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Famines in the Nordic countries, AD 536 - 1875

Dribe, Martin LU ; Olsson, Mats LU and Svensson, Patrick LU (2015) In Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues
Abstract
The first part of this paper aims at identifying the timing of famines in the Nordic countries since the middle ages. This is done by using qualitative famine reports from the literature since quantitative data on famines are scarce or non-existent, at least before the early modern period. We supplement the reports with climate data and price data. Our survey indicates that widespread famine was always a rare occurrence in the Nordic countries, despite frequent crop failures. The second part studies the regional famine pattern and its demographic characteristics in Sweden 1750–1910. This part is based on demographic data on parish level from the official statistics and price data. We identify two periods of excess mortality: the last major... (More)
The first part of this paper aims at identifying the timing of famines in the Nordic countries since the middle ages. This is done by using qualitative famine reports from the literature since quantitative data on famines are scarce or non-existent, at least before the early modern period. We supplement the reports with climate data and price data. Our survey indicates that widespread famine was always a rare occurrence in the Nordic countries, despite frequent crop failures. The second part studies the regional famine pattern and its demographic characteristics in Sweden 1750–1910. This part is based on demographic data on parish level from the official statistics and price data. We identify two periods of excess mortality: the last major famine in Sweden in the early 1770s and the excess mortality in 1809 due to epidemic outbreaks. Examining the age-specific mortality and seasonality pattern in these two years of mortality crises in Sweden we show a highly similar pattern explained by similar causes of death being involved: dysentery and typhus. All age groups were affected during the crisis, but children over the age of one were hardest hit. Mortality was highest during the summer and early fall as epidemics spread rapidly through water and food. Thus, while Nordic people clearly were vulnerable to economic fluctuations, conditions rarely deteriorated to famine levels, which can be explained as a combination of a reasonably well-functioning market, a diversified economy, a population density in line with resource availability and the absence of serious political or war-related conditions conducive to famine. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
famine, mortality, climate, food prices, harvests, Nordic countries, Middle Ages, 19th century
in
Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues
issue
138
pages
41 pages
publisher
Department of Economic History, Lund University
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
020622cf-a0cb-41bf-b5f5-d7045e2e09d1 (old id 8001054)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:21:51
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:10:31
@misc{020622cf-a0cb-41bf-b5f5-d7045e2e09d1,
  abstract     = {{The first part of this paper aims at identifying the timing of famines in the Nordic countries since the middle ages. This is done by using qualitative famine reports from the literature since quantitative data on famines are scarce or non-existent, at least before the early modern period. We supplement the reports with climate data and price data. Our survey indicates that widespread famine was always a rare occurrence in the Nordic countries, despite frequent crop failures. The second part studies the regional famine pattern and its demographic characteristics in Sweden 1750–1910. This part is based on demographic data on parish level from the official statistics and price data. We identify two periods of excess mortality: the last major famine in Sweden in the early 1770s and the excess mortality in 1809 due to epidemic outbreaks. Examining the age-specific mortality and seasonality pattern in these two years of mortality crises in Sweden we show a highly similar pattern explained by similar causes of death being involved: dysentery and typhus. All age groups were affected during the crisis, but children over the age of one were hardest hit. Mortality was highest during the summer and early fall as epidemics spread rapidly through water and food. Thus, while Nordic people clearly were vulnerable to economic fluctuations, conditions rarely deteriorated to famine levels, which can be explained as a combination of a reasonably well-functioning market, a diversified economy, a population density in line with resource availability and the absence of serious political or war-related conditions conducive to famine.}},
  author       = {{Dribe, Martin and Olsson, Mats and Svensson, Patrick}},
  keywords     = {{famine; mortality; climate; food prices; harvests; Nordic countries; Middle Ages; 19th century}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{138}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Economic History, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Lund Papers in Economic History. General Issues}},
  title        = {{Famines in the Nordic countries, AD 536 - 1875}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5987932/8032075.pdf}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}