The Agrarian History of Sweden Page 10
Of all agricultural technology, ploughing implements remain among the most important (and are a recurring theme throughout this book). Between 1000 and 1300 the quantity of iron used in agriculture grew exponentially, and with it Sweden’s domestic iron consumption as a whole. One important factor was that iron now was required to break the soil–as ploughs and spades. Unlike the ard, the plough has a mouldboard that lifts the sod cut by the ploughshare and rolls it into the furrow created by the previous run along the field. The ard does not have a mouldboard, with the result that the ard-share cuts a furrow in the topsoil, without turning the earth. The plough also nearly always has a coulter, a ‘knife’ that makes the first, vertical cut in the sod, just ahead of the ploughshare.18
During the Middle Ages the plough spread across Sweden in two distinct phases: the first between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries in the south and west of the country; the second in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when it spread to the north. In southern Sweden, the new ploughs were rigged with wheels in an arrangement similar to that used across most of continental Europe’s fertile plains–the wheel plough. (In regions where ‘heavy’ wheeled ploughs were common, ards–some of them wheel-ards–were used to rake in the seed.) In western Sweden, instead of wheels the new ploughs were supported and steered using runners of the kind common along the North Sea rim, in Norway and Scotland. When the plough spread to northern Sweden, it was the ‘light’ North Sea plough, but made even smaller and lighter so that it could be drawn by a single horse. The small farms of the north often had only one draught horse, used as both dray-horse and plough horse. This type of one-horse plough spread to the whole of northern Scandinavia in the Late Middle Ages.
In eastern Sweden, the ard remained in use until the nineteenth century. The fact that farmers continued to use ards does not mean that technologically speaking they came to a standstill. The most important part of the ard (and the plough) was the share at the front, which cut into the soil. The earliest iron ard-shares, which appeared in Scandinavia in about AD 500, weighed 300–500 grams and were used selectively. Ards made completely of wood, including the ard-share, were in existence until about 1000 (see p. 68).
Between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries heavier iron shares came into use, weighing about a kilo. They were not only heavier, but also longer, and thus broke through the topsoil more effectively and gave greater stability. Wooden shares now fell completely out of use. Ploughs were fitted with these larger shares, but so were many ards. The result was two distinct types of ard in existence at the same time: one used to break up the fallow ground that had become overgrown; and one, with a smaller share, to till the soil that had already been broken up. The wheeled ploughs could carry even larger ploughshares, some weighing up to 2–3 kilos.19
The fact that larger iron shares were used for ploughing and tilling had a dramatic effect on the agricultural demand for iron. Scythes and sickles had been the first iron tools, having been introduced to Sweden before and around the start of the first century AD. The wear and tear on an iron share of medieval size has been estimated to be some seven or eight times greater per hectare than that on a scythe–or indeed a sickle–used to cut grain or hay.20 Since any given piece of land would have been harvested only once, but worked several times a year, the wear on an iron share would have been that much the greater. The oldest surviving forge registers, which date from the sixteenth century, show that shares accounted for the vast proportion of the iron that went into agricultural implements.21
In the technological complex a fundamental link was created between the increased use of iron and the improved cultivation systems. A consequence of the more regular use of larger iron shares was that shorter fallow periods became feasible. Wooden shares and small iron shares were incapable of breaking ground that had become overgrown when lying fallow over the summer, so until about 1000 continuous cropping was the norm, with small fields put to the plough every year. In, or slightly before, the eleventh century, a new method was introduced in which some of the ground was allowed to lie fallow each year: the system of two- or three-course rotations. The fallow was allowed to become overgrown with weeds in the summer; in the late summer was used as grazing; in the autumn it was ploughed. The new ploughs and ards were able to break the fallow in these new field systems.
Most probably the proportion of fallow would have been able to increase gradually as more and more farmland came into use. By the thirteenth century, progress was such that fixed rotations were in place for individual field systems, where a third or half of all land lay fallow each year. With each half lying fallow in alternate years, the system is referred to as a two-course, or two-year, rotation. If instead a third lies fallow, with three large fields as a result, it is called a three-course rotation. Around these two archetypes–common all over Europe–there were any number of variations according to the size of the fields and the proportion left to lie fallow.22
In eastern Sweden, from the Mälaren valley to Östergötland, two-course rotations were the norm. In Skåne in the south, continuous cropping existed alongside two- and three-course rotations, as in parts of Västergötland and on Gotland. In other parts of Sweden continuous cropping continued to dominate. When the regional distribution of different field systems can be established in around 1600 using estate accounts and village maps, it is apparent not much had changed since the High Middle Ages (Fig. 3.2).
