| 1. |
- Bengtsson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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The living standards of the labouring classes in Sweden, 1750–1900: Evidence from rural probate inventories
- 2022
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Ingår i: Agricultural History Review. - 0002-1490. ; 70:1, s. 49-69
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present new estimates of the living standards among the rural labouring classes in Sweden from 1750 to 1900. Starting with a database of more than 1,000 probate inventories of rural, landless and semi-landless people from the years 1750, 1800, 1850 and 1900, we study the development for crofters in particular. In a sub-sample of 120 probate inventories we map in great detail the material items of the crofter households, focusing especially on two categories: the means of production (animals and agricultural tools) and consumption goods. The crofters held over time fewer means of production but more consumption goods: glass, porcelain, mirrors, and clocks become more common. However, the decrease in means of production indicates a greater dependence on wage labour, rising land prices made it more difficult to become a farmer, and housing standards stayed poor. The study shows the usefulness of probate inventories to study labouring people’s living standards.
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| 2. |
- Bergenfeldt, Fredrik, et al.
(författare)
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Wagons at Work: A Transport Revolution from Below – the Case of Sweden, 1750-1850
- 2013
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Ingår i: Agricultural History Review. - 0002-1490. ; 61:1, s. 63-82
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The introduction of turnpike trusts has been considered to be an integral part of the rapid decline in transport costs in England. Institutional change in the transport system or the lack thereof has been used to explain if and when a transport revolution occurred in different localities. However, improved roads are just one component of declining inland transport costs. In this paper, we specifically analyse how the transport means on roads (i.e., animal carts and wagons) developed in the absence of major institutional changes to the road system. We use Scania, a province located in southernmost Sweden, during the period 1750–1850 as a case study of the development of transport means during the transformation from a rural economy to an emerging industrial one. Our main finding is the independent role of individuals in lowering their own transport costs, as demonstrated by the notably large increase in the value of wagons relative to other commodities and by the increasing share of wagons equipped with iron wheels instead of wooden wheels and with iron axles instead of wooden axles. This finding indicates that it was possible to lower transport costs in preindustrial Europe without an institutional change of the road system.
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| 3. |
- Bohman, Magnus, 1980-
(författare)
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The road to modern forestry : dealing with deforestation in nineteenth-century southern Sweden
- 2018
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Ingår i: Agricultural History Review. - : The British Agricultural History Society. - 0002-1490. ; 66:2, s. 199-214
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous research has connected progressive deforestation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with an increase in the demand for timber for building and wood for fuel and a failure to replant. This paper investigates a southern Swedish region during the nineteenth century, where a tendency to deforestation and a low standard of forestry had prevailed for a long time despite restrictions on felling and attempts to promote replanting. We show that a new type of agricultural organization – the Hushållningssällskapet – encouraged the replanting of woodland and the improvement of forestry practice. It supported the enforcement of State policy, but also protected the interests of farmers, not all of whom were persuaded that replanting woodland was a good use of their land. The paper provides new evidence for the state of forestry and the active role of agricultural organizations during a crucial period of agricultural transformation.
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| 4. |
- Edvinsson, Rodney, 1971-
(författare)
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Harvests and grain prices in Sweden 1665-1870
- 2012
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Ingår i: Agricultural History Review. - 0002-1490. ; 60, s. 1-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper investigates the impact of harvests and international markets on Swedish grain prices, 1665-1870. The paper finds that harvests at a national level had a greater impact on domestic grain prices than international grain prices. However, at a regional level, grain prices tended to be affected more by harvests outside the region. Furthermore, in the long term, foreign prices became a more important determinant of national grain prices. The conclusion is that, under certain circumstances, grain prices can be used as an indicator of harvest fluctuations and to construct historical national accounts, at least at a sufficiently aggregated level. Such an endeavour needs to be combined with a careful analysis of the impact of prices in the surrounding area.
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| 5. |
- Hallberg, Erik, 1974, et al.
(författare)
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Sweden's agricultural revolution reassessed: A reconstruction of arable land and food production in 1810 and 1870
- 2022
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Ingår i: Agricultural History Review. - 0002-1490. ; 70:1, s. 70-95
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article presents the main results from the project Arable Land in Sweden. By examining some 9,400 cadastral maps, the acreages of arable land for the years 1810 and 1870 have been reconstructed. The calculations have thereafter been combined with other data in order to estimate agricultural production these years. As a result of the project, researchers have for the first time accurate data to quantify developments during the agricultural revolution. Surprisingly, Sweden had less arable land in the beginning of the nineteenth century than researchers have come to believe. Also, the acreage of arable land in 1870 must be adjusted downwards, but not as much. Land reclamation was thus faster than expected and firmly exceeded population growth. In addition, the data show that the expansion of the arable went hand-in-hand with increased productivity, surmounting the pitfalls of diminishing returns. In a concluding part, a partially new interpretation of Sweden's agricultural revolution is put forward.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Larsson, Jesper
(författare)
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Boundaries and property rights: The transformation of a common-pool resource
- 2014
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Ingår i: Agricultural History Review. - 0002-1490. ; 62, s. 40-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines how a common-property regime evolved within the context of property rights reforms, using empirical data from a Swedish parish over three centuries, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth. By adopting a transaction-cost approach, I argue that the standard depiction of how collective rights were transformed into individual rights has been oversimplified. One of the features that made the common-property regime successful was the interplay between de jure and de facto property rights. The land consolidation reforms of the early nineteenth century were costly for almost all landowners in the region, and required the adaptation of a well-established common-property regime to individually owned forestland.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Lennartsson, Tommy, et al.
(författare)
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Between nature and society: the interpretation of an early nineteenth-century Swedish farmer’s diary.
- 2015
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Ingår i: Agricultural History Review. - 0002-1490. ; 63, s. 265-285
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Pre-industrial agriculture was largely based on local natural resources, which needed to be handled together with a variety of societal factors. In this study we use an unusually detailed Swedish farming priest's diary to show interactions between ecology and society at the micro-level, and how they influenced the decisions and actions made by the household. The diary is analysed by using the conceptual framework of social-ecological systems (SES). We focus on years in the 1810s, when extreme weather conditions made the weaknesses and potentials of the agrarian system particularly visible through their impact on the production of hay and pasture.
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| 10. |
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