Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - II. The Agricultural Classes
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are pure granite. Most of the inhabitants are sailors
or fishermen. The introduction of steam-boats has,
of course, brought many changes, and caused a
number of men to seek work abroad. When the
men-folk are at sea the women-kind cultivate the land.
This is the case also on the coast of the mainland,
especially in Ostrobothnia, where there is also a large
sailor population and a great amount of emigration.
The large farms, the “herregårdar,” which are owned
by gentlemen farmers, are found in the same
proportion to other farms as is the case in Denmark and
Sweden. They are more numerous than in Western
Germany, but very few compared to Germany east
of the Elbe or to the greater part of Austria-Hungary.
They are nearly all found in the south of Finland,
“where every manor is a monument and every churchyard
a tomb of heroes.” This is a part of the country
famous in history, the cradle of Finnish civilisation.
Here are found nearly all the old manor-houses, the
“säterier” or “ypperliga frälse;” which number 260.
Except for their entire exemption from the tax on
real estate, which is to-day more of a rent to the
Crown than a tax, no privilege now attaches to these
manorial properties. Other properties formerly in
the hands of the gentry, the “allmänna frälse,” are
partially exempt from taxation, because of their old
obligation of feudal military service, by which they
had to provide a certain number of mounted troops.
Of the total units of taxation in the country, some
19,000 in number, only one-tenth belong to this class,
which is more or less exempted from taxation, and
most of these are situated in the south. We mention
this because the “allmänna frälse” represents land
formerly belonging to the nobles and gentry. The
large farms (i.e. farms of 250 acres or more) which
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