Stockholm Papers in Economic History
Department of Economic History, Stockholm University
No 1:
Harvests, prices and population in early modern Sweden
Rodney Edvinsson ()
Abstract: Today, one of the greatest challenges facing macroeconomic
history is to quantify economic growth in the early modern period. This
paper presents and discusses a series of total and per capita harvest
production in Sweden within present borders for the period 1665-1820. The
series is based on three main indices: grain prices, subjective harvest
assessments and tithes. To calculate per capita production the size of
population must be known. In this paper, population growth in Sweden during
the 17th century is revised downwards compared to recent studies. The basic
finding is that per capita harvests stagnated during the studied period.
The annual fluctuations were substantial. Another finding is that, in the
short-run, grain prices were more affected by domestic harvests than
foreign prices.
Keywords: economic history; agriculture; price history; GDP; early modern period; historical demography; Sweden; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: E30; J11; N13; N53; Q11; (follow links to similar papers)
72 pages, August 11, 2008
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- This paper is published as:
-
Edvinsson, Rodney, (2009), 'Swedish Harvests, 1665-1820: Early Modern Growth in the Periphery of European Economy', Scandinavian Economic History Review, Vol. 57, No. 1, pages 2-25
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