An Institutional Approach to the Göta kanal

"The neglected history of canals in Sweden is illuminated in this original and important book. Dr Björn Hasselgren has written a new and path-breaking transport history of Sweden. This book is important not only for readers interested in Swedish transport history. Through the institutional analysis, the role of the entrepreneurs, and the role of finance, this important work gives new and important knowledge regarding the evolution of transport systems."

This book is based on an institutional evolutionary theoretical view, as presented in author's 2018 book Transport Infrastructure in Time, Scope and Scale. Canals were the major transport infrastructure system besides roads and maritime transport until railroads were introduced. The canal studied is the Swedish Göta kanal during the preparation and construction phase from 1800-1832. Thus, the Göta kanal project, and the canal-era, is seen from a technological, an economic and a political perspective. Comparisons are made with two contemporary major canal-projects; the Erie Canal in the USA (1817-1825) and the Caledonian Canal in Britain (1804-1822). It is argued that the Göta kanal project, as Sweden's Mega Project of its time, represented an important development step in Sweden as regards learning and innovation and became a starting point for Swedish transport infrastructure projects in the time to come, primarily the railways.

Björn Hasselgren is a guest researcher in the Economic History Department of Uppsala University, Sweden and has a Ph.D. in planning and decision analysis from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. He has extensive experience from senior positions in the transport infrastructure sector and the Sveriges Riksbank. His last book, Transport Infrastructure in Time, Scope and Scale: An Economic History and Evolutionary Perspective, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018.