Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - III. Constitution and Administration. Introd. by E. Hildebrand - 2. State Administration. By E. Söderberg - Official Statistics. By K. A. Edin
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
■2-20
III. CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION.
sponding series in the Naval Archives are not of the same value. After the
Ecclesiastical Law of 1686 established in a statuary form for the whole
kingdom — still valid in essentials — a system of ecclesiastical record-keeping which
was found locally here and there somewhat earlier, we have a tolerably uniform
set of demographical statistics for the whole country.
Abundant statistical material as regards legal, especially criminal, proceedings
can be obtained from the court records in the National Record Office and in the
Provincial Archives and from the fines-rolls in the Archives of the
Kammarkollegium.
* #
%
The official system of statistics in Sweden can trace its origin so far
back as 1749, when there was established the so-called Tables Archive
(Tabellverket) which intended the collection, from all the parishes in
the kingdom, of information concerning births, marriages, deaths and
the causes of death, and also concerning the number of the inhabitants
of the country, the increase or decrease of the population, and its
classification according to sex, age, civil status, occupation, etc. At the same
time, the diocesan authorities were enjoined, in accordance with the
Ecclesiastical Law, to see to it that the clergy kept correct registers
referring to catechetical meetings, both children and adults, with the
specification of age, and that those who were baptised or who married, died or
moved elsewhere should immediately be entered in their respective columns
so that the incumbent should be able in some few hours to make out the
prescribed tables. The establishment of the Tables Archive had been
proceeded by certain preliminary measures. Thus as early as 1737, orders
had been given to send to the newly-constituted Health Commission
lists or tables for the following year, setting forth the persons born or
dead in each parish; and in the previous year the making out of
similar tables had been enjoined for the years 1721—35, in accordance
with a model table drawn up for the diocese of Linköping by Erik
Benzelius, then bishop of Linköping and afterwards archbishop. The lists
thus ordered in 1736 and 1737 seem to have come in very irregularly and
to have been very defective. This was due to various contributary
circumstances, such as the disinclination of the clergy for such unaccustomed
and troublesome work — we even hear of religious scruples against the
tabulation and references to God’s displeasure with king David when he
was going to number the people — the disorderly condition of the church
registers in some places (chiefly in Finland, however), and the laxity of
ecclesiastical control. Hence they did not arouse any great degree of
interest, nor were they to any great extent actually prepared.
The Tables Archive of 1749 came into existence with the interested
co-operation of the Academy of Sciences — which, ever since its
establishment just ten years previously, seems to have had its attention directed on
the demographical statistical material accumulated in the church registers
(Benzelius had belonged to the Academy since 1740) — and especially of
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
