294 Summary replaced by a more reflective and self-confident one which allowed judges to question whether ancient usage was always to be respected. There are also indications of a more hesitant attitude towards rewarding all kinds of labour, including those that would threaten the rights of owners. Finally, a stricter view of what was to count as proof is clearly visible in the minutes. Chapter 10. Conclusions and implications Ancient usage was a formof entitlement which can serve to symbolise how old and new merged in the early modern period (cf. chapter 2). On the one hand, claims of ancient usage obviously built their legitimacy on the notion that what was old and traditional was also right, almost as a matter of definition. On the other hand, if we look at how the argument was actually used in seventeenth-century Sweden, it is striking to what individualistic and modern purposes ancient usage could lend itself. Against the medieval and normative conception of hamlets as single units of property, claims of ancient usage could be brought forward to argue the case for another interpretation: that specific pieces of land were the inviolable private property of certain individuals. This view portends the newsystemwhich enclosure would finally bring about in the subsequent centuries. The received picture of the early modern epoch is contradictorv: a period in whieh a new type of order was instilled into society, but also a period clearly carrying the stamp of traditional and local norms. With regard to the Swedish property rights system, the contradiction can be resolved if we conceive of the epoch as divided into two phases, roughly before and after 1680. The first of these periods was the heyday of rights built on ancient usage, a period in which local communities had a strong influence over legal practice. The second witnessed an increasingly hesitant attitude towards ancient usage, even if the institution was never abolished, and a stronger state presence in local legal affairs. The shift should be seen against the backdrop of political life and the far-reaching transformation brought about by the repossession of Crown land, but, applying a long-termview, it is possible to discern more fundamental processes affecting the property rights system. In low-technological societies, failed harvests and starvation are constant threats. If the earth is to provide sufficient produce to
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