| The Agricultural Revolution
| | Axel Ebbe´s statue of the estate owner Rutger McLean at Svanholm estate. McLean started reforms in agriculture, which again paved the way for the industrialization. However, the farmers, who felt insecure by the abolition of the village community and unsure of the new division of the land, opposed McLean´s reforming zeal. |
Agriculture - North Zealand
| | In 1768 the Science Society published the first real map of North Zealand. Apparently there is no connection to the contemporary surveying concerning the forest reforms and the map gives an exaggerated picture of the distribution of the forest. |
Agricultural Reforms
From the middle of the 18th century there was a public debate of the agricultural and forestry conditions. The debate was characteristic of the Enlightened Age and the enlightened despotism, where the royal power went into dialogue with enlightened circles in society in order to create new thinking and development. A general view in the debate was that grazing and felling were important reasons for the bad state of the forests and that is would be wise to aim at more distinct regulations for use and a separation of forest and agriculture.
Land and Labour
The cultured land, which belonged under the crown in North Zealand, was organized under five barn farms: Frederiksborg, Esrom Monastery, Kronborg, Kollerødgården og Ebbekjøbgården (later Tulstrup and Knorrenborg Vang). All the farms were farmed out to county officials until 1717.
The crown needed deliveries of game, foods, firewood and so on, and was thus very interested in the labour delivered by peasants and smallholders through the villeinage. As far as the peasants were concerned there were no limitations in the villeinage, which apart from the extensive work with hay harvesting for the stud farm and forest work also included driving for the court, where they sometimes had to muster 100-200 carts. In addition there were transport of foods and the borrowing of linen. The smallholders were usually artisans as well as farm hands, but they had the advantage that they only had to provide one day of villeinage a week.
The Rider Estate
The years 1713-14 during the Great Nordic War were markedly crisis years for the agriculture. The peasants were impoverished and prefect von Raben initiated a radical reform, where the corn-growing was abandoned and only do hay harvest in the fields, rent out the harvest in the forests and aim to abandon the villeinage.
However, things didn´t go that far, but in 1717 a radical reform is passed, which laid out rider estates. Villages are shut down, the barn farm in Kollerød was transformed in to rider estates for one officer and 30-40 riders. The peasants had to contribute to the support of the riders, but the continued impoverishment resulted in the fact that they had to cancel the peasants´ arrears.
The Dominance of the Stud Farms
The rider reform is a military reform, which also brought with it a certain change to the cultivation. However, one problem had not been anticipated, namely that problems arose with the delivery of food in the larger towns, among them Elsinore.
Most important was the venture to concentrate on hay for the royal stud farm, which with the rider estates took up most of the production land in North Zealand. In 1720 they went from 10 to 50 grazing fields with acreage of 62,5 square kilometres. The number of horses was in the first half of the 18th century around 1600 and the demand was 8000 loads of hay and grass per year.
Stud Farm Fields 1720 | 
Stud Farm fields 1765. |
The Hay Harvest Areas
The need for feed hay in the heyday of the stud farm was thus enormous and just about everything was used. Best suited for hay harvest and grazing were the cultivated areas and the forest meadows in the western part of the present Grib Forest. Strø field around the present Strøgårdsvang was a typical hay harvest field, while other areas also were used for grazing.
The enormous need for labour became an impediment for the abolishing of the villeinage in North Zealand, but it did not impede the reform process.
Grazing Horses | 
Tree Growth | 
The Grazing Forest | 
Hay Harvest Meadow | 
Strøgårds Field |
Enclosure Reforms
In 1757 a commission was appointed “in the interests and for the benefit of agriculture”, which resulted in three enclosure regulations for Zealand, Møn and Amager. The regulations mainly aimed at lifting the solidarity in the commons between the members of a village or between more villages.
Private estate owners experimented in the following years with more extensive reforms and in 1766, after Christian VII had come to the throne; reforms were begun with the lifting of the solidarity between the farmers on the royal estate in the Copenhagen County. In 1769 another commission came up with an even more radical enclosure regulation, which aimed at that fields within four years “should be divided and closed”, and from 1776 there was focus on the moving out and means were provided for this.
