Saga - 2005, Page 96

Helst er að sjá að þeir sem keyptu jarðirnar hafi grætt á sölunni, og
þá ekki síst vegna þess að þannig komu þeir fjármunum sínum í
fast rétt áður en óðaverðbólga og hrun danska peningakerfisins á
fyrstu árum 19. aldar gróf undan gildi danska ríkisdalsins. Til
lengri tíma markaði salan þó nýja stefnu í íslenskum efnahagsmál-
um, þar sem fjármögnun opinberra stofnana var færð frá umfangs-
miklum rekstri jarðeigna til beinna greiðslna úr ríkissjóði. Á þann
hátt stuðlaði salan örugglega í lengd að nútímalegri samfélagshátt-
um á Íslandi, þótt þau áhrif hafi ekki komið fram að fullu fyrr en
löngu síðar.
Abstract
S E L L I N G T H E S K Á L H O LT FA R M S
The first auction of state property in Iceland, 1785–1798
In 1785 the Danish government decided to sell all of the land owned by the two
Icelandic bishoprics, in order to set the finances of the bishoprics and the two
church-related schools on a firm foundation. One reason for the sale was that
poor conditions in the latter part of the 18th century had made it difficult for the
bishops to collect fees on their land, and therefore difficult for them to operate
the schools and bishoprics. Another aim of the sale was to increase owner-occu-
pation in Iceland, since the government was convinced that farmers who owned
their land generally farmed better and were more likely to improve their land
than tenants. This article considers the sale of the Skálholt farm properties as seen
through documents in public archives, which bring to light that most of the
Skálholt bishopric’s land holdings were sold during the period of 1788 to 1798,
and rendered satisfactory prices. Another point brought out is that although the
conditions of sale were supposed to encourage the purchase of land by its ten-
ants, nearly 2/3 of the properties ended up in the hands of others. A survey of
land ownership at the beginning of the 19th century confirms this conclusion,
because at that time only a little over one-quarter of the farms were owned by the
farmers themselves. In addition, the conditions of sale were intended to increase
the distribution of land ownership; that goal seems largely to have been
achieved. Even though some landowners did in fact take the opportunity to
increase their holdings, the overwhelming majority of buyers purchased a single
farm or less.
In view of the short term, the sale of the Skálholt properties seems to have
failed miserably. Thus the great majority of these farms continued to be rented by
the operators, and the improved rights that such tenants were supposed to
receive through the sale seem not to have been realised. Likewise, the collapse of
the Danish financial system in the first half of the 19th century put bishop and
G U Ð M U N D U R H Á L F D A N A R S O N96
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