Hagskýrslur um manntöl - 01.01.1960, Page 30

28
Manntalið 1703
should be recorded in tbeir place of fixed residence. Further tliere should be enumer-
ated all the paupers that were maintained hy the community during the time of
Lent, wliether they were on the farms or wandered about from farm to farm.
Finally the circular provided that the directors of the parishes should order all
the lieads of families to report the extra-parochial heggars who had passed by
them the night before Easter 1703, so that the directors could prepare a register
of them, to be delivered together with the general register of the population.
In a few places the census was taken as early as December 1702, whereas in
a few others it was not taken until June 1703; but in most places it was taken in
March or April. Apparently it provides information for eacli place as of the time
the listings were made, with no fixed date set in advance for the country as a whole.
Only the register of extra-parochial beggars, accompanying the census as a supple-
ment, related everywere to the night before Easter 1703.
The census of the whole country was handed over to the commissioners in the
summer of 1703, whereupon it was transmitted to the Government in Denmark.
But probably it remained tliere untouched for 75 years, until Skúli Magnússon,
Treasurer of Iceland, during the winter 1777—78, made an abstract of it which
down to the last few decades was the only source of knowledge about it, wliile
the census material itself was forgotten and even considered lost. But in the spring
og 1914 the census material was rediscovered in tlie Danisl) National Archives, in
good condition and quite complete, and after the First World War it was handed
over to Iceland.
The Statistical Bureau of Iceland has published tlie whole material of the
census of 1703 which edition was accomplished during the years 1924—47. This
publication has provided opportunities for obtaining detailed cliaracteristics of the
population by tabulation. The Statistical Bureau of Iceland has now performed
that task, and in the present publication the results are exhibited.
To be sure, various errors are to be met with in the census material. It is,
however, questionable whether after all they are more frequent than in censuses
taken nowadays. A special search revealed that some persons were listed more
than once, mostly paupers, who were entitlcd to parish relicf in more than one
parish. All such have in the final treatment only been dealt with in one place.
On the other liand, the register of extra-parochial beggars was regarded as supple-
ment to the census, as they were also to be enumerated in their homesteads, but
most of them had no homesteads at all, and have for that reason been included
in tlie final treatment.
Total population. Applying the above-mentioned corrections, the population
count, according to the census of 1703, was 50 358. It differs only slightly from
the former total figure of 50 444 found by Skúli Magnússon. The population count
in the whole country at that time is approximately equal to the number whicli
about 250 years later, in 1950, resided in the rural districts, including villages of
less than 700 inhabitants (see table 2 in Summary). Tlie whole increase of popula-
tion since that time has been absorbed by the towns and the larger villages. Indeed,
tlie whole increase falls in the latter half of the period. Shortly after 1703, in 1707,
a terrible plague, the smallpox epidemic, raged in the country, and people died in
large numbers. Later in tlie same century came many bad years, by far the worst
ones in the eighties, owing to volcanic eruptions, with enormous loss of life. It
was not until 120 years later, in 1823, tliat the population again reached 50 tbous.
But on the other hand, during the subsequent period, from 1823 to 1950, the