Civilians and military supply in early modern Finland

Abstract

the latter from the 1990s. Geographical coverage of the volume is pretty good although perhaps we learn less about the plight of Bolivia than the other four nations, which is a bit disappointing given it appears to be the poorest performer. The introduction plays a useful role in connecting the work to some of the broader literature. However, it might have provided a more robust empirical framework for the nations being compared, particularly in the form of some of the relevant comparative statistics of their performance and sectoral spread. Some of that material comes out in different chapters but an overarching presentation at the beginning would have been helpful. The conclusion, though, was clear in highlighting many of the principal findings of the study. One area that might have featured more extensively is the role of imperial and quasi-imperial relations in shaping the broader environment and sets of institutions against which the natural resource industries operated. Finally, while the chapters were generally well presented, copy editing for errors in syntax and grammar could have been somewhat sharper. Overall, though, this book constitutes an important contribution to understanding the contrasting plight of different resource-based economies. It is a further historical nail in the coffin of the resource curse school. For some economies natural resources have clearly been a boon, but the overall message is the correct one, ‘Natural resources are not destiny’ (p. 6). There are many other factors driving the economic development of nations as this study has very ably demonstrated.