The wealth of the Swedish peasant farmer class 1750–1900 : Composition and distribution
Using about 1,730 probate inventories, this paper studies the wealth of peasant farmers in Sweden for the years 1750, 1800, 1850 and 1900. The Gini coefficient for the farmers’ wealth grew from 0.46 in 1750 to 0.73 in 1900. Average wealth grew rapidly, tripling over the nineteenth century. Looking in greater depth at four local areas (Kullings, Sjuhundra, Lagunda, and Bara hundreds), we show that