writing from1440onwards.These sales also expressed the yield of the holding in butter or grain ie expected income. I have interpreted information about the income value of sold land and the value of gifts as pure economic information from the seller to the buyer of the land or from the donor to the recipient of the gift. It is also at the end of my examination period that we in Sweden began to receive new categories of material which, in themselves, bear witness to a new economic way of thinking; namely account books and estate records kept by the aristocracy which contained information about what their manor yielded in income. Comparatively, I can say that these kinds of economic accounts began to be kept in the 14th Century in England (see Chapter 2). According to the project researchers, market relations meant that the parties to a transaction were free to buy or sell, or free to donate or exchange with whoever they wished. The researchers knew that the freedom existed under certain circumstances but that it was often limited by pre-emptive rights or rights of first refusal. In my investigation, I have been able to show that the pre-emptive right was activated in one third of the sales in both of the regions during both of the centuries investigated.Those who, foremost, utilised their pre-emptive right in Jämtland were brothers. In Finnveden, it is thought that removed relatives have exploited their pre-emptive right. I have interpreted this continuity over time as meaning that the inheritance systems in both of the regions had been moderately constant. In Jämtland (Norway), sons and the eldest son had priority over the daughters, who certainly inherited just as much as in Sweden, but who – as soon as they needed to dispose of land – lost it to a brother or to another close male relative.Younger brothers always lost their land to an older brother in Jämtland.With that, the transactions were carried out in Jämtland between near relations. Often, the relationship has also been clearly evident in the charters from Jämtland. In Finnl 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 286 Freedom or limitations
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=