North Zealand 1768 | 
North Zealand 1777 | 
Star Replacement | 
Replacement Reforms |
The Small Farmers´ Commission
In 1784 a farmers´ commission was set up Kronborg and Frederiksborg counties, the so-called Small Farmers´ Commission and from here on the enclosures in North Zealand accelerated: In 1789 the land was enclosed in 113 villages and the following year it was over. That same year no less than 423 farms and 257 houses moved out and thus the landscape was really changing. The woods and the scattered trees disappeared and farms and houses are built in the open land.
The enclosure was the most important result of the Small Farmers´ Commission and the reform which had the greatest impact on the change in the cultural landscape. Other tasks were the abolishment of the villeinage and tithe. Moreover they started work t extend the knowledge of better rotation of crops with new crops like potatoes. Finally 35 schools were built in the two counties in the years 1784-90.
North Zealand as an Experiment
When North Zealand was selected as focus for the small agricultural commission and with that the first great reform wave, it was connected with the fact that it was necessary to relate to a landowner, namely the crown, or the state, if you will. For two reasons this was a quite manageable task. The crown estate consisted of approximately 160 villages with 1300 farm owners, and quite a few had already been renewed at the first reform efforts in the 1760´s and 70´s.
This is probably also why the changes in the landscape is quite clear in the map from the Royal Danish Society of Sciences and Letters from 1777. Enclosure maps for the individual villages give a detailed look in the process and the changes locally. In the enclosure map from Horserød you can clearly see the new and the old cultivation pattern and how field land and the early forest areas are included in the process.
North Zealand 1777 |
Sand Drift and Afforestation
In the map from the Royal Danish Society of Sciences and Letters from 1777 you notice that there is a connection between the general reductions of the forest area also is afforestation along the North Coast, for instance in Asserbo and Hornbæk plantations. These areas were planted to stop the increasing sand drift, which had developed into an ecological disaster in the whole country and also in Scania. In the map from the Royal Danish Society of Sciences and Letters you can find the term “Elsinore shifting sand” in several locations.
Sand drift and migrating dunes is connected to forest felling and the transition to agricultural production. As early as the 13th century there were signs of increasing sand drift. The Middle Ages crisis in the 14th century in connection with the Black Death, a decrease in population and deserted farms gave the landscape an opportunity to regenerate. In Zealand former agricultural areas became forest. This situation lasted to the 17th century, where population increase, war and devastation once again subjected nature to increased pressure.
The Sand Drift |
Forest Plants as Windbreak
In North Zealand former rich agricultural areas north of Arre Lake had been given up and the entrance to Arre Lake as well as Søborg Lake was blocked. In the beginning of the 18th century the situation worsened quickly in North Zealand and the state took the initiative to stop this development. As in the case with the forest and agricultural reforms they started in North Zealand.
In 1702 the inhabitants of Tisvilde and Tibirke poured out their troubles to the king, because the sand drift had almost ruined the latter village. The farmers had help putting up fences and their taxes were lowered, but it was not until 1724 an initiative was taken to a more goal-oriented fight with the appointment of Ulrich Röhl as “Inspector at the shifting sand in Kronborg County”. Called in villeinage peasants planted lyme grass and crest and covered the area with turf for a 15-year period.
Windbreaks in the form of forest plants followed up the planting. The first was started in 1726 in Tisvilde. The Tisvilde Plantation was enlarged in 1793 with 27,5 hectares of Scotch pine, that same year 14 hectares in Hornbæk and 1799 they planted the Sonnerup Forest in Odsherred.
