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Sweden became a modern industrial nation around 1900. A three-level technical school system, introduced in the 1850s, ensured that Sweden maintained a strong position among other industrialised countries. In this article, we study changes in the structure and funding of the technical secondary schools - the middle level of the system - between 1850 and 1919. Both local and national actors played an important part in the structural changes and educational reforms, but government subsidies remained the same for long periods, leading to frequent discussion and pleas for increased funding. Low salaries, compared to other types of education, and better salary prospects in industry gradually made it more difficult to recruit qualified teachers. However, stakeholders, for whom the education of middle-level technicians was an important matter, pushed for increased funding, improvements in teachers’ salaries and employment conditions, and a restructuring of the education system so as to keep pace with technological development.