from the united states , the only finnish thing in that big company was the young female workers who came from this er area around around tampere , so er the first finnish big industrial enterprise was fully based on foreign resources , and we were just lucky that they took the resources resources here the situation is very much same as is as it is today in developing countries for example in the for example the so-called free economic areas in china , so there wouldn't be industrial history of tampere without the russian economic policy which favoured that kind of activity as i described to you in the case of er of finlayson company <COUGH> , the second phase er was the growth of home market at the turn of the century and it was typical for that period especially when fin- when finland was when finland became independent that home markets were protected by high customs , and that made it possible for the finnish industry to develop er in the home markets and also finns were in those days very active in importing technology from from from european countries . after world war two finland had again a very favourable position in the world economy , because the finns were able to or they actually they were forced to have much trade with the soviet union that was politically unpleasant but it was economically er er very pleasant for finns because the finnish companies could export er consumer goods to russian markets almost as much as they could er make , and on the other hand they could buy cheap oil from the so- soviet union , so that bilateral trade favoured finland . and in the same time finland was able to export paper and that kind of er or product of higher value to the western markets . and since the 50s finland was slowly integrated also to the european er economic system first finland became member of the EFTA and then and then world trade organisation and then a member of economic community and and and and in the end member of european union , and still one factor about this er period which is perhaps difficult to understand but but <COUGH> , finland has had during the past 100 years a very favourable , er positive terms of trade and you have if you have studied e- economics you know know what is terms of trade , it's a relation er of between exports and imports prices and , finland has been in the situation that the prices of those goods which we import have declined and the prices of those goods which we export have increased so we can import more with less exports and that brings a trade wealth in the country . the last phase i call i call globalisation and technical revolution of the late 20th century and again we were er lucky because in the same time when the global economy expanded , er finland was very well prepared er to produce er new kind of information technology that was not planned it was a it was a happy accident . for example when tampere university of technology began to invest heavily in signal technology in the 80s they had no idea of mobile phones but the it was we were only only lucky that mobile phones became a mass product in the 90s when the technology had been developed very much here in tampere . so there was the infrastructure ready for signal technology and also for other er er phone technology . er finland was the only , only european country where <COUGH> private telephone companies were allowed er in the 20th century or let's say until the 80s so the system was much more effective than for example in germany or in britain or in france where the where telecommunications were very strongly or strictly regulated , and that had created let's say business innovations which then which then prove proved to be favourable , also the internet revolution has been lucky for us because the finnish state ministry of education and so on they began to invest heavily on on on on internet and other information technology already in the early 9- early 1990s and even in 1992 the government of finland even declared finland the first democratic information society it was then regarded a big joke but but somehow they guessed guess they were right this about the future . and er let's say in the 90s finland already had a very developed communica- elec- electronic communication systems compared to bigger countries , for example when i lived in the states in the early 90s i was surprised that i was not able to use the bank card i had to write cheques and so on and everything was very difficult if you went to another state you need another bank card because it was it was not valid in the second state , and when i tried to buy a car by cash i was not sold a car because if you had so much cash you are you are not a reliable person so i had to take american credit card to be reliable person <COUGH> . but they did did not accept my finnish credit card of course not <COUGH> <P:07> and when i and i and when i was making phone calls i was surprised that somebody was answering where are you where where are you going to call thank you i'll connect you that was like 100 years ago in finland <SS> @@ </SS> <P:05> well then there are , two questions in the end which also may be a part of the explanation of rapid modernisation in finland it is said that or it's true that there are always late comers in social development a late comer it is a it can't be a positive thing if you are an open or a good late comer you can benefit from all that has been invented elsewhere , and that is it's true that that finland finland has been in lucky position also so that for example the technology which has technology which has been developed in central europe it has been very easy to adopt it to finland , and finns has been finns have been willing to do that because we have had let's say open borders and open minds somehow . and then there are of course these benefits of of a small society it is true that many things are much more easier to do in a small society than in a big society and if you compare for example finland and united states there's a huge different how easily things can be made here in the same way on national level , or if you compare finland with russia or even with germany , so there are no so many dividing lines in the society and when the government decides to do something it's easy to . easy to make . the only society where internet is is used more effect more effectively than in finland is iceland which is a still smaller country <P:08> okay <COUGH> i forgot one picture i