| 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. |
- 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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| 3. |
- 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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| 6. |
- Myrdal, Janken, et al.
(författare)
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Technology, labour, and productivity potential in peasant agriculture : England, c.1000 to 1348
- 2017
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Ingår i: Agricultural History Review. - 0002-1490. ; 65, s. 194-212
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The period between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries was one of rising population and increasing pressure on land and resources. Access to land per person and per household declined as peasant arable holdings were fragmented to make room for this growing population, and an increasing proportion of the population was left reliant on smallholdings from which to earn a living. How so many people were able to live off of so little land is a crucial problem in our understanding of the high and late medieval economy. Through examination of illuminated manuscripts, religious iconography, archaeological findings and written records, we identify a series of agricultural techniques, well suited to the growing number smallholding peasants, and argue that peasants were able to achieve high levels of land productivity through the labour-intensive use of small-scale technologies.
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| 7. |
- Skoglund, Martin
(författare)
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Farming at the margin: climatic impacts on harvest yields and agricultural practices in central Scandinavia, c.1560-1920*
- 2023
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Ingår i: Agricultural History Review. - 0002-1490. ; 71, s. 203-233
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study estimates the impact of climatic variability on agriculture in central Scandinavia between the sixteenth and early twentieth centuries. Climate indicators are analysed in tandem with time series of harvest size, yield ratios and dates of agricultural activities. Harvests are estimated using c.9,000 parish-level tithe observations. Near continuous series of sowing, harvest, and hay-cutting dates between the late seventeenth and early twentieth centuries are estimated using a variety of sources. Mean growing season temperatures alone explain up to 26, 31, and 53 per cent of the variation in tithes, barley yield ratios, and harvest dates, respectively. Combinations of temperature indicators and the timing of agricultural activities explain up to 34 per cent of variations in tithes and up to 49 and 57 per cent of barley and rye yield ratios, respectively. While climate-agriculture relationships were consistent throughout the study period, the introduction of potato cultivation in the late eighteenth century helped reduce climatic vulnerability.
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