The Controlling of Sand Drift |
Agriculture - Scania
| | In Svanholm estate in Scania reforms in agriculture were begun. They paved the way for the industrialization. However, the peasants opposed them vehemently. |
Outdated Agriculture
A village in Scania consisted form ancient times of connected buildings with split up with landed properties. The cultivated area was of very different quality. Justice had been attempted by giving several smaller fields to each farmer. The area was therefore split up into a large number of small fields, and the situation subsequently became confused, because of inheritance divisions.
Around 1750 they realized that a rationalization of the agriculture demanded bigger and more consistent units. The rising prices of agricultural products, which were connected to the increase in population in Europe in the middle of the 18th century, demanded changes. At the same time agriculture in Scania had deteriorated because of erosion, war and neglect. Linné had during his journey in Scania noticed the problems concerning the Scanian agriculture.
“The farmer in Scania sticks just as persistently to the habits of his forefathers as today’s youth is quick to change them.”
Spring Ploughing |
Experiment with Reforms and Enclosure
While the farmer guarded his old methods, the authorities and a few landowners showed interest in rationalization. One plan was to carry through a change of ownership, so that each farmer would get fewer, but bigger properties, that is, a development towards larger units. In order to solve the problem with the variable soil quality, different fields were “graded”. Through the rating of the soil good soil was to be traded for poor soil with a larger acreage. The surveying inspector, Jacob Faggott in his book ”The Obstacle and Help of Swedish Agriculture” (1746), put this plan forward. According to the ideas of Faggott, he wanted to keep the cities, but the fields were to be combined to more efficient units. In 1757 an announcement was made of enclosure in Scania.
Many farmers were against this reform. They were afraid of an unjust rating of the fields, disadvantages with fields, which were too far from town, and the problems with a larger area with poorer soil, when there was a lack of cheap labour. The enclosure was therefore not fully completed and the government took back its order in another announcement in 1783, where it was decided that every farmer was allowed to have as much as eight fields.
The enclosure reform was no success. The users´ fields were still divided, however not as much as before.
Maclean - the Modern Man
A more radical improvement of the agriculture perhaps demanded that the farmer´s farm was placed where his fields lay. Rutger MacLean in Svaneholm´s Estate in southern Scania had ideas, which went in that direction. He was probably influenced by the enclosure reforms, which had been carried out in Denmark after the enclosure proclamation in 1781, but similar reforms had been introduced earlier in England, and the experienced traveller MacLean had visited England on several occasions. In the 1780´s he had carried through a radical agriculture reform in his own esate. As a man of the Enlightened Age, he was not afraid of using the methods, which the enlightened despots found necessary.
In Svaneholm´s fields there were at the time several village communities with farms on a lease. The leasing farmers performed villeinage on the estate and paid their lease in kind. MacLean changed the entire system. He united the fields, parcelled out the land in fewer connected plots (usually square), abolished villeinage, introduced money-based lease and built a new farm in the middle of each plot. This was very effective and the productivity of the estate increased considerably.
MacLean was, as a true man of the Enlightened Age, also active in other development projects. He experimented with new methods and wrote textbooks in agriculture. He wanted to improve the education in the schools, built schools and showed an interest in Pestalozzis´s theory of education, which even today is quite modern. (Pestalozzi emphasized the ability to obtain knowledge more than the actual amount of knowledge).
Rutger Maclean | 
Svaneholm Estate | 
Renewal at Svaneholm | 
Renewals in the 19th Century | 
Before and After the Renewal |
Other Landowners
Other landowners followed up the successful changes in Svaneholm. In 1802 MacLean met the surveying director, Eric av Wetterström, at a meeting in Helsingborg and convinced him of the advantages of the enclosure, which had been carried out in Svaneholm. The ideas reached the ears of the Swedish king Gustav IV Adolf, and he approved of the plan. In Scania the enclosure was introduced in 1803 and the reform spread the north of the country. However it was in Scania the most radical changes were made and as early as 1825 half of all Scania´s village had been divided.
The Production Is Increased and the Statar System is Introduced
New and better knowledge in agriculture and the enclosure resulted in higher productivity. The old rotation of crops with corn growing exclusively varied with fallowing was changed with multiannual cultivation patterns with corn- as well as fodder production and with only a small part of the land fallowed.
