Distribution and differences : stratification and the system of reproduction in a Swedish peasant community 1620-1820

This dissertation examines the character, conditions and change of peasant stratification in early modern Sweden. Wherever and whenever one looks, one finds that resources were unevenly spread among peasant households. In the literature, there are different, and conflicting, views compatible with this finding. In order to explain its character, this study places peasant stratification into a broader system of resource reproduction. Resource holding, families, and individuals are studied over time. The study is based on an extended family reconstitution comprising the landholding peasants in the Mid-Swedish parish of Bjorskog between 1620 and 1820. Data has been compiled from cadastres, poll tax registers, parish registers, court records, and maps, and has then been related to the information on resource holding as given by tax lists and probate inventories."