Sörkörare was the name given to the farmers in southern and central Norrland who traveled by horse and sleigh in winter (so-called “forkörning)” to Stockholm and the towns around Lake Mälaren to sell farm products such as fur/leather, forest birds, handicrafts, and linen (linen fabric). The term literally means “South Drivers”, however, a descriptive term would be “Peasant sellers from Norrland”.Norrland is the name of the northern half of Sweden.
Rural Areas
Trade and crafts were not accepted in the countryside, so craftsmen and traders/storekeepers stayed in the towns. The peasants, however, were engaged in crafts, not least for domestic use, and to some extent in trade in the countryside as well (saluslöjd - handicraft for sale). In some areas, handicrafts, and woodcraft were very extensive. In the 1680s, a limited number of professionals were allowed to settle in the countryside to practice their trade. These were mainly tailors, blacksmiths and shoemakers. They were called parish craftsmen and were only allowed to work in 'their' parish. It was the parish council that appointed who could work as a parish craftsman in the parish in question. During the 18th century, the number of professions increased. The 1846 Ordinance on Freedom of Trade gave all types of craftsmen the right to settle in the countryside and practice their trade there.
Town Privileges - Town Charter
A town was a larger place with the "right" to trade and crafts. Town Charter or town privileges could only be granted by the King. Normally a town was surrounded by a fence or, in larger towns, by a city wall. On the way into a town, one had to pass through a guarded town gate. To bring merchandise into a town or city, a toll had to be paid. This toll, the Lilla tullen, was introduced in 1622 and abolished in 1810. The city toll was a fee levied on all goods brought into the cities for sale. Many customs stations were set up at the city gates where the duty was collected.
Little Toll
The Little Toll (Swe: “Lilla Tullen”) was a customs duty on domestic trade and was introduced in 1622 by King Gustav II Adolf. It was introduced mainly to finance the many Swedish wars undertaken in the 1620s and the subsequent 30 Years' War. The Little Toll was a customs duty on consumer goods such as food, clothing, wood, metal, and animals ("all edible, and wearable goods") to be sold in the towns. At the same time, the sale of goods outside the towns ("rural trade") became illegal.Customs duties were to be paid when the goods were brought into the cities, not when they were taken out. Customs duty was paid at 1/32 of the value of the goods. This rate of tax remained largely unchanged until it was abolished in 1810. More about the Little Toll.
Domestic Travel Certificates
In 1606 and 1638, all travelers to and from Sweden were required to carry a travel certificate (Swe: “Inrikespass”), what we today mean by passports. In other words, travel certificates were required for both international and domestic travel. Travel certificates were issued to city dwellers by the body of borough administrators (Swe: ”Magistraten”), i.e. the city council, and to people in the countryside by the County Administrative Board (Swe: “Länstyrelsen). In special cases, the regimental commander, the parish minister, the crown bailiff, or the local police chief (Swe: “Länsman”) were allowed to issue passports or equivalent. The travel certificates would contain the traveler's name, title/occupation, and destination of the journey. For travelers who were not officials, residents, or townsmen, their age and appearance were also recorded. The certificate would also contain the period of validity and be signed by the issuer, such as the mayor.More on Domestic Travel Certificates.
Rural Trading
As shown above, trade and crafts were not allowed in the countryside. This was only allowed in the towns, the burghers of the towns having the exclusive right to engage in merchant trade. However, peasants had the right to market their own products, i.e. the breeding of their own farms. However, some trade could take place in the countryside, but only in specific marketplaces. All other trade was to take place in the towns, whose customs duties, the Little Toll, were an important source of income for the Crown.There were few towns in Norrland and the distances were great. Before the 17th century, there were no towns at all in Norrland. Instead of towns, there were marketplaces in Norrland, often close to the places where towns were later established. As a sideline, to supplement their income, peasants were usually engaged in the production of handicrafts and similar items, which were sold in the towns and marketplaces. Sales at rural marketplaces were called rural trade (Swe: "Landsköp"). Rural trading (Landsköp) was even banned in Norrland in 1546, but after the peasants appealed to the King, they were allowed to resume trading in marketplaces in 1549. Merchants' fees (Swe: “Köpmannapenningar”), the tax that the merchants paid to the Crown for their enterprises, were paid sporadically but at least every three years.Farmers' right to sell the goods they produced was limited to their own products. They were not allowed to buy other people's products to resell. This was considered to be trading, which they were not allowed to do. This right was reserved for the burghers in the towns.Nevertheless, the city burghers saw the peasants' sales as competition to their own