Dynamic peasants? Agency and inequality in Swedish modernization
Sweden emerged in the 20th century as one of the richest and most equal countries in the world. International research has traced this to the Swedish tradition of freeholding peasant farmers, without serfdom and with representation in Parliament. But in Swedish historical research on the other hand, the farmers are often considered conservative and passive.
The aim of this project is to investigate the role of the peasantry in socioeconomic modernization of Sweden 1750-1900. This is done through four empirical studies. Study one uses probate inventories to analyze wealth and stratification of the peasants, to understand their household economics as well as the material basis of their politics. Study two starts from the importance of human capital for the economy and studies the relationship between inequality and investments in schooling and poor relief with data on the parish level. Study three studies the peasant representatives in Parliament 1750-1900 in terms of private economic status and from regional perspectives. Study four looks at peasants' activities in Parliament concerning issues central to economic development, such as investments in physical infrastructure the education system.
The project provides a row of new empirical contributions to the international research debate on the importance of institutions for economic development, as well as possible re-evaluations of the role of peasant farmers in Swedish 18th and 19th century history.
The aim of this project is to investigate the role of the peasantry in socioeconomic modernization of Sweden 1750-1900. This is done through four empirical studies. Study one uses probate inventories to analyze wealth and stratification of the peasants, to understand their household economics as well as the material basis of their politics. Study two starts from the importance of human capital for the economy and studies the relationship between inequality and investments in schooling and poor relief with data on the parish level. Study three studies the peasant representatives in Parliament 1750-1900 in terms of private economic status and from regional perspectives. Study four looks at peasants' activities in Parliament concerning issues central to economic development, such as investments in physical infrastructure the education system.
The project provides a row of new empirical contributions to the international research debate on the importance of institutions for economic development, as well as possible re-evaluations of the role of peasant farmers in Swedish 18th and 19th century history.
Final report
Aim and project development
Sweden emerged in the 20th century as one of the richest and most equal countries in the world. International and Swedish research has traced this to the Swedish tradition of freeholding peasant farmers, without serfdom and with representation in Parliament. The aim of this project has been to investigate the role of the peasantry in socioeconomic modernization of Sweden 1750–1900. This is done through three empirical studies.
Sub-project one uses probate inventories to analyze wealth and stratification of the peasants, to understand their household economics as well as the material basis of their politics. Sub-project two explore the peasant representatives in Parliament 1750–1900 in terms of private economic status and in comparison with the rest of the peasant class. Sub-project three looks at peasants’ political activities and participation in Parliament during the 19th and early 20th Century. This includes a number of in-depth special studies in different directions, as well as synthesizing texts.
The application also contained a fourth sub-project on the development of human capital, but we were then unaware that two colleagues, Thor Berger and Jens Andersson, were simultaneously working on a paper that overlapped this one. Their work was published in 2019 in the Economic History Review with the title "Elites and the expansion of education in nineteenth-century Sweden". The results partially contradict the hypotheses we put forward in the application: In parishes with concentrated land ownership, investments in education were higher. We believe that research in the future, with other source materials and other methods, will be able to refine and possibly modify their results, but have not had the opportunity to conduct any such investigation within the project, which we already announced in the mid-term evaluation.
About the implementation
Sub-project one has been carried out in collaboration between Bengtsson and Patrick Svensson, professor of agricultural history at SLU and consists of a study based on approx. 1730 probate inventories of farmers from the years 1750, 1800, 1850 and 1900. Furthermore, we have made another narrower but deeper sample of active farmers in four counties: Lagunda and Sjuhundra from Uppland, Kullings from Västergötland, and Bara county from Skåne. There we have collected very detailed information about their possessions, their livestock, their agricultural implements and tools, etc. Based on this, we have been able to make a sophisticated analysis of the growing wealth of the Swedish peasant class and the distribution of this wealth, which was published in 2019 in Rural History.
Sub-project two has been carried out by Bengtsson and Olsson, and together with project assistant Anders Larsson, 550 probate inventories from peasant representatives of parliament 1769–70, 1809–10, 1859–60, 1865–66 and 1895 were tracked and extracted. At the same time, 1,650 reference farmers were extracted, randomly selected with the same year of death and local (district) as the parliamentarians. We have published the database of the peasant parliamentarians and published an article in the Scandinavian Journal of History based on this data.
