The ‘Adam Smith of the North': Meet Finland's Founding Father of Classical Liberalism by Lawrence Reed

Recommendable! If you want to better understand the people of Scandinavia, here is some food for thought!

"... Intellectually a product of the Enlightenment, Chydenius was a Lutheran priest from Finland who served in the legislature of Sweden. (Finland was a part of Sweden until 1809, as was Norway until 1905). He was also much more, enough to earn him the description of “Renaissance Man” in some quarters. Aside from being a pastor, politician, and writer, he was a scientist, inventor, musician, eye surgeon, a vaccination pioneer and founder of a respected orchestra. ...

Anders Chydenius laid out his economic prescription for mercantilist [Sweden-Finland] in The National Gain in 1765, suggesting a concept of spontaneous order eleven years before Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations: “Every individual spontaneously tries to find the place and the trade in which he can best increase National gain, if laws do not prevent him from doing so.” For Chydenius, freedom and diligence were the foundations of an economically prosperous nation; direction from the government only gummed up the gears of a natural system of human interaction."

The ‘Adam Smith of the North': Meet Finland's Founding Father of Classical Liberalism - Foundation for Economic Education Anders Chydenius championed freedom of the press, free trade, and equal rights before the law regardless of race, and freedoms of speech and religion.