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276 .4 History of Sweden
The Domestic Policy of the Caps. In economic mat-
ters the Caps now had some excellent ideas. They had
come to recognize the great importance of agriculture
to the prosperity of a nation. Even the Hats had dis-
covered during the later years of their government
that there were other things besides commerce and
manufactures that needed encouragement. It was a
serious matter that Sweden could not produce enough
grain for home consumption, but had to import con-
siderable quantities from abroad.
For centuries Swedish agriculture had been ham-
pered by a faulty economic and social system. From
the earliest times the peasants lived, chiefly for com-
mon protection, in crowded villages, in unsanitary con-
ditions, and exposed to ravages of fire. The lands of
the villages were divided into a large number of nar-
row strips, for each one was to have his share of all
the different qualities of the land. Thus in a village
of say twenty owners there might be no less than 5,000
strips.
These strips were necessarily very narrow, hardly
wide enough in places for the peasant to turn with
his team without getting into his neighbor’s strip. The
margins between the strips were so much waste land.
There was great sacrifice of time and convenience in
moving teams and tools from one strip to another,
often at considerable distances. They all had to har-
vest at the same time, for one could not haul in his
grain over the unharvested strip of his neighbor, and
a separate road to each strip could of course not be
thought of. This was a great handicap especially to
industrious and thrifty peasants.
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