Sub-project three has been carried out by Bengtsson and Olsson together with Carolina Uppenberg, who was employed as a postdoctoral researcher in the project for two years, and Magnus Olofsson, who was employed as a researcher for three months. It has resulted in a series of studies that resulted in a further eleven articles in journals and books, a number of working papers and a monograph.
The project’s three most important results
The project provides a row of new contributions to both Swedish and international research debates on inequality, institutional change and the connection between politics and economic change.
The project shows that the average farmer’s wealth grew rapidly, tripling over the nineteenth century, but it did not grow equally: the Gini coefficient for the farmers’ wealth grew from 0.46 in 1750 to 0.73 in 1900. Farmers who lived close to the major grain markets in Stockholm and the mining district of Bergslagen were wealthier than others, as were farmers on fertile plains and, in 1900, those living in coastal areas. Increased market access – in terms of cities and foreign demand – meant that farmers well placed in terms of geography and infrastructure benefited much more than farmers on what became the periphery. The diversity of farmers’ wealth grew, as did their financial sophistication.
The project demonstrates a deep and widening economic gap between the peasant parliamentarians and most of their constituents, the peasants, during the nineteenth century. This happens in parallel with the political position of the members of the Swedish Parliament shifting from the left to the right, which is finally manifested in the Lantmannapartiet's merger with the rest of the right in the Allmänna valmansförbundet in 1904. Politically, this can be seen, for example, in the question of the extent of the right to vote; from advocating universal and equal suffrage before 1867, the majority of peasant representatives become opposed to the extension of suffrage to workers.
The project shows that the farmers did not at all play the role for Swedish democratization that has been attributed to them by both international social scientists and some Swedish historians. In 1900, Sweden had some of the most unequal voting laws in western Europe, and more severe economic inequality than the United States. This throws the purported continuity from early modern equality to social democratic equality into question. The roots of twentieth-century Swedish egalitarianism lie in exceptionally well-organized popular movements after 1870, with a strong egalitarian counter-hegemonic culture and unusually broad popular participation in politics.
New research questions
A series of new research questions have been generated in the project around the variegated political actions of the peasant class during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its relationship with the rural underclasses, and its relationship with the land-owning nobility. This has resulted in a number of articles and Working papers (see publication list).
New project applications have emerged from the project, two of which have so far been successful: A consumer revolution? Evidence from Sweden 1680–1860 (Olsson, Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser 2020) and Challenging the domestic. Gender division of labour and economic change studied through 19th century crofters’ households (Uppenberg, Swedish Research Council 2020).
Furthermore, the project has generated several other ideas, including comparative Scandinavian studies and a possible research project on the road to democracy and the welfare state in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Dissemination of the project’s results
In addition to the considerable scientific production (it should be added that all the articles are published Open Access), the project’s results have given rise to something as unusual as a mass media debate on the historical roots of Swedish equality, with Erik Bengtsson’s article on Sonderweg and his popular science synthesizing book Världens jämlikaste land? in focus. Hearings, debate articles and reports have appeared in the daily press, broadcast media and social media.
Sweden emerged in the 20th century as one of the richest and most equal countries in the world. International and Swedish research has traced this to the Swedish tradition of freeholding peasant farmers, without serfdom and with representation in Parliament. The aim of this project has been to investigate the role of the peasantry in socioeconomic modernization of Sweden 1750–1900. This is done through three empirical studies.
Sub-project one uses probate inventories to analyze wealth and stratification of the peasants, to understand their household economics as well as the material basis of their politics. Sub-project two explore the peasant representatives in Parliament 1750–1900 in terms of private economic status and in comparison with the rest of the peasant class. Sub-project three looks at peasants’ political activities and participation in Parliament during the 19th and early 20th Century. This includes a number of in-depth special studies in different directions, as well as synthesizing texts.
The application also contained a fourth sub-project on the development of human capital, but we were then unaware that two colleagues, Thor Berger and Jens Andersson, were simultaneously working on a paper that overlapped this one. Their work was published in 2019 in the Economic History Review with the title "Elites and the expansion of education in nineteenth-century Sweden". The results partially contradict the hypotheses we put forward in the application: In parishes with concentrated land ownership, investments in education were higher. We believe that research in the future, with other source materials and other methods, will be able to refine and possibly modify their results, but have not had the opportunity to conduct any such investigation within the project, which we already announced in the mid-term evaluation.