At the same time interest grew for the use of new machines and tools. The villeinage was abolished and instead a proletariat of farm workers appeared, when the special Swedish “statar system” was introduced. The system meant that the landowner got permanent, full-time farm workers at a low cost. The pay was mostly made up of “stat”, that is, provisions.
The Capitalizing of Agriculture
The agricultural revolution involved a capitalization of agriculture and the last remnants of the feudal system disappeared. Landowners and authorities prompted the revolution, while common farmers did not want the change. It was not a revolution, which was led by the lower classes.
Many farmers felt that they paid a heavy price. The old, safe village community disappeared and farms were demolished. A whole new life style was introduced, which was marked by competition and individualism. Private interests became more important than the community. The landscape also became dull, when the old village street disappeared and the neighbour lived several kilometres away. It is easily understood that the new pietistic piety could grow in these surroundings, and that it was able to almost outdo the old collective religiosity. Many farmers were struck hard by the changes, which they found was compulsory and unwanted,
Peasant Rebellion
In the country strong contrasts between the social classes arose. In the not yet changed villages they united in order to avoid the new ideas. At a peasants´ rebellion (The Bread Rebellion) in Malmo in 1799 hundreds of peasants demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the class differences. Poor peasants attacked the established society and threatened it. The old village community evidently posed a danger to the authorities.
During the Napoleonic Wars the peasants´ solidarity was strengthened against power and authority. Denmark and Sweden were on opposite sides in the war between France and Great Britain. Sweden was threatened by war from France through its ally, Denmark. In 1808 troops were ordered. In Scania it was six peasant battalions with soldiers living in terrible conditions without proper equipment. That same year war broke out between Sweden and Finland. It was hard times and many died form hunger and diseases.
Esaias Tegnér celebrated these peasant soldiers:
”Hør den krigeriske røst! Den kommer fra øst,
den drøner som stormen ved fædrenes strand;
den kommer fra vest, den ubudne gæst.
Til strid, til strid for fædreland!”
In 1811 the army was to be strengthened again because of an aggravated foreign-policy situation. The large estates were instructed to supply extra soldiers, but the vast majority of the new soldiers had to be farmers. 15.000 peasants and farm workers had to strengthen the army.
The Farmers Attack 1811
But now the Scanian peasants lost their patience. The enclosure had forced them out of safety; they were forced into a miserable peasants´ army, and now they were forced to go to war. A wave of protests arose and a resistance movement was formed. In the Kulla area the commitment was strong and in the beginning of the summer 1811 800 peasants and farm workers gathered at Ringstorp in Helsingborg to protest and there were disturbances. The battlefield was the same as a hundred years earlier was the scene for the Battle of Helsingborg. There were disturbances all over Scania and especially in Klågerup and Torup in Malmo the peasants´ riots were very difficult for the authorities to handle.
Even Rutger MacLean, the reformist landowner was attacked by conscription refusing peasants and farm workers. When he one summer evening came home to Svaneholm, the estate was full of people. He was taken to his room and forced to sing a statement that he himself was to provide soldiers for the army.
Tough Punishments
The authorities came down hard on the rebellion and tough punishments were advised. A curious punishment was introduced: Drawing lots. If the convicted drew a winning lot, he was given the meted out punishment, but if he drew a blank the punishment was decapitation. Petitions for mercy were sent to the king and when the final verdicts fell on January 4th, 1812 King Karl XIII had annulled the drawing of lots and changed most of the death sentences. However, many of the rebels were sentenced to flogging or/and loss of the hand and prison.
The peasants´ rebellion in Scania in the summer of 1811 was violent and perhaps a contributing factor to the fact that the enclosure of the villages had to be carried through in a fast and brutal manner. Perhaps it was not only the effectiveness of agriculture they had in mind, when they so quickly blew up the village communities. Perhaps they also had the old Roman rule: “Divide and conquer” in mind! |