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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 November 2018
This article aims to explain how the market for land functioned in medieval south-west Finland. The data show that in medieval times land was increasingly treated as something to be transferred in return for ready money, albeit within the limits set by the interests of the family. The land market was open to large segments of society, suggesting that barriers to entry were low. It was characterised by strong vertical integration, although asymmetric, as the majority of the transactions took place between participants from different social groups. The article will also consider the high degree of geographical integration in the land market.
Cet article entend expliquer comment le marché de la terre a fonctionné dans le sud-ouest de la Finlande médiévale. La documentation disponible montre qu’à l’époque médiévale la terre était de plus en plus considérée comme un bien à transférer en échange d'argent comptant, à condition toutefois de rester dans les limites fixées par les intérêts de la famille. Le marché foncier était ouvert à de larges secteurs de la société, ce qui suggère que les barrières à franchir pour y entrer étaient minimes. Ce marché était caractérisé par une forte intégration verticale, bien qu'asymétrique, car la plupart des transactions se tenaient entre acteurs appartenant à différents groupes sociaux. Il est tenu compte, dans ce travail, du degré élevé d'intégration géographique sur le marché foncier.
Dieser Beitrag versucht darzulegen, wie der Grundstücksmarkt im südwestlichen Finnland im Mittelalter funktionierte. Die Daten zeigen, dass man Grund und Boden im Mittelalter zunehmend als Gegenstand betrachtete, den man gegen Geld übertragen konnte, wenn auch nur innerhalb der durch die Familieninteressen gesetzten Grenzen. Der Grundstücksmarkt stand großen Teilen der Gesellschaft offen, was darauf schließen lässt, dass die Eintrittsschwellen niedrig waren. Er war durch starke vertikale Integration geprägt, die allerdings asymmetrisch war, da die Transaktionen größtenteils zwischen Marktteilnehmern aus unterschiedlichen sozialen Gruppen stattfanden. Der Beitrag behandelt ferner die hochgradige geographische Integration des Grundstücksmarktes.
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14 van Bavel, ‘Organization and rise of land and lease markets’, 45.
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17 A pledge refers to a bailment that conveys possessory title to land owned by a debtor to a creditor to secure repayment of a debt, thus counting as a transfer of land. According to the Swedish Law of the Land, besides sale, purchase, swap, and pledge, inheritance and gift were considered to be legal ways to transfer land. Åke Holmbäck and Elias Wessén eds., Magnus Erikssons Landslag: i nusvensk tolkning (Skrifter utgivna av Institutet för rättshistorisk forskning grundat av Gustav och Carin Olin, Serien I, Rättshistoriskt bibliotek. VI, Lund, 1962) [hereafter MEL], Code of Land, ch. 1.
18 The documents were published in a printed collection of Finnish medieval documents; see Hausen, R. ed., Finlands medeltidsurkunder I–VIII (Helsingfors, 1910–1935)Google Scholar. A revised version of this collection is available online, Diplomatarium Fennicum, http://df.narc.fi/ [accessed 14 November 2016, hereafter DF].
19 In two cases both the letter of confirmation and the deed were preserved: DF 4058 and 4059, 5447 and 5489. For the difference between a letter of confirmation and a deed, see p. 14.
20 In the sixteenth century too, registrations of inheritances appear only sporadically in the sources. Maarbjerg, John P., ‘The peasant, his land and money: land transactions in late sixteenth-century East Bothnia’, Scandinavian Journal of History 26, 1 (2001), 66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
21 In one case, a sister and her brother swapped two pieces of land, and in another a peasant sold land to his nephew. DF 2121, 5444.
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23 Myrdal, ‘Farming and feudalism’, 91.
24 van Bavel, ‘Organization and rise of land and lease markets’, 39–42. See also French and Hoyle, ‘English individualism refuted’, 617–20.
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29 DF 2889.
30 DF 886, 1073, 1372, 2451, 2663, 2946, 3688, 4106, 4118, 4122, 4266, 4746.
31 Of course, trade did not always involve cash. It was to a great extent based on barter and credit, as goods were often paid for with other goods, and accounts were rendered only occasionally. Dollinger, Philippe, The German Hansa (London and Basingstoke, 1970), 166Google Scholar.
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34 Moring, ‘Land inheritance and the Finnish stem family’, 176, 180.
35 MEL, Code of Land, chs. 2 and 3; Ulf Jensen, ‘Fastighetsköp och fastighets pant under äldre tid’, https://www.lantmateriet.se/globalassets/fastigheter/andra-agare/blanketter-och-information/historiskt-material/inskrivningsvasendet_forr_nu.pdf [accessed 4 December 2016]; Jensen, ‘Fastighetsköp’, 2–3.
36 DF 496, 823, 1429, 2121, 2901, 2948, 3378, 3465, 3476, 3500, 4058–9, 4303, 4303, 4365, 4582, 4590, 4908, 5590, 5796.
37 Larsson, Gabriela Bjarne, ‘Wives or widows and their representatives’, Scandinavian Journal of History 37, 1 (2012), 51–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 57.
38 DF 434–5, 1149, 1180, 1769, 2458, 2513, 2592, 2654, 2757, 2795, 2842, 2938–9, 3466, 3783, 4266.
39 Macfarlane, Origins of English individualism. For information about the debate, see French and Hoyle, ‘English individualism refuted’, 595–6; Whittle, Jane, ‘Individualism and the family-land bond: a reassessment of land transfer patterns among the English peasantry c. 1270–1580’, Past & Present 160 (1998), 26CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zhang, ‘Moral economies’, 13. In the early modern period, as French and Hoyle have demonstrated, family land was not often sold. French and Hoyle, ‘English individualism refuted’, 621. See also van Bavel, ‘Organization and rise of land and lease markets’, 16–17.
40 van Bavel, ‘Organization and rise of land and lease markets’, 16.
41 Jensen, ‘Fastighetsköp’, 2.
42 van Bavel, ‘Organization and rise of land and lease markets’, 17, 20; Jensen, ‘Fastighetsköp’, 3.
43 However, we do not have information about cases in which the family actually used its right of first refusal.
44 Greif, Institutions and the path to the modern economy, 4, 134; Kallioinen, Bonds of trade, 6.
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52 Hiekkanen, Markus, Suomen keskiajan kivikirkot (Helsinki, 2007), 108Google Scholar; Läntinen, Aarre, Turun keskiaikainen piispanpöytä (Jyväskylä, 1978), 174, 194–204Google Scholar.
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54 Kallioinen, Kauppias, kaupunki, kruunu, 150–1.
55 In 61 cases out of 216 transactions.
56 In East Bothnia in the sixteenth century there was no concentration of land and the buyers do not appear to have belonged to an elite; for example, of wealthy peasants. Maarbjerg, ‘Peasant, his land and money’, 63.
57 DF 1084, 1516, 5940.
58 DF 2452–4, 2465, 2590–2, 2594, 2810, 3014, 3393.
59 French and Hoyle, ‘English individualism refuted’, 597.
60 DF 2654, 3068, 3069, 4118.
61 Volckart, Oliver, ‘Central Europe's way to a market economy, 1000–1800’, European Review of Economic History 6, 3 (2002), 319–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 325.