About the implementation
Sub-project one has been carried out in collaboration between Bengtsson and Patrick Svensson, professor of agricultural history at SLU and consists of a study based on approx. 1730 probate inventories of farmers from the years 1750, 1800, 1850 and 1900. Furthermore, we have made another narrower but deeper sample of active farmers in four counties: Lagunda and Sjuhundra from Uppland, Kullings from Västergötland, and Bara county from Skåne. There we have collected very detailed information about their possessions, their livestock, their agricultural implements and tools, etc. Based on this, we have been able to make a sophisticated analysis of the growing wealth of the Swedish peasant class and the distribution of this wealth, which was published in 2019 in Rural History.
Sub-project two has been carried out by Bengtsson and Olsson, and together with project assistant Anders Larsson, 550 probate inventories from peasant representatives of parliament 1769–70, 1809–10, 1859–60, 1865–66 and 1895 were tracked and extracted. At the same time, 1,650 reference farmers were extracted, randomly selected with the same year of death and local (district) as the parliamentarians. We have published the database of the peasant parliamentarians and published an article in the Scandinavian Journal of History based on this data.
Sub-project three has been carried out by Bengtsson and Olsson together with Carolina Uppenberg, who was employed as a postdoctoral researcher in the project for two years, and Magnus Olofsson, who was employed as a researcher for three months. It has resulted in a series of studies that resulted in a further eleven articles in journals and books, a number of working papers and a monograph.
The project’s three most important results
The project provides a row of new contributions to both Swedish and international research debates on inequality, institutional change and the connection between politics and economic change.
The project shows that the average farmer’s wealth grew rapidly, tripling over the nineteenth century, but it did not grow equally: the Gini coefficient for the farmers’ wealth grew from 0.46 in 1750 to 0.73 in 1900. Farmers who lived close to the major grain markets in Stockholm and the mining district of Bergslagen were wealthier than others, as were farmers on fertile plains and, in 1900, those living in coastal areas. Increased market access – in terms of cities and foreign demand – meant that farmers well placed in terms of geography and infrastructure benefited much more than farmers on what became the periphery. The diversity of farmers’ wealth grew, as did their financial sophistication.
The project demonstrates a deep and widening economic gap between the peasant parliamentarians and most of their constituents, the peasants, during the nineteenth century. This happens in parallel with the political position of the members of the Swedish Parliament shifting from the left to the right, which is finally manifested in the Lantmannapartiet's merger with the rest of the right in the Allmänna valmansförbundet in 1904. Politically, this can be seen, for example, in the question of the extent of the right to vote; from advocating universal and equal suffrage before 1867, the majority of peasant representatives become opposed to the extension of suffrage to workers.
The project shows that the farmers did not at all play the role for Swedish democratization that has been attributed to them by both international social scientists and some Swedish historians. In 1900, Sweden had some of the most unequal voting laws in western Europe, and more severe economic inequality than the United States. This throws the purported continuity from early modern equality to social democratic equality into question. The roots of twentieth-century Swedish egalitarianism lie in exceptionally well-organized popular movements after 1870, with a strong egalitarian counter-hegemonic culture and unusually broad popular participation in politics.
New research questions
A series of new research questions have been generated in the project around the variegated political actions of the peasant class during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its relationship with the rural underclasses, and its relationship with the land-owning nobility. This has resulted in a number of articles and Working papers (see publication list).
New project applications have emerged from the project, two of which have so far been successful: A consumer revolution? Evidence from Sweden 1680–1860 (Olsson, Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser 2020) and Challenging the domestic. Gender division of labour and economic change studied through 19th century crofters’ households (Uppenberg, Swedish Research Council 2020).
Furthermore, the project has generated several other ideas, including comparative Scandinavian studies and a possible research project on the road to democracy and the welfare state in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Dissemination of the project’s results
In addition to the considerable scientific production (it should be added that all the articles are published Open Access), the project’s results have given rise to something as unusual as a mass media debate on the historical roots of Swedish equality, with Erik Bengtsson’s article on Sonderweg and his popular science synthesizing book Världens jämlikaste land? in focus. Hearings, debate articles and reports have appeared in the daily press, broadcast media and social media.