The Expansion and Decline of a Transhumance System in Sweden, 1550-1920

The paper analyses a Swedish transhumance system organised around summer farms (fäbodar), in the context of the agrarian economy in northern Sweden between the sixteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The aim is to understand the impact of this alpine transhumance system in the agricultural economy and its role in the development of agriculture. The paper deals with economic aspects of summer farms, with the emphasis on production and organisation. To understand this specific agricultural system, theories about agricultural systems, the organisation of human collaboration, material culture and division of labour are used. Theories about the management of common-pool resources (CPR’s) are central to the analysis. The establishment of summer pastures enabled the expansion of stockbreeding and was connected to secondary occupations, and was, therefore, a prerequisite for the division of property among household members. The leap in agricultural development in Northern Sweden would not have been possible without the female workforce on the summer pastureland. The advantage of the agricultural system in the north of Sweden was lost when livestock grazing and fodder collection moved to the fields during the second half of the twentieth century.