Scandinavia was one of the few regions in the world whose economic importance to both Great Britain and Germany grew in the course of the 1930s. This change had political implications at a time in which Germany was mounting an increasingly effective challenge to the Versailles system of which Britain was one of the chief props. Although it was never at the forefront of either British or German attention, Scandinavia became a stage on which Anglo-German rivalries were played out. As political relations between the two powers deteriorated in the late 1930s, commercial competition became transformed into a contest for economic and political influence over a region whose geographical position and natural resources ensured that it would be of even greater strategic significance in a future war than it had been in 1914–18.

The most obvious indicator of Scandinavia's heightened importance is British and German export performance. Britain's exports to the Nordic countries increased dramatically after 1931, but the degree of improvement varies according to the criteria by which they are measured. The statistics published by the Nordic countries give the most favourable impression of Britain's performance – but also overstate the improvement since they are based on country of purchase rather than country of origin.

On this reckoning, Britain overtook Germany as the leading supplier to Denmark in 1933 and retained that lead until 1939. British exports to Finland exceeded Germany's for the first time in 1934 but Germany regained the lead in 1939. Germany never lost its leading position in Sweden's import trade, but Britain narrowed the gap significantly between 1934 and 1937. In Norway the two countries were more evenly matched.