Climatic fluctuations and population problems in early modern history

Abstract

Ever since Malthus and Ricardo, all discussions of the pressure on food supplies have started from the assumption that population is the active factor and Nature the fixed. This interpretation, however, can hardly be reconciled with modern scientific thought, especially if the problem is viewed in the long term. It is not necessary to go to other geological periods in order to discover great changes in Nature. Two changes have occurred in Sweden in the course of the last few thousand years which have radically altered the living conditions of human beings: the great land-elevation which followed the melting of the inland ice, and the climatic fluctuations which have occurred continually. The former was a gradual change and is still proceeding; the latter have made themselves felt at irregular intervals and with varying intensity.