Eli F. Heckscher, the ‘food budgets’, and Swedish food consumption from the 16th to the 19th century

Abstract

Abstract Open any general work of economic history that deals with food consumption among the ‘broad masses’, of the population of European countries, from medieval times to the beginning of the nineteenth century. If you find any references to conditions in Sweden, they are probably to Eli F. Heckscher's studies based on the ‘food budgets’, (utspisningsstater)of royal estates, manors, brukcommunities and the court. You will find that Heckscher's figures are largely accepted, and you will search in vain for references to the wide-ranging debate to which Heckscher's studies gave rise in Sweden. There is nothing remarkable in this, for the debate was conducted chiefly in Swedish and has never been reviewed synoptically even in that language.2 To recapitulate and test the criticisms of Heckscher's studies of consumption is precisely the aim of the present essay. A special section carries a stage further the criticism of Heckscher's conversion of obsolete to modern weights and measures. It is shown that a cor...