[ 80 1 
that country. Since 1922, when heavy losses were incurred, mostly on foreign 
contracts, the company has recovered fairly steadily—owing to increased activity 
in the home market caused by State super-power and railway electrification 
schemes. In 1923 the index of employment in the firm may be taken as 100 ; 
in 1924 it had risen to 109, in 1925 to 112, in 1926 to 149, and in 1927 to 147— 
a slight decline on the previous year in 1927 which would indicate that the period 
of maximum activity is coming to an end. The Allminna Svenska has embarked 
now on a policy of expansion abroad through the creation of manufacturing 
subsidiaries on the Swiss model, one company having been formed in Italy this 
year and one in Holland ; its main sphere of influence is still Scandinavia and the 
Baltic States, with occasional orders coming from Belgium, France and Italy. 
In 1926, for example, the Societa Ligure Toscana of Leghorn, the Société Inter- 
communale Belge, and the Kratjak Company in Java, placed contracts for generat- 
ing plant with it. 
Other manufacturers in Sweden are Luth and Rosen A.B. in electric motors, 
also an exporting firm, the Svenska elektromekaniska Industrie A.B. in small 
electrical machinery and apparatus, the Ericsson Company in telephonic and 
telegraphic material, the Kungslampen A.B. and Skandinaviska Glodlampfabriken 
A.B. in lamps, and the Electrolux A.B. in vacuum cleaners. All these firms belong 
to a central association, the Sveniges Elekiroindustriforening, constituted in 1918, 
with much the same functions as the Zentralverband der deutschen elektrotechnischen 
Industrie in Germany, not excluding price-fixing and the imposition of standard 
conditions of contract and production. 
Swedish firms have been in a particularly favourable position during the 
last few years owing to State electrical activity, and, on the basis of profits result- 
ing from large home orders, have been able to develop exports very considerably. 
Swedish electrical production generally reached a record level in 1919 at £7,700,000. 
From that point it fell to £3,200,000 in 1922, and has recovered since then to over 
£4.500.000. Of this total, 40 per cent. is exported—a sufficiently high figure.