Consumption and living standards in early modern rural households: Probate evidence from Southern Sweden, c. 1670–1860

Abstract This article presents new estimates of the material living standards among the rural population in southern Sweden from the 1670s up to 1865. The development of rural consumer patterns over the period is analyzed using a newly constructed database of 1665 probate inventories from three benchmark periods. It finds that that all rural households, no matter their socioeconomic status, diversified their composition of movable goods during the eighteenth century with a special focus toward increased comfort rather than household reproduction. The most visible change was an increase and diversification of cooking- and dining-ware, the furniture necessary to store and use these, as well as greatly expanded personal wardrobes. The consumer goods and behaviors adopted by the peasants and rural laborers during the eighteenth century correspond partly to the consumer revolution spreading through Europe during the period and suggest the development of a distinctly rural consumer culture. This development coincided with a diversification of rural household production, which would have given households an extra source of income, increased their reliance on interregional markets for household reproduction, and integrated the south-Swedish countryside into the wider European market from which the new consumer goods and habits associated with the consumer revolution could be introduced.