Historisk Tidskrift. Utgiven av Svenska historiska föreningen
  Hem Aktuellt  Tidigare nummer Bli Medlem  Annonsera Om Historisk Tidskrift  För skribenter  Föreningen In English
 

Historisk tidskrift 132:3 • 2012

Innehåll (Contents) 2012:3

Uppsatser (Articles)

Tionde och vad mera dem med rätta tillkommer. Prästtiondelängder som källmaterial för undersökningar av bondejordbrukets djurhållning under den agrara revolutionen cirka 1700–1860

Magnus Bohman

 

Fulltext (pdf)

Summary

Swedish parish tithe registers: A new source for the study of animal husbandry during the agricultural revolution

This article presents, evaluates and employs a new type of source, parish registers, for the investigation of animal husbandry among peasant farmers in the agricultural revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. In this period, the Church was entitled to one thirtieth of the total grain production of each farm and to every tenth of the youngs. While other tithes were normally turned into fixed amounts or money, in some parishes the payment to the priests remained a true tithe that be used to estimate agricultural production.

The article shows that not only do parish tithe registers fill a gap for a period when other sources are rare or deficient; they also have advantages in comparison to previously used sources. Investigating aspects such as the size, composition and long-term development of animal husbandry, the results show that when controlling for farm size substantially more animals were born on farms in woodland regions compared to open regions. This supports previous research, which on the basis of qualitative evidence has suggested characteristic production patterns for different types of agricultural regions. The results also show that even if fewer animals were raised on open field farms, animal breeding as a whole was still diversified.

With regard to long-term trends the results show that there were variations over time and space in the average number of animals raised on the farms. Variations during the 18th century, primarily temporary declines, are very likely explained by recurrent cattle plagues. For the investigated period as a whole the long-term trend was for decreasing rather than increasing numbers of animals, especially during the 19th century. If this is related to the concurrent and dramatic increase in vegetable production, a general shift to vegetable production in overall agricultural output is obvious.

Parish tithe registers constitute a new and interesting type of source which makes possible many different types of investigations at both aggregate and micro level. As this article shows the registers enable long-term and continuous investigations of peasant animal husbandry during a period of great change.

Keywords

weden, 18th century, 19th century, animal husbandry, tithe registers, production estimates