business and they tried to restrict the peasants' right to sell their own goods. The peasants were accused by the burghers of engaging in illicit trade by buying up and reselling goods, but government officials also suspected that illicit trade was taking place. In the 1760s, the County Governor of Västernorrland, Per Abraham Örnsköld, advocated control over the farmers' trade. A later governor, Carl Bunge, also wanted to see tighter controls.But King Gustav III instead extended the rights of the peasants. In 1789, the king gave farmers the right to sell their neighbors' produce. Control of peasant trade was strongly linked to the obligation to use domestic travel certificates when traveling in Sweden. The travel pass was issued by the County Administrative Board. An attached pledge (Swe: “Fribrev”) was required when applying for a passport. The pledge had to contain certain information such as the purpose of the journey. If a farmer was traveling with goods, around the turn of the 1800s the pledge would also contain a list of the goods to be carried. This had to be certified by the local police chief (Länsman).When the peasants came to a town to sell their goods, they first had to clear them through town customs and pay a customs duty (Little Toll). This duty was abolished in 1810, after which the pledges no longer contained lists of the goods brought in, as there was no longer any need for them.The ban on trading in food in the countryside was abolished in 1815, giving farmers the right to buy and store goods and then sell them anywhere in Sweden. Farmers could now buy up goods such as butter, cheese, fish, hides, fur, etc. for resale. The ban on rural trading ended in 1846. Trade stalls/general stores were now allowed to open in the countryside, but only at least 30 km (19 mi) from the nearest town. The 30-km limit provisions were not widely observed. Whether or not a general store could be opened in a particular place was to be decided by the parish council. The 1846 decree further stipulated that country storekeepers could sell some foreign necessities, but they were not allowed to import these goods themselves. Domestic country products of various kinds could all be purchased in the country and sold in lots. However, country storekeepers were not allowed to sell liquor.Full freedom of trade did not come until 1864 when a new decree abolished the 30-km limit and abolished all compulsory demands for craft guilds and burger-ships. The decree abolished the last obstacles to trading wherever one wished. A fundamental feature of the reforms was that the countryside was given the right to trade. The countryside was now put on an equal footing with the towns in this respect.
Northern Peasants’ Sales Travels South
The Northern Peasants’ Sales Travels to Stockholm and Cities around Lake Mälaren
The towns in Norrland (northern half of Sweden) were few and the population base small. To increase the income from the sale of the goods the peasants’ had to sell, trips were made in winter, when the snow and ice had settled, by horse and sleigh down to the Stockholm and the cities around Lake Mälaren to sell or exchange goods. The goods they brought with them could be furs and leather, hides, wooden spoons, linen of coveting quality, butter, poultry, and reindeer meat. On their return journey, the peasant traders might carry grain, silver, and exotic luxuries such as silk and spices.As a rule, they left Norrland in mid-January, after Hilarymas - January 13 - (Swe: Tjugondagknut), and the sales journey could take up to two months before they were back. Many of them succeeded and built up considerable wealth through their trades, while others failed and were ruined. These northerners’ sales travel south broadened their horizons and enabled them to talk about life in the towns and cities around Mälaren, not least Stockholm.
Before the Trip
Before a peasant's sales journey south, he packed his traveling winter wagon (Swe: färdskrinda) - a cross between a “rissla” and a long sledge - with the products that would accompany him on the journey, such as butter, hides, game skins, woodland birds, linen yarn, and linen cloth. If their own produce was not enough, they would supplement it with goods from neighboring farms (after 1789). Usually, there were several wagon-loads (Swe: foror) with farmhands and hired men as coachmen. Often they brought loose horses with them as they also acted as horse-dealers.A "Rissla" was a boat-like sledge with a horseman’s box and sides of trellis-work in which one traveled more or less in a recumbent position. The "Rissla" was common in Norrland. The image to the right shows a “rissla” sledge from Norrland. Image: Postmuseum, ID: POST.045844.In northern Ångermanland there was a large production of flax around the turn of the 1800s. Kersti Ullenhag (Professor emeritus in Economic History) has studied domestic travel certificates from this time, including from the parishes of Nätra, Sidensjö, and Själevad in Ångermanland province. One year in the mid-1790s, 24,752 cubits of linen were sent south from Själevad alone. Kersti has converted this to modern bedsheets and found that it corresponds to 2,910 sheets. This is from a single parish, a single year. So, it was no small amount that was loaded onto the southbound peasants’ (Sörkörare) sledges. Kersti has made calculations that show that each sled contained goods that together weighed around half a ton, sometimes even more.
