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.
OFFICIAL STATISTICS.
221
"the secretaries of the Academy, the mathematician Pehr Elvins and the
astronomer Pehr Wargentin.
In 1756, the compilation of an abstract of tlie tables was entrusted to a
special Tables Archive Commission, which should seem to be justly
described as the oldest statistical office in the world: it continued to work for
more than hundred years. (The establishment and early work of the
Tables Archive was treated in i wo articles contributed in 1900 to Fennia
by A. Hjelt). The Tables Archive Commission published its first printed
Teport in 1818 (covering the years 1811—15).
The general population table of 1749 should seem to merit the name of the
oldest census in the luorld. Information as to the number of the population was
rendered yearly until 1751 (inclusive), every three years between 1751 and
1775, and from 1775 to 1860 every five years. Even though not a few errors
have crept both into the parish-tables and into the tabular abstracts (in
particular into the oldest ones), yet these population tables are to be regarded as
perfectly unique, not only for their own time but for much later times, in
respect both to reliability and wealth of detail; this holds good in particular about
the information regarding ages. They form an epoch in the population statistics
not only of Sweden but of the whole world. It cannot even be said of them,
as of the tables of vital statistics, that they are in the main founded on the
long established keeping of ecclesiastical records. It is true enough that the
Ecclesiastical Law of 1686 prescribed in general terms the keeping of registers
referring to catechetical meetings; but to judge by chance specimens of these
records, no such have been compiled in a suitable form to serve as basis for
censuses until the Tables Archive was instituted; and the same holds true of the
Removal Registers. Though, from the standpoint of population statistics, the
new catechetical meetings registers, especially as regards removals, were still for
some time after 1749 kept in a rather unsatisfactory manner (from a statistical
point of view) in certain places, yet they may be regarded as the most
priceless treasure of all old Swedish rough statistical material relating to demography.
In the main they have formed the basis of tables of population; in many
important respects — notably in the matter of marriage-fecundity — they would
be able to supplement these admirably; and for the most part the Swedish
catechetical meetings registers of the present day are still the same. To work
them up systematically, however, would probably involve serious difficulties,
especially as they are still not indexed in a quite satisfactory statistical manner.
The general tables of the Tables Archive are preserved in the Archives of the
Central Bureau of Statistics.
In the new formularies which were established for the Tables Archive in 1802
there were introduced a number of economic specifications, chiefly with
reference to agricultural conditions (sowing, harvest, domestic animals, acreage
of open country), which were given for the last time in 1820. In the same year
the provincial governors were ordered to send in, every fifth year, reports of the
condition of the counties, especially as regards growth or decay of agriculture,
cattle-breeding, and "all other industries". The regulation goes back to similar
regulations in the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries (even as far back as the
Constitution Act of 1634; there are preserved Governors’ reports to the
Kammarkollegium from the period 1620—30). In 1821, a Royal Letter prescribed the
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
