FISKARS 1649 – 360 years of Finnish industrial history

Fiskars 1649
Fiskars 1649
Independence
Expansion and modernization
At first, the First World War had little
impact on Finland. In the metal industry,
the situation even improved, with
growing orders from the Russian army. In 1917,
however, political developments in the Russian
Empire led to the execution of Tsar Nicholas II
and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. In
December 1917, Finland issued its Declaration of
Independence: the next year, the country drifted
into a civil war that confirmed its independence
as a nation. The upheavals of these years caused
the metal industry to lose its extensive Russian
market. Efforts were made to compensate for
this by winning a bigger market share in Western
Europe and the Baltic states, which were now
independent.
In 1920, Finland was accepted as a member
of the League of Nations, which in 1921 decided
that Åland was to be governed by Finland. An
act restricting daily working hours to eight was
The product range was widened by measures such as the founding of a spring factory in Finland. Fiskars supplied suspension to
many Scandinavian makes of lorry. The picture shows spring making in the 1940s in the factory at Pohjankuru.
On the left: Test cutting of fabric has been used as a product quality control measure for a long time.
38
39