Understanding the Peasant Economy Through the Lens of Mobility: a Swedish Parish in the Early Modern Period

Abstract

Based on a study of a Swedish parish from the seventeenth century to the early 1800s, this article discusses the role of migration in the peasant economy. It argues that migration was a fundamental feature of the reproduction process among peasants, and that the mobility of some enabled the unchanging positions of others. Migration was a solution to the dilemma created by the dual features of peasant economies: the equivalence of the household and the production unit and the obligation to pay rent. Mobility created adaptability and resilience in peasant communities, but its selective character speaks to its link to wealth distribution, class relations and the struggle for resources.