Housing in Stockholm
The southbound travels of the northern peasants' were organized and in the larger cities around Lake Mälaren, such as Stockholm, the peasants had lodgings in which they lived during their sales travels. In Stockholm, there was the Hälsinge farmhouse (Hälsingegården), for example, which was located in a farmer's quarter near Hay Market (Hötorget ) and was one such lodging. The fact that the peasants had lodgings in Stockholm where they spent the night was due to their trade. The peasants had to sleep somewhere, and that is how some of the names in Stockholm came into being; Dalkarlshärbärget, Stora Kronan, and others.As a rule, it was exclusively men who were "sörkörare", but the occasional woman did appear. Karolina Norberg in Ångermanland, born in 1845, was one such woman. The reason she became a "sörkörare" was that her husband became crippled. Karolina Norberg made her last southbound sales trip in 1906.At the end of the 19th century, when the railway was extended to Norrland, the more affluent peasant traders began to transport their goods by train instead.The northern peasants' southbound trade travels were opposed by the burghers of the towns, who considered them an infringement of their trading privileges. They required a total ban on the northern peasants’ trade in the late 18th century but, as mentioned above, the King and government refused their request and the trade was allowed to continue undisturbed.
Statue
On a square in Örnsköldsvik town in Ångermanland, there is a statue named "Sörköraren" (The Southbound Peasant) by Asmund Arle, erected in memory of the so-called “Sörkörarna”.
Sörkörare in Graninge Parish
My relative Nils Grelsson (1796 - 1851), farmer and parish policman (fjärdingsman) in Östergraninge, Graninge parish in Ångermanland, was a "sörkörare". In time he became wealthy, a large landowner and proprietor of many farms in the area.
Norrland
Sweden is traditionally divided into three major “lands”, from north to south; Norrland, Svealand and Götaland.Norrland (Northland) is a land in the northern half Sweden, comprising the traditional provinces (landskap) of Gästrikland, Hälsingland, Medelpad, Ångermanland, Västerbotten, Norrbotten, Härjedalen, Jämtland, and Lappland.More information about the “Lands in Sweden”
•Wikipedia•Örnsköldsviks kommuns webbsida•Sveriges Radios webbsida•Kersti Ullenhag, Sörkörare. Bönder med lärft på lassen från Norra Ångermanland 1750-1850. Örnsköldsvik: CeWe-förlaget. 1982.Top of Page
Sörkörare was the name given to the farmers in southern and central Norrland who traveled by horse and sleigh in winter (so-called “forkörning)” to Stockholm and the towns around Lake Mälaren to sell farm products such as fur/leather, forest birds, handicrafts, and linen (linen fabric). The term literally means “South Drivers”, however, a descriptive term would be “Peasant sellers from Norrland”.Norrland is the name of the northern half of Sweden.
Rural Areas
Trade and crafts were not accepted in the countryside, so craftsmen and traders/storekeepers stayed in the towns. The peasants, however, were engaged in crafts, not least for domestic use, and to some extent in trade in the countryside as well (saluslöjd - handicraft for sale). In some areas, handicrafts, and woodcraft were very extensive. In the 1680s, a limited number of professionals were allowed to settle in the countryside to practice their trade. These were mainly tailors, blacksmiths and shoemakers. They were called parish craftsmen and were only allowed to work in 'their' parish. It was the parish council that appointed who could work as a parish craftsman in the parish in question. During the 18th century, the number of professions increased. The 1846 Ordinance on Freedom of Trade gave all types of craftsmen the right to settle in the countryside and practice their trade there.
Town Privileges - Town Charter
A town was a larger place with the "right" to trade and crafts. Town Charter or town privileges could only be granted by the King. Normally a town was surrounded by a fence or, in larger towns, by a city wall. On the way into a town, one had to pass through a guarded town gate. To bring merchandise into a town or city, a toll had to be paid. This toll, the Lilla tullen, was introduced in 1622 and abolished in 1810. The city toll was a fee levied on all goods brought into the cities for sale. Many customs stations were set up at the city gates where the duty was collected.
Little Toll
The Little Toll (Swe: “Lilla Tullen”) was a customs duty on domestic trade and was introduced in 1622 by King Gustav II Adolf. It was introduced mainly to finance the many Swedish wars undertaken in the 1620s and the subsequent 30 Years' War. The Little Toll was a customs duty on consumer goods such as food, clothing, wood, metal, and animals ("all edible, and wearable goods") to be sold in the towns. At the same time, the sale of goods outside the towns ("rural trade") became illegal.Customs duties were to be paid when the goods were brought into the cities, not when they were taken out. Customs duty was paid at 1/32 of the value of the goods. This rate of tax remained largely unchanged until it was abolished in 1810. More about the Little Toll.