Another innovation that made inroads into supplies of iron was the introduction of the iron-shod spade, with its blade edged with iron. In Sweden there are many archaeological finds of iron tools from the Iron Age, but no iron-shod spades: the earliest Scandinavian evidence is from Denmark and dates to about 1000; in Sweden they first appear in images and archaeological finds in the twelfth century. Spades made lighter work of land clearance and ditching. The first true ditches, designed to drain water from fields, date from this period, probably as a result of the introduction of the iron spade. Besides improving productivity and making new arable fields available, ditching strengthened the village community, as it demanded a degree of consensus amongst neighbours: even the farmers who did not directly benefit had to be prepared to allow ditches to be dug across their land.
Figure 3.2 The spread of various field systems in Sweden. The two-course system in eastern Sweden and the three-course system in Västergötland and Skåne were established in the High Middle Ages.
Iron-shod spades had another, somewhat unexpected, effect. They encouraged tillage without draught animals. Written sources make occasional mention of poor farmers working without draught animals, and contemporary images– of Adam and Eve– provide the detail of how the spades were used. Some of the small-holders living close to manors had arable land of such a small size that it was realistic for them to work the land with spades. Spade cultivation during the High Middle Ages is referred to not only in Sweden but all over Scandinavia,23 and their use during the expansion period has European parallels. In the Late Middle Ages, as the population plummeted, labour shortages meant that such intensive, small-scale methods could not be maintained (though spade cultivation continued around the North Sea, on the Shetlands and in south-western Norway).
These and other changes, such as the introduction of the harrow, meant that harvests improved in the High Middle Ages, which in turn lead to technological advances in handling the harvest. The hand-flail replaced the less effective threshing-stick, a stick used to beat the grain out of the ears. The hand-flail consists of two pieces of wood joined by a flexible binding. It is much more efficient, but also more difficult to make than the threshing-stick. Another important change came with the advent of the watermill. A large number of archaeological excavations have shown that watermills became increasingly common in Scandinavia after 1000. Danish research on medieval watermills in particular has made great strides, and it is possible to trace their spread with some accuracy, from the early evidence around 1000 to a dramatic increase in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In Sweden they were common by the thirteenth century at the latest (the regional laws had sections on how to handle the problems and property rights connected with the new technology). In the thirteenth century windmills were also introduced, and spread quickly across the whole of Scandinavia.24
Most of Sweden was woodland or plains verging on woodland, and livestock farming had always played a central role, but the technological transformations of the High Middle Ages were directed at arable farming, and there was a relative shift towards arable farming with increased grain cultivation as a result. Since this was the basis of calorie production, more people could be provided for. This intensification of land utilization was the basis for the acceleration in population growth and food production that distinguishes the High Middle Ages.
Livestock farming
Sweden’s brand of animal husbandry showed the influence of its large swathes of woodland. Telling examples of the importance of the great woods to medieval Sweden come from a very different source–miracles. These tales of human misery, of disease and drowning, of people saved by the intercession of patron saints, survive from across the whole of Europe. They offer an insight into the daily lives of ordinary people–and provide an opportunity to draw European comparisons. Often it was children who were in peril, and one particular form of childhood accident unique to Sweden was small children lost in the woods: if they strayed too far from home they could get lost, and the villagers would have to spend days beating the woods. Several times children were said to have gone astray in the woods when they went with adults who were taking livestock to graze, or they were able to find their way home when they saw one of the farm animals and followed it.25 Many small hamlets were like islands in an ocean of trees, and around the villages, in woodland pastures, the cattle roamed. Often the most important objective in mind when swiddening land (clearing it by burning) was the grazing areas opened up in the woodland after one to three years’ harvests of grain (most often rye).26
Although livestock farming did not undergo any dramatic changes in the High Middle Ages, there were some changes, typically connected with commercialization and more particularly with butter production. Since butter was obtained from cream it was an expensive product, one that could be transported over long distances and still be worth the carriage. Butter became an important commodity not only in trade, but also to pay dues and taxes. Increased butter production was linked with technological change. Since time immemorial, people had shaken cream into butter. Now larger amounts of cream were poured into a ‘plunge churn’; a tall, narrow cask, in which a churning-staff that ended in a wooden cross or a disc with large holes in it was pounded up and down. Pictures and wooden remains found in archaeological excavations across north-western Europe make it possible for us to follow the more efficient plunge churn’s progress after 1000.27
In the Late Middle Ages the change in livestock farming was instead influenced by the shortage of labour. During the High Middle Ages almost only adult men tended herds. Their job was to herd the animals through the woods to the best pasture and to protect them from predators. This had once been the work of slaves, and even when slavery became uncommon, in the late thirteenth century, the law codes show that the herdsman’s social status remained low. In the Late Middle Ages this slowly began to change. Women and children began to work as herders, primarily because of the acute labour shortage. Adult men were needed elsewhere. Later, in the seventeenth century, adult herdsmen would disappear completely except for the southernmost part of the country, in Skåne, which followed the continental pattern. Here the village’s common herdsman replaced the private herders, and was to attain a relatively strong social status as both a specialist and a professional.28
Most livestock were noticeably smaller than modern breeds, and cows more so than most: studies of bone remnants show that, measured at the withers, the average size of a cow dropped from 110 cm in about 1000 to a whisker over 100 cm in the fifteenth century (Fig. 3.3). One reason may have been the accent on obtaining as much butter as possible, which often led to animals being weaned too soon. Quite simply, the calves were undernourished.29 In the sixteenth century the trend turned, and cattle slowly began to increase in size. This was largely thanks to the reason for keeping cattle gradually changing. There was a growing demand for beef cattle, but they had to be strong enough to carry themselves on their own four legs to the market or the shambles.
