individuals of society did not live together with a legally acceptable “master”.121 During the 19th century Sweden was rapidly changing, the relative shortage of labour shifted into relative excess. Large numbers of the labouring poor could no longer be profitably absorbed into active work. Instead they constituted a burden and were perceived by the ruling classes as a potentially threatening mass.All this, combined with failed harvests, the resulting famines, and lack of religious freedom, led to the first mass exodus, waves of emigration between1853 and1873, when some 100,000 Swedes (just over 3% of the population), emigrated to NorthAmerica. After a decline in numbers caused by the Depression in the United States and boom years in Sweden, emigration once more escalated in 1879. During the period 1851-1930, altogether nearly 1.5 million persons emigrated from Sweden, while total immigration amounted to0.4million, in other words a net loss of over 1.1million persons out of a population of between 4 and 5 millions.122 Thus, the concept of “family” gradually ceased to be the basic unit for production and social interaction.When the household no longer functioned as a place of production, the perception of society, which had been established in medieval times, was shaken to its foundations.The structural individualisation of the 19th century was intertwined with complex ideological processes of change, which in turn interacted with several legislative changes. A tug-of-war developed between ideals of progressive enlightenment, rational thinking, empirical research, and belief in the future on the one hand and retrospective opinions that emphasised the significance of emotions and the great value of maintaining century-old institutions and ideals on the other.While a significant feature of the scholastic philosophy was its belief in authority, now competing ideals about an autonomous, reasonable p a r t 1 i i , c h a p t e r 3 66 121 Underdånigt betänkande med dertill hörande handlingar angående fattigvården i riket, utom Stockholms stad, 1839 volume 2, pp. 16-17. 122 Janson, F E 1930; Carlsson & Rosén 1962, pp. 448-458.
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