Finland is a relatively small economy on Europe’s northern edge, with a population of just over 5 million concentrated in the south and west of a large country. It became an independent state in 1917, and cultivated before that a long tradition of economic nationalism to ward off domination by Sweden and then Russia. The traditional backbone of the economy used to be the exploitation of natural resources (iron, wood, agricultural products) and associated manufactured products (machinery, ships, paper, clothing and food). The economy was characterised by state monopolies, price regulation and cartels, which had been historically encouraged by a combination of economic, political and geographic factors. Though Finland had long been a member of EFTA and GATT, the dominant trading partner was the Soviet Union....