Towns and rural industrialisation in Sweden 1850–1890: A spatial statistical approach

Abstract

Using a spatial statistical analysis we study the relation between rural industrial employment and distance to towns and access to communications in nineteenth century Sweden. Our results show that rural parishes with access to communications had a higher proportion of rural industrial workers than parishes without. In a region with few towns, the south-east of Sweden, parishes close to large towns had a higher proportion of industrial employees than distant parishes in 1850, while no significant correlation was observed in 1890. In a region with a relatively dense urban system, Mälardalen, only in 1890 did parishes close to large towns show a higher proportion of rural industrial workers than did more distant parishes. However, the mean positive effect was negligible beyond 10 km. Thus, in the second half of the nineteenth century the immediate urban hinterland was industrialising prior to large scale urbanisation and urban industrialisation.

Keywords:

• spatial statistical analysis
• rural industrialisation
• regional development
• urban–rural dynamics

Acknowledgements

The research presented in this article was for the most part financed by the Swedish Research Council. Tord Snäll has had financial support from FORMAS. Major practical help has been provided by Hampus Markensten, Göran Hammer, and indirectly by Göran Kristiansson. Thanks also to Dan Bäcklund and Torbjörn Engdahl for comments, and to Lynn Karlsson for proofreading. All remaining errors are ours.

Notes

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37. Mälardalen comprises the counties of Stockholm, Uppsala, Södermanland, Västmanland and Örebro, while the South-East is comprised of the counties of Jönköping, Kronoberg, Kalmar and Blekinge. Our calculations of the regional (county) level of industry include male and female workers, assistants (betjäning) and servants (hjon) within industry and handicrafts. Employees in handicrafts are included since it is impossible to separate industrial workers from craftsmen in the census data for 1890. Until 1859, industry and handicrafts were recorded separately by the Table Commission. We do not regard this as a problem since it was difficult to differentiate between handicrafts and industry in rural districts regarding level of technology, organisation of work and market connection during the early industrialisation.

38. Given our definition of the South-East for the purpose of this study, Lake Vättern (the second largest lake in Sweden) is only tangent to the South-East in the north-eastern corner of the region.

39. Data concerning the two regions’ share of Swedish industrial employees in 1890 are taken from Anders Malmberg, Industrisysselsättningens Regionala Utveckling 1870–1980 (Uppsala: Uppsala University, 1987). For 1890, Malmberg used the population census, i.e. the same source as we have used. Note, however, that servants (hjon) are not included in the data from Malmberg. Malmberg, Industrisysselsättningens Regionala Utveckling, 10.

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42. Isacson and Magnusson, Proto-industrialisation, 32–5.

43. It should be noted that our calculations of the regional level of industry for 1890 differ to a certain extent from previous studies such as Svend Riemer et al., Population Movements and Industrialization: Swedish Counties, 1895–1930 (London, Stockholm: P.S. King; Norstedt [distr.], 1941); Malmberg, Industrisysselsättningens Regionala Utveckling; and the industrial statistics (Fabriksberättelser) of the period. Why we differ from Riemer et al. is unclear, as it is impossible to understand from the book how they have computed their data. Compared to Malmberg, Industrisysselsättningens regionala utveckling, we have included servants (hjon), which he did not. Compared to the industrial statistics, our data includes important ‘agrarian’ industries such as sawmills and grain mills which only were introduced in the industrial statistics from 1896.

44. Lennart Jörberg, Growth and Fluctuations of Swedish Industry 1869–1912: Studies in the Process of Industrialisation (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1961), 369–71.

45. There is a central archive for the Table Commission at the National Archives (RA, the Arninge depot). Unfortunately, the parish forms have been destroyed. Copies were, however, retained by the parish archives, which are numerous, and kept in regional archives (Landsarkiven) all around Sweden, and it is these that the DDB has copied and made available.

46. Peter Sköld, ‘The Birth of Population Statistics in Sweden’, The History of the Family 9 (2004), 5-6.

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48. The reasons are that the primary material, borrowed for scanning from individual parish archives, either is missing or is in such a poor condition that it can not be handled and scanned, or possibly that the DDB for some other reason has been unable to get access to the material.

49. Digitalisation of this data is underway.

50. Nilsson, Den urbana transitionen.

51. For parishes grouped together, we have used the ratio industrial labour/population for the merged parishes and counted them as one unit of analysis, while coding them individually for the maps (Figure 1–4).

52. The number of industrial labourers in 1850 (IV Art. §h 1850 [kontorister, mästare, gesäller, gosser, manliga och kvinnliga arbetare], Tabellverket) are comprised of everyone in § h, except employers (‘patron, egare’) and wives.

53. Craftsmen include masters and apprentices (IV Art. σ § g 1850, Tabellverket).

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55. The original Tab-file was constructed by Göran Kristensson at Landsarkivet in Lund, and completed by Göran Hammar at the Department of Human Geography at Uppsala University. The distances were calculated in the freely available software R version 2.6.1. R Development Core Team, R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing (Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2007 [http://www.r-project.org]).

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63. Hohenberg and Hollen Lees, ‘Urban Systems’, 44–6.64Sven Dahl, Det svenska nätet av handelsorter (Göteborg: Handelshögskolan i Göteborg, 1965).

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