Saga - 1986, Page 44

42
GÍSLI ÁGÚST GUNNLAUGSSON
Section B deals with thc development of the Icelandic family during the period
1801—1930. The main emphasis is on the development offamily and household sizes
and family structures, the average age at marriage, fertility and other important
demographic variables. The paper also includes a discussion of the position of
children, the elderly and servants within Icelandic households during the period in
question.
The main results of the paper may be summarized as follows:
1. The mean household size (MHS) in Iceland at the beginning of the 19th century
was somewhat larger than in most other European countries (6,4 persons per
household in 1801). During the period 1801-1880 households became on aver-
age larger, MHS reaching 7,4 persons in 1880. This was largely due to the foll-
owing reasons: (a) Despite a considerable population growth 1820-1870
urbanization did not gain pace until after 1880. This was largely due to the fact
that until 1870/80 local governments in coastal areas effectively prevented poor
people from settling in cottages there. (b) This was done by the application of
legislation regarding paupers and legally defined occupational classes, such as
servants, boarders and lodgers. According to the poor laws families could be
(and were in practice as often as not) dissolved if they were forced to ask for the
financial assistance of local governments in the form of poor relief. It was for-
bidden by law for people standing in debt for poor relief to marry without the
consent of the local governments in their home communes. The local govern-
ments therefore had the right to intervene in the private and family lives of
paupers. All persons over the age of 16 who were not residing in a household
of their own as farmers, cottars, lodgers or boarders, or living within the
households of their parents were obliged to seek employment as servants in
other households. These laws aimed at providing farmers with a steady supply
of cheap labour as well as maintaining the existing social and economic order.
(c) The number of farms in the country was limited by natural conditions (cli-
mate-geography etc). Access to land was the prerequisite for founding a family
and a household for much of the 19th century. The possibilities of dividing and
subdividing farmland or founding new farms had been exceeded around the
middle of the century, with the result that the increase in population led to a rise
in the MHS in the country (for further discussion see my article, „The Poor
Laws and the Family in 19th Century Iceland", in John Rogers and Hans
Norman (eds.), The Nordic Family: Perspectives on Family Research (Meddelande
frán Familjehistoriska projektet Historiska institutionen Uppsala universitet
nr. 4), Uppsala 1985, pp. 16-42).
2. The factors mentioned above led to unproductive farms being settled and other
farms being divided beyond economic feasibility during the period 1840-1870.
Great increase in the number of paupers between 1855 and 1870 (264%) and
emigration to Canada and USA after 1870 are among the signs ofoverpopula-
tion in rclation to the economic resources utilized by Icelanders prior to ca.
1880. In the period 1880-1930 the above picture changed markedly. Apart from
the emigration (around 15.000 people emigrated 1870-1910) people migrated
to the small towns and villages on the coast in great numbers, and founded
households there, often against the clauses ofthe social legislation and the laws