Migration i 1600-talets Sverige Älvsborgs lösen 1613–1618

Sammanfattning: This thesis is a study of migration in the early seventeenth-century Swedish feudal society, and of its migration regime; that is the political, legal and economic structures that shaped the migration patterns. The most important sources are taxation records from Älvsborgs lösen, containing demographic migration data for large parts of the Swedish realm 1613–1618. The migration regime is also studied through sources such as legislation and legal records.Migration rates and migration distances are analysed for households and for servants. Although most migration was short-distance, different social groups had different migration patterns. Further, urban migration patterns, inter-regional and international migration are analysed. Concerning migration rates, the study shows that migration was as common in seventeenth-century Sweden as in other parts of Europe (including England), and also as common as in the nineteenth century. In the thesis, legislation and legal practices concerning the mobility of tenants and servants, as well as concerning urban migration, international migration and forced migration (banishments and deportations) are studied. The study of the migration regime found that since not only rural but ideally also urban production was geographically fixed, regulating migration and population mobility was an important issue within the Swedish feudal society. The results confirm the fundamental importance of migration for the Swedish seventeenth-century feudal society, in which labour was free while the means of production were immobile. Through comparisons with historical research on other regions, this result is evidently not only valid for seventeenth-century Sweden, but may be generalized also for other feudal societies.