North of Tuscany conditions were little better. The report of a commercial agent who was sent by the Austrian state to investigate upper Italy in 1754 shows commercial weakness everywhere. The country was divided by tariff barriers into a great number of distinct territories, of which scarcely any were large enough to give play for the development of industries which they were endeavoring to protect. The forces of industry and commerce were scattered and lost among a great number of small towns, and trade was largely controlled by foreigners, both Jewish and Christian. =312. Conditions in the Scandinavian countries.=—It would be unprofitable to attempt here to trace the course of commerce in all the other states of Europe during this period, and this part of the book will close with a brief description of commercial conditions in the North and East. The districts included in Scandinavia are already familiar to the reader as forming an important field for the Hanseatic trade in the Middle Ages. The population was sparse, industry was undeveloped, towns were few and small; the knowledge and capital necessary for an active independent trade were lacking, and people were content to stay at home and let foreign merchants come to them with manufactures and take away their surplus products. The iron industry of Sweden, favored by rich ores, extensive forests for fuel and abundant water power, attained considerable importance; but the exports continued in general to be raw materials, especially those used in food and for ship building. Governments attempted to hurry the development of their peoples by protective duties and by the founding of commercial companies, with slight success. Gustavus Adolphus, a king of Sweden in the seventeenth century, formed the bold project of making the Baltic “a Swedish lake,” by control of the entrance and the coasts, but his successors proved unable to maintain the position which he won. The keys of the Baltic fell into the hands of Denmark, and that country made a good profit by collecting tolls on the flow of a trade to which it contributed little itself.