Page 413 - 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. 413
pluriactivity, proto-industrialisation or integrated peasant economy?
Sweden 60% of farms are part-time enterprises, only 17,000 farms in Swe-
den require full time work of one person, while c. 5000 farms require regu-
larly employed workers, and produce un-proportionately large parts of the
total output. As for elsewhere, there is in the Nordic countries a trend to
invest in on-farm processing to increase market value, to offer leisure ser-
vices or engage in various types of farm tourism. The total income mix for
a Scandinavian farm family of today can be very complex, and most like-
ly the mix differs quite greatly between any two random farms (Yearbook
of Agricultural Statistics 2001, 2014; Jordbruksverket Rapport 2012:1; Statis-
tiska Meddelanden JO 30 SM 1401; Statistiska Meddelanden JO 65 SM 1401;
Statistics Norway; Statistics Denmark).
Conclusions
Most Swedish (and Scandinavian) farm households in the Pre-Industrial
Era and long after that, have normally combined various types of income
sources with agriculture proper to make ends meet or to increase wealth.
The reasons could differ: farms might have been too small and unrewar-
ding, the seasonal irregularity of farm work allowed for other activities,
particular markets for particular goods or services which the households
could provide developed, and more recently the level of farm mechanisati-
on implied that the workforce needed for agricultural tasks proper became
very small, making it not only necessary, but also worthwhile for farm fa-
milies to diversify their activities. Generally, peasant households consciou-
sly adapted to market opportunities arising. This was not passive adaption,
however, peasants expressed agency.
In some cases, in the Pre-Industrial Era, the activities were concen-
trated and specified in ways that make it reasonable to talk of proto-indus-
trial activities, proto-industrial households and proto-industrial regions.
But certain special conditions were to be met for those terms to fit. Peas-
ant or farm family economic multi-activity existed far beyond the borders
of proto-industry in time, space and scope. Rather it is the question of sur-
vival strategies of households and it all boils down to active adaptions and
to the possibilities workable on the basis of the surrounding society. In a
way it seems that the peasant household activities have been reactive to
the demand (broadly speaking) of surrounding society, but dialectically
such activities in turn contributed to change and the development of soci-
ety whether the peasants were proto-industrial or not.
411
Sweden 60% of farms are part-time enterprises, only 17,000 farms in Swe-
den require full time work of one person, while c. 5000 farms require regu-
larly employed workers, and produce un-proportionately large parts of the
total output. As for elsewhere, there is in the Nordic countries a trend to
invest in on-farm processing to increase market value, to offer leisure ser-
vices or engage in various types of farm tourism. The total income mix for
a Scandinavian farm family of today can be very complex, and most like-
ly the mix differs quite greatly between any two random farms (Yearbook
of Agricultural Statistics 2001, 2014; Jordbruksverket Rapport 2012:1; Statis-
tiska Meddelanden JO 30 SM 1401; Statistiska Meddelanden JO 65 SM 1401;
Statistics Norway; Statistics Denmark).
Conclusions
Most Swedish (and Scandinavian) farm households in the Pre-Industrial
Era and long after that, have normally combined various types of income
sources with agriculture proper to make ends meet or to increase wealth.
The reasons could differ: farms might have been too small and unrewar-
ding, the seasonal irregularity of farm work allowed for other activities,
particular markets for particular goods or services which the households
could provide developed, and more recently the level of farm mechanisati-
on implied that the workforce needed for agricultural tasks proper became
very small, making it not only necessary, but also worthwhile for farm fa-
milies to diversify their activities. Generally, peasant households consciou-
sly adapted to market opportunities arising. This was not passive adaption,
however, peasants expressed agency.
In some cases, in the Pre-Industrial Era, the activities were concen-
trated and specified in ways that make it reasonable to talk of proto-indus-
trial activities, proto-industrial households and proto-industrial regions.
But certain special conditions were to be met for those terms to fit. Peas-
ant or farm family economic multi-activity existed far beyond the borders
of proto-industry in time, space and scope. Rather it is the question of sur-
vival strategies of households and it all boils down to active adaptions and
to the possibilities workable on the basis of the surrounding society. In a
way it seems that the peasant household activities have been reactive to
the demand (broadly speaking) of surrounding society, but dialectically
such activities in turn contributed to change and the development of soci-
ety whether the peasants were proto-industrial or not.
411
