Gifts and equal exchanges were not valued explicitly in the charters. However, over the duration of the entire investigation period, we either hear about the assessment unit, the area, and the place or name of the exchanged or gifted land, and it is completely clear that the parties, through the provision of this information, knew the value. In the 1440s in Finnveden one began to provide information about the value of the gift by talking about how much it yielded ie the profits it brought in for the owner. Prior to this decade, I have been able to assume that the value was obvious to the parties.When I analysed the pledging of holdings for the purpose of giving them away as gifts, I could – through the assessment that was carried out – arrive at the value of the gift. In Jämtland, the maintenance agreements, which first began to be documented in writing in the 15th Century, were carefully valued since they became a part of the advance inheritance received by the heir who took on the responsibility for supporting the older party (see Chapter 3). The gift or service in return was never valued in monetary terms in Finnveden during the course of my investigation period. In spite of this, we see a development from gifts where there was no service in return stated at all, to gifts where the scope of the service in return is clearly specified.The donor could make plain what was expected as regards the standard of old-age housing and services, how often – and how many – requiem mass and prayers should be held etc.Thus, we have “genuine” gifts ie gifts without any service in return from Finnveden during the14th Century, and in these cases the gift was expressed in monetary terms (1 mark to the parish church NN), and we have gifts from the middle of the 14th Century and ahead whereby the gift was defined by naming the holdings and land that the gift comprised. Moreover, in the will or donation, wishes about gifts in return were expressed (in the form of different services).The only gifts we have where the return gift was valued was in connection to the gifts the Crown l e g a l a c q u i s i t i o n , l a n d m a r k e t s a n d m o n e t i s at i o n 284 Land assessments
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