Page 404 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 404
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
judge; he became the director over the local parish grain storage and he
was commissioned to set up probate inventories and to act as an auctioneer
(Jansson 1968; Morell 2016). The household combined all these income (and
social status) bringing activities with traditional subsistence farming, and
attained decent income levels, allowing for some comfort and even some
modest conspicuous consumption.4 Reading the diary, the general impres-
sion is that Pehr Jansson would have tried anything that promised to bring
incomes for the household. He certainly showed agency and his activities
could easily be counted within an extended IPE-concept. Clearly, however,
the household was not part of anything even remotely reminiscent of ‘pro-
to-industry.’
In the mid-Swedish mining area, most Pre-Industrial Era peasants
were involved in the iron making process in one way or another. Some
share-owned mines and furnaces produced crude iron, which was refined
by the larger (proto-industrial) ironworks. Others made and delivered
charcoal to furnaces and ironworks, sometimes as part of tax/rent pay-
ments, sometimes for pay. Yet others mainly performed transport services
and drove charcoal, ore, iron or timber on sledges in winter. Many small
peasants in the area – as well as small tenants of the emerging large com-
panies – were dependent on incomes from charcoal making and short dis-
tance transports, well into the 20th century (Montelius 1959, 160–219; Utter-
ström 1959, 229–32; SOU 1922, 48).
Large mining and ironwork companies that emerged from mergers
from the late 19th century onwards had earlier tried to acquire much forest-
land to secure access to charcoal. When the era of charcoal in iron mak-
ing approached its end, some of the companies switched over to forest-
ry. All the way up to the 1950s when forestry and forestry transports were
mechanised fully, many small tenants on their lands combined small scale
agriculture with forestry work and lumber transports. The same with the
peasants in northern Sweden, when the timber export era broke through
around 1850. Peasants felled, sledged and also floated timber. Of course the
iron works, pre-industrial or modern (as well as the late 19th and 20th cen-
tury forestry companies) produced for far away markets, and of course the
peasants involved in the iron works economy, were part of a structure even-
tually (in many cases) developing into modern industry. Still, given the di-
versity of their acting at any given moment, would it be correct, given the
definition above, to label those peasant households involved ‘proto-indus-
4 Morell 2017.
402
judge; he became the director over the local parish grain storage and he
was commissioned to set up probate inventories and to act as an auctioneer
(Jansson 1968; Morell 2016). The household combined all these income (and
social status) bringing activities with traditional subsistence farming, and
attained decent income levels, allowing for some comfort and even some
modest conspicuous consumption.4 Reading the diary, the general impres-
sion is that Pehr Jansson would have tried anything that promised to bring
incomes for the household. He certainly showed agency and his activities
could easily be counted within an extended IPE-concept. Clearly, however,
the household was not part of anything even remotely reminiscent of ‘pro-
to-industry.’
In the mid-Swedish mining area, most Pre-Industrial Era peasants
were involved in the iron making process in one way or another. Some
share-owned mines and furnaces produced crude iron, which was refined
by the larger (proto-industrial) ironworks. Others made and delivered
charcoal to furnaces and ironworks, sometimes as part of tax/rent pay-
ments, sometimes for pay. Yet others mainly performed transport services
and drove charcoal, ore, iron or timber on sledges in winter. Many small
peasants in the area – as well as small tenants of the emerging large com-
panies – were dependent on incomes from charcoal making and short dis-
tance transports, well into the 20th century (Montelius 1959, 160–219; Utter-
ström 1959, 229–32; SOU 1922, 48).
Large mining and ironwork companies that emerged from mergers
from the late 19th century onwards had earlier tried to acquire much forest-
land to secure access to charcoal. When the era of charcoal in iron mak-
ing approached its end, some of the companies switched over to forest-
ry. All the way up to the 1950s when forestry and forestry transports were
mechanised fully, many small tenants on their lands combined small scale
agriculture with forestry work and lumber transports. The same with the
peasants in northern Sweden, when the timber export era broke through
around 1850. Peasants felled, sledged and also floated timber. Of course the
iron works, pre-industrial or modern (as well as the late 19th and 20th cen-
tury forestry companies) produced for far away markets, and of course the
peasants involved in the iron works economy, were part of a structure even-
tually (in many cases) developing into modern industry. Still, given the di-
versity of their acting at any given moment, would it be correct, given the
definition above, to label those peasant households involved ‘proto-indus-
4 Morell 2017.
402