Domestic Travel Certificates
In 1606 and 1638, all travelers to and from Sweden were required to carry a travel certificate (Swe: “Inrikespass”), what we today mean by passports. In other words, travel certificates were required for both international and domestic travel. Travel certificates were issued to city dwellers by the body of borough administrators (Swe: ”Magistraten”), i.e. the city council, and to people in the countryside by the County Administrative Board (Swe: “Länstyrelsen). In special cases, the regimental commander, the parish minister, the crown bailiff, or the local police chief (Swe: “Länsman”) were allowed to issue passports or equivalent. The travel certificates would contain the traveler's name, title/occupation, and destination of the journey. For travelers who were not officials, residents, or townsmen, their age and appearance were also recorded. The certificate would also contain the period of validity and be signed by the issuer, such as the mayor.More on Domestic Travel Certificates.
Rural Trading
As shown above, trade and crafts were not allowed in the countryside. This was only allowed in the towns, the burghers of the towns having the exclusive right to engage in merchant trade. However, peasants had the right to market their own products, i.e. the breeding of their own farms. However, some trade could take place in the countryside, but only in specific marketplaces. All other trade was to take place in the towns, whose customs duties, the Little Toll, were an important source of income for the Crown.There were few towns in Norrland and the distances were great. Before the 17th century, there were no towns at all in Norrland. Instead of towns, there were marketplaces in Norrland, often close to the places where towns were later established. As a sideline, to supplement their income, peasants were usually engaged in the production of handicrafts and similar items, which were sold in the towns and marketplaces. Sales at rural marketplaces were called rural trade (Swe: "Landsköp"). Rural trading (Landsköp) was even banned in Norrland in 1546, but after the peasants appealed to the King, they were allowed to resume trading in marketplaces in 1549. Merchants' fees (Swe: “Köpmannapenningar”), the tax that the merchants paid to the Crown for their enterprises, were paid sporadically but at least every three years.Farmers' right to sell the goods they produced was limited to their own products. They were not allowed to buy other people's products to resell. This was considered to be trading, which they were not allowed to do. This right was reserved for the burghers in the towns.Nevertheless, the city burghers saw the peasants' sales as competition to their own business and they tried to restrict the peasants' right to sell their own goods. The peasants were accused by the burghers of engaging in illicit trade by buying up and reselling goods, but government officials also suspected that illicit trade was taking place. In the 1760s, the County Governor of Västernorrland, Per Abraham Örnsköld, advocated control over the farmers' trade. A later governor, Carl Bunge, also wanted to see tighter controls.But King Gustav III instead extended the rights of the peasants. In 1789, the king gave farmers the right to sell their neighbors' produce. Control of peasant trade was strongly linked to the obligation to use domestic travel certificateswhen traveling in Sweden. The travel pass was issued by the County Administrative Board. An attached pledge (Swe: “Fribrev”) was required when applying for a passport. The pledge had to contain certain information such as the purpose of the journey. If a farmer was traveling with goods, around the turn of the 1800s the pledge would also contain a list of the goods to be carried. This had to be certified by the local police chief (Länsman).When the peasants came to a town to sell their goods, they first had to clear them through town customs and pay a customs duty (Little Toll). This duty was abolished in 1810, after which the pledges no longer contained lists of the goods brought in, as there was no longer any need for them.The ban on trading in food in the countryside was abolished in 1815, giving farmers the right to buy and store goods and then sell them anywhere in Sweden. Farmers could now buy up goods such as butter, cheese, fish, hides, fur, etc. for resale. The ban on rural trading ended in 1846. Trade stalls/general stores were now allowed to open in the countryside, but only at least 30 km (19 mi) from the nearest town. The 30-km limit provisions were not widely observed. Whether or not a general store could be opened in a particular place was to be decided by the parish council. The 1846 decree further stipulated that country storekeepers could sell some foreign necessities, but they were not allowed to import these goods themselves. Domestic country products of various kinds could all be purchased in the country and sold in lots. However, country storekeepers were not allowed to sell liquor.Full freedom of trade did not come until 1864when a new decree abolished the 30-km limit and abolished all compulsory demands for craft guilds and burger-ships. The decree abolished the last obstacles to trading wherever one wished. A fundamental feature of the reforms was that the countryside was given the right to trade. The countryside was now put on an equal footing with the towns in this respect.
