Land ownership, farm structure and the economy: Some examples of farm sub-division in Sweden, 1780–1862

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the propensity for the sub-division offarms in Sweden in areas with differing natural conditions, either for specialising in cultivation and corn production on the one hand or for combining agriculture with various subsidiary occupations on the other. The question is whether the increased importance of corn production led to a concentration of landholdings into larger units in the plains studied, and whether the opportunities for subsidiary industries led farmers in forested tracts to sub-divide their holdings. The propensity to sub-divide farms is also studied from the standpoint of land ownership and the significance of increased owner-occupation in terms of the desire of farmers to divide their holdings.

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Notes on contributors

Christer Persson

I would like to thank an anonymous referee and the editors for the helpful criticism on earlier versions of this paper. I am also grateful to Carl Mannerfelts Fond for funding the research.