The co-development of agriculture and flood–related problems in the parishes of Högsby and Mörlunda, Sweden, 1600–1800

Abstract

This paper analyses the development of flood related problems in two parishes in southeastern Sweden—Högsby and Mörlunda—during the period 1500–1800. The questions asked concern the role of the larger development of the agricultural production in the expansion of flooding problems during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and also investigates how this relationship was perceived by the local inhabitants. This is done through an analysis of the development of agriculture in the area using historical maps, combined with a study of written source material such as parish records and court protocols. The river Emån which flows through these parishes had long been a vital resource in the cattle–based economy of the studied parishes. This relationship turned more problematic by the turn of the eighteenth century due to the introduction of autumn rye into the agricultural scheme, prolonging the period of flood risk exposure for the arable crops. Combined with arable field expansion during the eighteenth century, this increased the sensitivity of agriculture to flooding. This development was not apparent in the discourse of the local inhabitants by the end of the eighteenth century, who instead interpreted increasing flooding problems in relation to existing water rights principles. These emphasized the more direct effects of human and natural obstructions in the river channel. The limits of historical memory as well as the necessities of agricultural development colored the local interpretation. Such processes on a general level were also closely inter–linked with the large–scale institutional changes of the period.

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