Page 405 - 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. 405
pluriactivity, proto-industrialisation or integrated peasant economy?
trial?’ A diary from the area in the late 19th century studied by Maths Isac-
son, attests to the importance of charcoal making and transport work: but
the household of Erik Johansson in Backåker combined whatever sourc-
es of work incomes they could get, selling timber, charcoal, butter, writ-
ing services performed by Erik or sewing services performed by Erik’s wife
Charlotta (Backåkers Johansson 1987; Isacson and Morell 2016).
Peasants in the area, as well as further to the north in Dalarna, in par-
ticular where arable agriculture was more marginal, developed various
types of craftsmanship, for example as blacksmiths, producing scythes,
knives, spades, and other farm implements.
Whereas iron and steel making was rapidly concentrated from the late
19th century, and longer transports taken over by the railway, much small-
scale factory workshops based on the blacksmith tradition developed in the
area. All considered, Dalarna was the county in Sweden where the most
diverse development of market oriented domestic crafts developed. More-
over, craftsmen and craftswomen, travelled widely and sold their items on
markets to the south of Sweden, in other parts of Scandinavia and even fur-
ther away. They did not work only with iron products, but with woodwork,
furniture making, leather, textiles etc. Certain parishes were specialised in
certain types of products and indeed in some parishes, different villages
specialised in certain items, in a way almost suggesting some sort of over-
all organisational plan.5
As they to some extent worked for distant markets (even though the
principal exchange was with the neighbouring Lake Mälaren region to the
south, which provided them with grain) and in the midst of extreme di-
versity were locally specialised, as land plots were subdivided far below the
levels enough to ensure physical reproduction for many of the households
and as thus population increase was indeed rapid, these households might
well be called proto-industrial. There is considerable continuity, since some
of the areas within Dalarna have been over-represented by small (some-
times rather large) factory industries founded on the craftsman tradition
and skills, most notably perhaps in metal working branches but also in
wood and leather. Diverse manufacturing specialities was, however, only
one type of complementary activity for the Dalarna peasants: large num-
bers of women and men from Dalarna walked southwards for temporary
jobs on large estates around Lake Mälaren and in Stockholm. This too oc-
5 Isacson and Magnusson 1987, 28–32, 51–88.
403
trial?’ A diary from the area in the late 19th century studied by Maths Isac-
son, attests to the importance of charcoal making and transport work: but
the household of Erik Johansson in Backåker combined whatever sourc-
es of work incomes they could get, selling timber, charcoal, butter, writ-
ing services performed by Erik or sewing services performed by Erik’s wife
Charlotta (Backåkers Johansson 1987; Isacson and Morell 2016).
Peasants in the area, as well as further to the north in Dalarna, in par-
ticular where arable agriculture was more marginal, developed various
types of craftsmanship, for example as blacksmiths, producing scythes,
knives, spades, and other farm implements.
Whereas iron and steel making was rapidly concentrated from the late
19th century, and longer transports taken over by the railway, much small-
scale factory workshops based on the blacksmith tradition developed in the
area. All considered, Dalarna was the county in Sweden where the most
diverse development of market oriented domestic crafts developed. More-
over, craftsmen and craftswomen, travelled widely and sold their items on
markets to the south of Sweden, in other parts of Scandinavia and even fur-
ther away. They did not work only with iron products, but with woodwork,
furniture making, leather, textiles etc. Certain parishes were specialised in
certain types of products and indeed in some parishes, different villages
specialised in certain items, in a way almost suggesting some sort of over-
all organisational plan.5
As they to some extent worked for distant markets (even though the
principal exchange was with the neighbouring Lake Mälaren region to the
south, which provided them with grain) and in the midst of extreme di-
versity were locally specialised, as land plots were subdivided far below the
levels enough to ensure physical reproduction for many of the households
and as thus population increase was indeed rapid, these households might
well be called proto-industrial. There is considerable continuity, since some
of the areas within Dalarna have been over-represented by small (some-
times rather large) factory industries founded on the craftsman tradition
and skills, most notably perhaps in metal working branches but also in
wood and leather. Diverse manufacturing specialities was, however, only
one type of complementary activity for the Dalarna peasants: large num-
bers of women and men from Dalarna walked southwards for temporary
jobs on large estates around Lake Mälaren and in Stockholm. This too oc-
5 Isacson and Magnusson 1987, 28–32, 51–88.
403
