Freehold tenure in late eighteenth century Denmark

Abstract

In the wake of a major reform period, 1788–1807, Danish landlords voluntarily sold off about half of their agricultural land to their tenants and thus transformed tenure from primarily leasehold to a dominance of freehold. One explanation could be that nominal rents were rigid when grain prices boomed. Quantitative and qualitative evidence presented here suggests that real rents were in fact declining although there was a large surviving elements of rents paid in kind. Moreover, it is demonstrated that tenants, despite their declining real payments, were equally interested in buying. Essentially, land sales represented a gain to both buyers and sellers. The main reason for this was the lingering of labor services, so-called boon works, as an important element of rent. According to a contemporary estimate, the landlords' benefit from this labour was one half and even sometimes one third of the tenant's opportunity cost. Hence boon works represented a major cause in the difference in efficiency between peasant production under leasehold and that under freehold.

Citation

Henriksen, I. (2003), "Freehold tenure in late eighteenth century Denmark", Advances in Agricultural Economic History (Advances in Agricultural Economic History, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 21-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1569-4933(03)02013-X