Northern Peasants’ Sales Travels
South
The Northern Peasants’ Sales Travels to
Stockholm and Cities around Lake Mälaren
The towns in Norrland (northern half of Sweden) were few and the population base small. To increase the income from the sale of the goods the peasants’ had to sell, trips were made in winter, when the snow and ice had settled, by horse and sleigh down to the Stockholm and the cities around Lake Mälaren to sell or exchange goods. The goods they brought with them could be furs and leather, hides, wooden spoons, linen of coveting quality, butter, poultry, and reindeer meat. On their return journey, the peasant traders might carry grain, silver, and exotic luxuries such as silk and spices.As a rule, they left Norrland in mid-January, after Hilarymas - January 13 - (Swe: Tjugondagknut), and the sales journey could take up to two months before they were back. Many of them succeeded and built up considerable wealth through their trades, while others failed and were ruined. These northerners’ sales travel south broadened their horizons and enabled them to talk about life in the towns and cities around Mälaren, not least Stockholm.
Before the Trip
Before a peasant's sales journey south, he packed his traveling winter wagon (Swe: färdskrinda) - a cross between a “rissla” and a long sledge - with the products that would accompany him on the journey, such as butter, hides, game skins, woodland birds, linen yarn, and linen cloth. If their own produce was not enough, they would supplement it with goods from neighboring farms (after 1789). Usually, there were several wagon-loads (Swe: foror) with farmhands and hired men as coachmen. Often they brought loose horses with them as they also acted as horse-dealers.A "Rissla" was a boat-like sledge with a horseman’s box and sides of trellis-work in which one traveled more or less in a recumbent position. The "Rissla" was common in Norrland. The image to the right shows a “rissla” sledge from Norrland. Image: Postmuseum, ID: POST.045844.In northern Ångermanland there was a large production of flax around the turn of the 1800s. Kersti Ullenhag (Professor emeritus in Economic History) has studied domestic travel certificates from this time, including from the parishes of Nätra, Sidensjö, and Själevad in Ångermanland province. One year in the mid-1790s, 24,752 cubits of linen were sent south from Själevad alone. Kersti has converted this to modern bedsheets and found that it corresponds to 2,910 sheets. This is from a single parish, a single year. So, it was no small amount that was loaded onto the southbound peasants’ (Sörkörare) sledges. Kersti has made calculations that show that each sled contained goods that together weighed around half a ton, sometimes even more.
Housing in Stockholm
The southbound travels of the northern peasants' were organized and in the larger cities around Lake Mälaren, such as Stockholm, the peasants had lodgings in which they lived during their sales travels. In Stockholm, there was the Hälsinge farmhouse (Hälsingegården), for example, which was located in a farmer's quarter near Hay Market (Hötorget ) and was one such lodging. The fact that the peasants had lodgings in Stockholm where they spent the night was due to their trade. The peasants had to sleep somewhere, and that is how some of the names in Stockholm came into being; Dalkarlshärbärget, Stora Kronan, and others.As a rule, it was exclusively men who were "sörkörare", but the occasional woman did appear. Karolina Norberg in Ångermanland, born in 1845, was one such woman. The reason she became a "sörkörare" was that her husband became crippled. Karolina Norberg made her last southbound sales trip in 1906.At the end of the 19th century, when the railway was extended to Norrland, the more affluent peasant traders began to transport their goods by train instead.The northern peasants' southbound trade travels were opposed by the burghers of the towns, who considered them an infringement of their trading privileges. They required a total ban on the northern peasants’ trade in the late 18th century but, as mentioned above, the King and government refused their request and the trade was allowed to continue undisturbed.
Statue
On a square in Örnsköldsvik town in Ångermanland, there is a statue named "Sörköraren" (The Southbound Peasant) by Asmund Arle, erected in memory of the so-called “Sörkörarna”.
Sörkörare in Graninge Parish
My relative Nils Grelsson (1796 - 1851), farmer and parish policman (fjärdingsman) in Östergraninge, Graninge parish in Ångermanland, was a "sörkörare". In time he became wealthy, a large landowner and proprietor of many farms in the area.
Norrland
Sweden is traditionally divided into three major “lands”, from north to south; Norrland, Svealand and Götaland.Norrland (Northland) is a land in the northern half Sweden, comprising the traditional provinces (landskap) of Gästrikland, Hälsingland, Medelpad, Ångermanland, Västerbotten, Norrbotten, Härjedalen, Jämtland, and Lappland.More information about the “Lands in Sweden”
•Wikipedia•Örnsköldsviks kommuns webbsida•Sveriges Radios webbsida•Kersti Ullenhag, Sörkörare. Bönder med lärft på lassen från Norra Ångermanland 1750-1850. Örnsköldsvik: CeWe-förlaget. 1982.Top of Page
