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Land and Debt: On the Process of Social Differentiation in Rural Sweden, circa 1750–18501

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Maria Ågren
Maria Ågren
Affiliation:
History Department, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden.
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Extract

When writing his final report in 1823 on the current state of affairs in the county of Kopparberg in Sweden, its governor, Hans Järta, made a short digression to ponder upon the differences between England and Sweden. According to Järta, England had been unfortunate in that it had deprived a large proportion of its rural population of the land on which they could otherwise have supported themselves. They had now, Järta remarked, no other choice but to work in the factories, and were the first to suffer when these had to close down. In some parts of Sweden, efforts were at this time being made to organise agricultural production in accordance with similar ideas, that is, through the use of wage labour. Järta was deeply sceptical about these experiments however, claiming that they led to nothing but poverty and social problems.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , April 1994 , pp. 23 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

2. What Järta had in mind was probably the so-called statarsystem. See Eriksson, I. and Rogers, J., Rural Labor and Population Change. Social and Demographic Developments in East-Central Sweden during the Nineteenth Century (Uppsala, 1978).Google Scholar

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19. Wrightson, K., English Society 1580–1680 (London, 1982) pp. 130ffGoogle Scholar; C. G. A. Clay, op. cit. pp. 67ff.

20. This period in Swedish history is presented in English by several historians in Sweden's Age of Greatness 1632–1718, ed. Roberts, M. (London, Basingstoke, 1973)Google Scholar and by Nilsson, S. A. in The Age of New Sweden (Stockholm, 1988).Google Scholar

21. Cf. Dahlgren, S., ‘Karl XI’ in Kungar och krigare [Kings and Warriors] (Stockholm, 1992).Google Scholar

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24. On the creation of a free market for land transactions see e.g. Winberg, C., Grenverket. Studier rörande jord, släktskapssystem och ståndsprivilegier [Ramifications. Studies on land, kinship systems and privileges] (Stockholm, 1985)Google Scholar; Österberg, E., ‘Land Transactions. Symptoms of Crisis or the Emergence of Capitalism in Swedish Peasant Society?’ in Plov og Pen. Festskrift til Svend Gissel (Københarn, 1991)Google Scholar; Backlund, J., Rusthållarna i Fellingsbro 1684–1748. Indelningsverket och den sociala differentieringen av det svenska agrarsamhället [Peasants and Arms — Fellingsbro Equips the Cavalry 1684–1748: The military allotment system and social differentiation in Swedish agrarian society] (Uppsala, 1993).Google Scholar

25. Letter from Charles XI, 15 October 1684; quoted and translated from M. Ågren, op. cit., p 45.

26. M. Ågren, op. cit., p 59ff.

27. This process is analysed in detail by Herlitz, L. in Jordegendom och ränta. Omfördelningen av jordbrukets merprodukt i Skaraborgs län under frihetstiden [Land ownership and rent. The redistribution of the surplus of agriculture in the province of Skaraborg during the Freedom Time [sic]] (Göteborg, 1974) pp. 282, 347, 349, 361.Google Scholar

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31. When not indicated otherwise, the whole section is built upon results presented and discussed in my thesis (M. Ågren, op. cit.).

32. Cf. e.g. J. Söderberg, op. cit., on the importance of poor relief in nineteenth-century local selfgovernment see e.g. Tiscornia, A., Statens, godsens eller böndernas socknar? Den sockenkommunala självstyrelsens utveckling i Västerfärnebo, Stora Malm och Jäder 1800–1880 [State, manorial or peasants' parishes? Swedish Local Self-government in Transition, c. 1800–1880] (Uppsala, 1992).Google Scholar

33. C. G. A. Clay, op. cit. pp. 99ff.

34. 10 skeppund = c. 1.5 tons.

35. When discussing eighteenth-century criminal statistics, Douglas Hay has argued that the figures pertaining to theft cannot reasonably be influenced by any enforcement waves, since such crimes were not prosecuted by state representatives. He thus seems to define an enforcement wave as something which results solely from the controlling and enforcing activities of the state. It seems to me that this is making the concept unduly narrow. (Hay, D., ‘War, Dearth and Theft in the Eighteenth Century: The Record of the English Courts’ in Past and Present 1982:95Google Scholar).

36. 1 tunnland = c. 5,000 m2

37. Ågren, M., ‘Att lösa ekonomiska tvister — domstolarnas främsta sysselsättning på 1700-talet?’ [Settling disputes — the Principal Occupation of the Courts in the Eighteenth Century?] in Svensk Historisk Tidskrift, 1988:4.Google Scholar

38. Cf. Sjöberg, M. Taussi, ‘Tinget sam social arena’ [The court as social arena] in Historia Nu ed. Brändström, A. et al. , (Umeå, 1988)Google Scholar; Sundin, J., För Gud, staten och folket [Crime and Local Justice in Pre-Industrial Sweden] (Stockholm, 1992).Google Scholar

39. Contrary to what happened in other Swedish counties, the reform was not proposed by the local population but by the governor. Because of its alleged poverty, the peasantry was given ample state funding to cover the expenses related to the reform (M. Ågren, op. cit., pp. 177f).

40. It should be noticed that the Swedish word for ‘enclosure’ — skifte — means exchange, which is not incidental. A presentation of the Swedish ‘enclosure movement’ is given by S. Helmfrid in ‘The Storskifte, Enskifte and Laga Skifte in Sweden. General Features’ in Geografiska Annaler, 1960.

41. M. Ågren, op. cit., pp. 212ff.

42. M. Isacson, op. cit., pp. 82, 180.

43. Cf. note 17.

44. S. Carlsson, op. cit., pp. 64f.

45. Hobsbawm, E., The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848 (London, 1962) p. 149.Google Scholar

46. C. G. A. Clay, op. cit., pp. 68, 71, 75.

47. Ibid. pp. 85ff.

48. J. M. Neeson, op. cit.

49. Cf. Winberg, C., ‘Another route to modern society: The advancement of the Swedish peasantry’ in Agrarian Society in History: Essays in Honour of Magnus Mörner, ed. Lundahl, M. and Svensson, T. (London, New York, 1990).Google Scholar