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NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. MORAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 145
Drawing a line between large and small fortunes at the limit fixed
as rate for candidateship to the Upper Chamber of the Swedish Diet
(viz. real property to the value of 80,000 kronor and an income of
4,000 kronor from floating capital or labour; a krona = Tio shilling =
0*268 dollar), we can give a rough estimate as follows of the
distribution of wealth:
Of Real Estate in Land about 2,000 of the proprietors fall above the given
limit and about 270,000 below it, the first category embracing about one fourth
of the total value of the land under assessment, the second, consequently, three
fourths of the same.
Of Other Real Estate about half the total value accrues to proprietors who
rise above the limit; however, it should be noted that in many cases they are
joint stock companies, and as such they do not form actual individual
property-owners, since the owner-ship is divided among the shareholders. Moreover, the
figures on which this estimate is based date from 20 years back and may
therefore since that date have undergone a not inconsiderable change.
Of Income from Capital and Labour about one third of the total value
Ms to the lot of those above the limit, two thirds to those below.
However incomplete this rough statement is, it may yet be said to
establish one fact beyond dispute, namely that land in Sweden is divided
up among the population in a much more democratic manner than are
other forms oT wealth. Only one fourth of the land assessed falls to
the category of large property, and yet the limit fixed is as low as
80,000 kronor (4,400 £), a sum which, in this particular case, must be
regarded as rather inconsiderable. To further illustrate the condition
of affairs in question, it may be added that no less than 85 % of the total
number of landed estates in Sweden are worked by the proprietors
themselves, leaving only a percentage of 15 for those let out to tenants,
though the latter estates are, it is true, on an average, not
inappreciably larger than the former.
One item with regard to property ownership in Sweden may be stated
with precision, and that is the number of the entailed estates. At the close of
1895 they were 167 in number, valued in total at 110 million kronor, or 4*62 %
of all real property in Sweden. Reckoned by total value, more than nine tenths
of these estates belong to noble families.
To sum up very roughly the results of the preceding, we find
that about one third of the total property possessed and income received
in Sweden is allotted to a percentage of the population of only two,
whereas the other two thirds are divided amongst the remaining 98 % of
the people. This may seem a very serious disproportion, but there are
probably few countries where the state of things is not far worse in
this particular.
As to whether unequal distribution of wealth tends to increase or
decrease in Sweden, it is unfortunately impossible to say anything
definitely; that, however, prosperity has, on the whole, increased greatly,
can be demonstrated beyond gainsaying.
Sweden. 10
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