Food availability and population growth in 17th century Sweden

Abstract

ABSTRACT The debate on the demographic development in Sweden in the Early Modern Period has a long history. A significant topic concerns how many people in fact lived in the country during the 16th and 17th centuries. This article focuses on the 17th century but leaves aside the question of absolute population numbers or growth rates. Instead, I will try to estimate the availability of grain, a dominant factor determining and limiting population developments in the period. There is a general view among historians that domestic grain production in Sweden stagnated during the 17th century. In this article, I add my voice to those who hold this view . In itself, this could also indicate a stagnant population. However I will show, that domestic production was not the same thing as grain availability. Swedish scholars are unanimous that in c. 1700 the country had c. 1,300,000 inhabitants. Using new source material, I will show that Sweden’s foreign grain trade in that period could feed at least 300,000 more people than in c. 1630. Finally, I will try to set Sweden’s growing grain trade in context with other developments in Sweden during the period.