Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Social Movements - 1. Labour Questions and Social politics - Labour Conditions and Workmen's Wages. By B. Nyström
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v. social movements.
The fact that small holdings play such a dominant role in Swedish
agriculture also explains why there is such a vague line of demarcation between the
social conceptions of employer and employed. Out of the 1’2 million persons at
which the agricultural labour population has been estimated above, close on
800 000 consist of men. Among these labourers — for labourers they must be
acounted to be from the point of view of their economic position — are comprised
about 320 000 independent holders, namely the owners and occupiers of peasant
farms, crofts (torp), and small holdings, who either take part in the work
themselves as labourers, or (as "self-supporters") carry on their occupation without other
assistance in the work than that of their families. The latter consist of sons,
sons-in-law, and so on, about 220 000 in number, who as a rule assist in the
farm-work without receiving any actual wages. The remaining aproximately 260 000
persons should thus respresent the actual male agricultural class, which derives
its main income from paid labour in the service of others.
Crofter’s Cottage.
As to the conditions in which this large working population lives and works,
information is supplied by a series of investigations published by the Statistical
Branch of the Board of Trade (at present called the Royal Social Board).
These data show that the hours of labour of agricultural labourers, exclusive of
intervals, are about 101/2 hours per day during the summer, whereas they are
considerably shortened during the darker part of the year. However, the hours
of labour are everywhere still longer for persons who have the charge of the
cattle; moreover, for the agricultural labourers proper they are by no means
uniform in different parts of the country. Thus the hours are comparatively
short in the East and South of Sweden, but comparatively long in the West
and North parts of the country.
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