This article provides historical account of wealth accumulation and composition in Sweden during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A detailed account on capital formation during the industrialisation process shows that produced capital grew faster than natural capital from the 1850s. Natural capital was changing from a predominance of forest towards crop land as the main asset in the early twentieth century. Produced capital was largely bounded in the agriculture sector up till the second half of the nineteenth century. Heavy investments in the infrastructure sector and later in the manufacturing section changed the produced capital structure and thereby lowered transport costs and return of investment in manufacturing and services; providing incentives for accumulating the stock of produced capital and enhance consumption and living standard. The return on capital was dispersed from the outset of the period but has converged over time.
In this article, new estimates of energy consumption in the Swedish manufacturing industry during 1800–1913 are used for interpreting the Swedish industrialisation process from an energy economic perspective. For one we conclude that the revision of previous estimates is substantial when it comes to manufacturing. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the increase of coal consumption, the expansion of the fossil or mineral energy system, to a high degree can be explained by the increased use of steam engines in manufacturing and the transport sector. Finally, we conclude that overall energy intensity patterns is largely determined by assumptions on household firewood consumption. A narrative interpretation of the interplay between energy system transformation and the industrialisation in Sweden concludes the article.