The Economy of Switzerland is one of the world's most advanced and a highly-developed free market economy. The economy of Switzerland has ranked first in the world since on the Global Innovation Index [ 23 ] [ 24 ] and third in the Global Competitiveness Report. Switzerland has a highly efficient and strong social security system ; social expenditure stood at roughly Switzerland as a federal state was established in While a workshop system had been in existence throughout the early modern period , the production of machines began in in St.
Gallen , with the third generation of machines imported from Great Britain. But in Switzerland, hydraulic power was often used instead of steam engines because of the country's mountainous topography and lack of significant deposits of coal. By , hand weaving had been mostly replaced by the power loom.
Both tourism and banking began to develop as economic factors at about the same time. While Switzerland was primarily rural, the cities experienced an industrial revolution in the late 19th century, focused especially on textiles.
In Basel, for example, textiles, including silk, were the leading industry. Nearly half the women worked in the textile mills, with household servants the second largest job category. The proportion of women in the workforce was higher between and than it was in the late s and s. Despite the competition between private players, Switzerland was covered with more than km of track by Nevertheless, the network was barely coordinated because of the decentralised system.
Switzerland's total energy consumption, which was dropping from the mid s to the early s, started to increase again in the early s. It stagnated during the s before falling again during the early s; but rapid growth started once again in the mid s.