can show it because it is german , this picture was published in in the german magazine die welt in in the early 90s when the finnish economy was in a very good shape and we were regarded to be among the , super rich nations the <FOREIGN>  superreichen </FOREIGN> together with switzerland japan and luxem- luxembourg and today now those countries are not that category because luxembourg cannot be taken need not to be taken seriously but <SS> @@ </SS> sorry if there is any so it's it's such a it's it's not it's not the same kind of society at all as these bigger countries , switzerland is not is not well it's very rich country still today but it also in a very difficult situation because all the extreme er er high prices and so on and they have difficulties how to develop the society if they keep it closed , and the japanese economy has collapsed in in in in in ten years and also finland is not is not that that that high as it used to be ten years ago because we had this depression same kind of crisis crisis as as as was in japan . today finland is this second category together with united states and germany and so on <P:08> then i could give you some concrete example of these changes i can comment some of the pictures i have delivered to you and i have here some more if you're not too tired of it not too tired <SU> no </SU> okay <COUGH> . here's a list which i have made , a list of of of innovations , it is a , it's a very let's say (xx) description of of what has been new in the society in various times but it is funny to look at , if i if if you don't have nothing else to do in the evening so you can you can study it at home but the idea is that there are several er levels of society or categories <READING ALOUD> environment economy population everyday life institutions world view information (xx) and beliefs </READING ALOUD> and i have tried to described what things have been new in these fields in those those periods of time and this , the la- the last line tries to describe you in what things people have believed . and what has been what have what what have been those new things in in which people have believed , and in the first half of the of the of the 19th century it was the spirit which it was talked about the national spirit which would give us strength and so on and and following this spirit the idea came from germany from hegel this spirit was developing this national spirit the so- the society would develop and the later half of the century people or let's say the most intellectual people believed in the machines how they would change the world world , and then we became state believers we we get independent state and all the problems would be solved and so on . the interwar period was , was time for believing in hard work every finn every finn should work hard and and everything would change good in that way , in the post-war years we believed in development and planning , and in the 90s we believed in stock values but not anymore </S1>
<SS> @@ </SS>
<S3> the spirit defined <S1> pardon </S1> the spirit defined the finnish sisu sisu , yeah spirit , that spirit means finnish sisu S-I-S-U , sisu </S3>
<S1> what is </S1>
<S3> finnish spirit my finnish friend told me </S3>
<SU> sisu do you know </SU>
<S3> sisu yeah </S3>
<S1> (xx) </S1>
<SU> sisu </SU>
<S1> sisu yeah no yes in a way in a way sisu but it that that's theoretical @@ <S3> okay </S3> spirit it was talk about world spirit which is er the theory of of of the development of er of of history of world history and national spirit was a part of the world spirit and if the national spirit could follow the trend of the world spirit then er the society would er develop in the right correction so it was that that spirit i mean by it was a philosophical er concept or concept of philosophy , <COUGH> i would more talk about about sisu here in the interwar years when sisu is something that , so if you were yes if you work hard and you believe in what you do , in my mind sisu is not always positive it's it's also somehow somehow idiotic too . you can't go through a rock with with plain sisu you need some machinery too <P:08> then i have very interesting picture which you have too , this is er the workers real wage in in a very long period this is to tell you that , or describe how late phenomenon this economic growth has been , so 100 years ago the the average real wage was about one tenth of what we have today so . things have well this describe how , how the material life or standard of living has changed . for there was very little growth before the 20th century <COUGH> and if you understand anything about mathematics here is the same picture in logarithmic scale and i i i'm not asking you what what this might tell you tell us i i i tell you that that this picture shows how <DISC CHANGE> we know how much we earn next week and so on in the future and that tells very mu- tells very much about the stabilisation of the economy , so that modern economy even we have this stock value problems and so it's very stable compared to the agrarian economy where the people were er so dependent on on on the harvest if the weather conditions were fine the harvest was good if the weather was bad the harvest was poor so life has become secure and that is the major message <COUGH> . and here is a picture of the populations of population structure population by occupation and <COUGH> this part , that is the popula- agriculture population and here we can see in a very dramatic way how , how big the share of agriculture population was in the 19th century and how small it is today <P:06> and what is growing to has grown most ra- most rapidly during the past (xx) has been the service sector and this category non occupied adults i will comment that later <COUGH> . and here's another picture of the primary sector another way to describe how agriculture has declined during the past 50 years . it is the number of population working with agriculture , so it was about two millions 50 years ago and now it's few hundred thousands <P:08> and here a picture of social classes which is a bit different than than population by occupation . working class rural working class which has disappeared from finland there is no class of rural workers anymore but it was the biggest class that (xx) about 100 years ago and the number of farmers has disapp- declined radically and here is a category of welfare class or non-adult non occupied adults and this welfare class , er includes er er , the retired people the students and the unemployed it's those people who get their living probably er from the state <P:12> as public er er er transfers . and today the this category that's the welfare class is the largest by number today . that's why we we must have high taxes because the retired people and students must live too , and here is a picture about the , income distribution . today finland has the most equal income distribution in the de- of of the of the developed countries , the other opposite is united states which has the most <SIC> inequal </SIC> income distribution but this has not been the case always , about 100 years ago you can see that professionals like university professors they earned about ten times more than industrial workers and today we make only two times as much as they do it is a very sad of course <SS> @@ </SS> <P:09> big change happened alre- happened already in the 20s er er as as a result of the inflation of the of the world war years and i can tell you that in 9- in the year 1914 er jean sibelius bought er new shoes from london and he paid for those hand made shoes 3,000 marks which was more than workers' annual wage of those days <P:05> sibelius was also indebted for er about 90,000 marks which was a huge amount compared to the fact that the average annual er salary was about two to 3000 marks . and here's a picture of the average family budget . in the 20th century , and <COUGH> this figure this line figures total consumption of how much people consume the value of that that is the percentage of food that's di- dif- difficult change that more you have money less you spend of it on food . so you spend your money on something else i have also some fun some tables about how s- different social classes spent their money but i think i have no time for that but for example if you are univer- university professor you usually er er or if if if you are wealthy person you er you you , you smoke cigars if you are a student you will smoke cigarettes <SS> @@ </SS> . and if you are a wealthy person you don't you don't eat more but you eat more expensive meals . here's a picture in finnish unfortunately i want to tell you only only only one thing that is the this line here is the population growth in the cities in finland , and this negative figure is the population growth in in in the countryside in rural areas , and this line here is the number of emigrated people so we have had two emigration waves the first one 100 years agos year ago when about 300,000 finns moved to united states and other wave in the 1960s when al- when again about 300,000 person moved to sweden . moving to sweden was was one way of modernising finland er let's say that the overpopulation of the countryside moved to sweden <P:09> and still one picture this is , about the current population structure in here you can see how things have changed in in about 50 years , we have smaller families that is less children in number , housewives are a disappearing category in finland but the number of retired people students and unemployed is growing all the time and they make about one point half million people these categories , in the 5,000,000 population it is very much and that causes this er er economic problem of a welfare state er and causes this tax load <COUGH> so we have more and more older and older people and that will be a true problem in all european countries <P:07> okay i think that is all but even though you are in a hurry . i ask you to . fill this form . it is . it is done in all courses in our department even though this course is not ours but organised somebody else (xx) <P:10> any questions </S1>
<S2> i have a question <S1> pardon </S1> i have a question about this how could you er describe or can you predict in the next let's say ten years er the way finnish er industry is going to in which direction is going to to go because right now high (xx) the number still er er very good er social care erm but at the same time there is a question of erm constant erm well the the market is poor i mean the all all the high tech is er well there is the constant fear that er high tech is going to de- decrease so finnish er finland is a small country er of course with great prosperity er do you think that it's possible that somehow it can suffer from sudden breakdown something like this </S2>
<S1> yes it is possible i think that is something er there can be an economic crisis which comes from somewhere else i think that there there hardly is any any any deep crises from internal reasons , because this is a small society but but it's true that that the crisis of any crisis of global economy can effect finland very badly </S1>
<S2> yeah the same <S1> [yes] </S1> [as it was] at the beginning of 90s </S2>
<S1> yes <S2> mhm </S2> may happen , we have we we should be prepared for that and and we are or finland is howe- however in a in a reasonably good position because for example er we have no much er electronic production we have much engineers er designing and planning (xx) products but the actual factories were where where for example computers mobile phones are made they are in estonia hungary thailand china and this crisis will hit er first in those places because they have to fire people and it is predicted that er it has been predicted that in the coming five to ten years we will have in some areas a serious lack of labour force especially in the service sector and in the social care and so on because , there are so many people so so many persons retiring in the coming er in the coming ten years or so and the and the generation which is following that , er er post war generation is only half of the size so we have in a way we have lack of young people and it is self evident that after estonia will er become member of the european union there will be a constant flow of labour force from estonia to finland </S1>
<S2> or from russia is it possible that there's </S2>
<S1> in a way also perhaps from russia because it is easy to come from russia to <S2> [yes yeah] </S2> [estonia] and and then again from there to finland . but i can also tell you that things have never gone in the way people have planned , i have studied much of those forecasts which has been made in finland in the 20th century and and usually they are badly wrong but the happy side of the story is that things have usually gone better than it has than then has been predicted <P:11> thank you </S1>