Figure 3.3 The average height of cows in central and southern Sweden (measured at the withers). Each excavation is denoted by three lines (maximum, average, and minimum values), and the length of each excavation line shows the time span in question. At the end of the period there are a number of sporadic values. The trend (the broad lines) clearly falls throughout the Middle Ages–previously and subsequently, cattle were taller.
Farms and estates
The feudal structure consisted of several, interconnected layers of social institutions. One was the relationship between those who farmed and the elite who lived by what farmers produced–a relationship that was already undergoing a transformation. Another important building block in the social web was the strengthening of the collective, which for the rural population meant the village community. The overarching change was the gradual establishment of a state apparatus.
The High Middle Ages saw a new relationship between farmers and the elite, but it was also a transitional phase, for the shift was not completed until the fifteenth century. Slavery had been an important element in the social structure until the eleventh century (see p. 71). Although we have a Scandinavian word, thrall (träl), the term ‘slave’ will be used here for two reasons: Scandinavian ‘thraldom’ was no less pernicious a form of slavery than any other, and bore similarities with slavery in other parts of Europe at the time; and as well as träl there were a number of different Scandinavian terms for slave that referred to their specific status, leaving slave the better blanket term.
Slaves and other dependent work-forces enabled the elite, the chieftains and large farmers, to maintain large households and control small territories. This control of labour was the most important way in which resources were transferred to the elite. From the eleventh century the full force of slavery was tempered, and clear rules developed for the manumission of ‘thralls’ that also gave slaves and the half-free some kind of legal protection (in matters such as property rights and marriage). The final unravelling of the system followed in the thirteenth century. From testamentary evidence it would seem that the nobility had freed most of their slaves by the end of the thirteenth century.30
Sweden’s transformation between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries brought with it legal instruments that made it possible to organize the large-scale transfer of resources to the elite along new lines. It became usual to exact dues from the land systematically, but in its fully developed form the landbo system of fixed-term tenancies did not exist until the thirteenth century.31 A dual manorial system took shape, while waged work became a socially accepted alternative when slavery vanished. Taxes levied from the peasantry also became a part of this new system of exploitation.
What the elite controlled was no longer mainly men, but land. It was crucial to these changes that landownership became more precise –and complex. Land began increasingly to be treated as something to be exchanged, sold, or bought, albeit hedged about with restrictions that gave family and kin various pre-emptive rights to land put up for sale, for example. Ownership also began to be diversified: the right to dispose of land, the right to profit by the land, the right to work the land. Several factors contributed to this shift in the nature of landownership. One was capital investment in the shape of land clearance, ditching, manuring, and other improvements: the laws show a clear connection between investment in land clearance and the legalized, private ownership of land. Another was the rapidly dawning primacy of the written word, with written title-deeds that could be both exact and enduring–unlike verbal agreements. The fact that units of land measurement were specified at much the same time was another factor. More precise land measurements were also connected to the strengthening of the village communities, since both rights and obligations had to be apportioned more exactly.32 The village courts were often held at the parish level, as many of the hamlets and small villages were too small to form their own entities, but the obligations had to be determined village by village–and thus a precise measure was helpful when a discussion came up.
It is often said that serfdom, which bound farmers to the land for life, was never introduced to Sweden, but in the High Middle Ages something very like serfdom was customary for those who were freedmen, or rather ‘half-free’. They were still ‘owned’ in some respects by their landlord; in thirteenth-century regional laws they were referred to in eastern Sweden as fostre (from the same root as the English ‘foster’, as in foster child) and frälsgiven (lit. redeemed) in western Sweden; and they were certainly tied to the land.33 Small-holdings clustered around the manors, often run by such freedmen, who were expected to work the manor’s land as well as their own. They often had no draught animals, and should really be considered ‘crofters’ rather than ‘peasants’. Similarly, larger family farms run by tenants were also directly tied to the manors. This manorial system, which showed similarities to the dual structure that had taken shape in western Europe some centuries before it spread to Scandinavia, dominated on the plains and even in large areas of the southern Swedish woodlands.34