Den samiska handeln och dess roll som social differentieringsfaktor-lule lappmark 1760-1860
Titel:
Den samiska handeln och dess roll som social differentieringsfaktor-lule lappmark 1760-1860
Auteur:
Kvist, Roger
Verschenen in:
Acta borealia
Paginering:
Jaargang 3 (1986) nr. 2 pagina's 19-40
Jaar:
1986
Inhoud:
During the beginning of the 17th Century, reindeer-husbandry developed as the dominating economic form of the Sami in Swedish Lappland. Sami society was transformed from a hunting to a pastoralist society, with profound alterations in social and economic structures. In this paper the role of trade as an agent of change in reindeer-pastoralist economies is studied with an emphasis on conditions in Lule lappmark during the period 1760-1860. In the middle of the 18th Century, the Sami held a dominating position in the trade of Lule lappmark. Sami traded with the Swedish trading system on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, and with the Norwegian trading system on the Atlantic coast. Through this trade, the Sami both disposed of their own reindeer products and conducted important middle-man trade between the two national trading systems. In addition they carried out a large local trade in Lapland with their own products and with purchased goods. By the middle of the 19th Centuy. the picture is completely different. The dominating Sami position had been lost and trade with Norway all but disappeared. The initiative in the local trade had gone over to the settlers. All this had occured without any changes in the assortment of goods, trading-patterns, the volume of trade or prices. The reasons where manifold. The most important ones, however, are to be found in the population development of Lapland and the increase in population and production on the coast of Bothnia. In Lapland a strong population movement occured with the change from a traditional Sami way of life towards a more settled one based on agriculture. At the same time, the number of settlers with a Swedish ethnic background vigourosly increased. On the coast of Bothnia the population tripled between 1750 and 1850. During this period an important proto-industrial development also took place based on wood and iron, wind- and water-power. All this meant that the relative importance of traditional Sami goods received from reindeer-husbandry diminished, even if actual supply and demand remained stable. The great volume of trade with reindeer-products and the many important goods received in return demonstrates the importance of trade for the reindeer-pastoralist economy. The trading-goods were to a large extent technically superior to the products produced within the frames of the reindeer-pastoralist economy. The most important factor was, however, the fact that the surplus production left in exchange for these goods, only demanded a small increase in labor input. Within the reindeer-pastoralist society, trade has a role as promotor of property-differentiation and social stratification. Through hoarding of silver the rich reindeer-owner could withdraw a substantial part of his property from the eternal plague of reindeer-pastoralism - the ever occuring bad years with heavy losses of reindeer. After such a year, he could use the silver to buy food, saving his diminished herd from slaughter and quickly building it up again. The owner of a small herd, without any silver, had to slaughter the few reindeer that survived in order to live; hence social differences could be conserved over generations.
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