Meadow land use has been the object of very limited historical research in Sweden, as most studies have focused on ecological or functional aspects. Research on the economy of meadows is rare. This paper addresses this issue by studying the investment in and management of meadows in 17th century Sweden considering landesque capital, a concept referring to long-term investments in land through labour. We also examine the local economic institutions developed to handle this type of capital. By analysing 17th century court records from the districts of Östra, Redväg and Kind, a more complete picture emerges of the processes and contexts in which meadows were created, managed and devalued/revalued over time. Meadow capital was constantly under threat of degeneration due to biophysical processes, and this paper explores the different strategies used to handle this problem. Outlying meadows were often more flexible in terms of ownership and were often used by others when abandoned, either by agreement or surreptitiously, which frequently led to future ownership conflicts. The comparatively limited number of cases relating to meadows nonetheless emphasises the fairly low transaction costs incurred by institutions related to meadow land use at this time. It was often the outlying meadows that appeared in court proceedings, most likely related to these meadows not being contiguous to the rest of the land of the person using them as well as these meadows having a more dynamic owner/usership history compared to infield meadows.

Large landscape transformations were an integral part of the agricultural revolution in Sweden, starting during the late 18^th century. The 19^th century was an especially intensive century when it comes to the transformation of the cultural landscape, not the least marked by extensive changes in the use of agricultural wetlands with interventions in watercourses, lowering of lakes and wetland reclamation. Many wetlands that had previously been used for meadows were now turned into arable fields.

In this thesis, these changes are studied through a long-term perspective on floodplain land use along the rivers Emån and Ätran during the period 1500-1910 as part of a wider economy and reflecting the transformation of human-environmental relations. The studied period permits an analysis of the whole transformation process from floodplain meadows to arable fields, as well as covering some of the ensuing complexities of floodplain drainage during the 19^th century. In the thesis, the relation between the floodplain and the agricultural economy is studied as well as the connections to the development of flood-related problems. Differences in 19^th century floodplain reclamation by Emån and Ätran are analysed in detail. Lastly, the thesis discusses how the different conditions of the floodplain was handled over time and what this can tell us about human-environment relations from short- and long-term perspectives. Theoretical perspectives ranging from the ‘water system’ perspective, landesque capital, geographic constraint to processual landscapes are mobilized to further deepen this analysis. The empirical material consists of historical maps and a wider range of written sources combined with physical geographical data.

The thesis concludes that flood-meadows played a more significant role in the agrarian economy by the river Emån during the early modern period, where flooding contributed to increased hay harvests. By the river Ätran, flood-meadows were extensive but did not differ significantly in yields from other types of meadows. The transformation from flood-meadows to arable fields were tied to intensified animal husbandry during the 19^th century, with the need for other types of fodder and increasing water control and flood management. This was to a large part driven by processes related to agricultural globalization. By the river Emån, arable fields had already previously been located on raised parts of the floodplain, but transformations of grain production during the 18^th century caused more substantial problems which also played into early 19^th century reclamations. The local inhabitants did not reflect upon the effects of land use changes on the pattern of flooding problems, showing instead more interest in more direct changes to the water system such as mill dams, and natural obstructions in the river channel. Differences in the use of the floodplain by Emån and Ätran are also raised in the thesis, showing how humans in different contexts interact with variations of physical geography. A fundamental conclusion is that humans to a large extent tend to use natural resources for short-term gains within given economic contexts and have larger problems formulating solutions to long-term problems or foreseeing the long-term effects of current practices.

This paper analyses the development of flood related problems in two parishes in southeast-ern Sweden—Högsby and Mörlunda—during the period 1500–1800. The questions asked concern the role of the larger development of the agricultural production in the expansion of flooding problems during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and also investi-gates how this relationship was perceived by the local inhabitants. This is done through an analysis of the development of agriculture in the area using historical maps, combined with a study of written source material such as parish records and court protocols. The river Emån which flows through these parishes had long been a vital resource in the cattle–based economy of the studied parishes. This relationship turned more problematic by the turn of the eighteenth century due to the introduction of autumn rye into the agricultural scheme, prolonging the period of flood risk exposure for the arable crops. Combined with arable field expansion during the eighteenth century, this increased the sensitivity of agriculture to flooding. This development was not apparent in the discourse of the local inhabitants by the end of the eighteenth century, who instead interpreted increasing flooding problems in relation to existing water rights principles. These emphasized the more direct effects of human and natural obstructions in the river channel. The limits of historical memory as well as the necessities of agricultural development colored the local interpretation. Such processes on a general level were also closely inter–linked with the large–scale institutional changes of the period.

Runestones in the province of Västergötland have been studied quite thoroughly, but there has until recently been a lack of in-depth individual studies of these monuments. Religious and linguistic aspects have dominated runestone research in the province, while few exclusively archaeological and landscape-related studies have been conducted.

This article focuses on a landscape analysis of two runestones in Västergötland: Vg 127 in Larv and Vg 174 in Nöre. The results show that there are clear connections between these two runestones, with both standing in connection to well-established roads and border areas between settlement units and land use types. A closer inspection reveals that the stones differ in purpose and although broadly located in similar settings there are clear differences in their local landscape. The runestone in Larv is a manifestation of power while the monument in Nöre instead commemorates a tragic incident. These results illuminate the importance of studying runestones individually and not just as parts of a general cultural phenomenon.

Wetland reclamation was an intrinsic part of nineteenth century global agricultural transformations. In Swedish research, reclamation has mainly been situated in larger general processes of population rise, commercialization and societal/technological development. The intersection of reclamation, physical environments and local economies has seldom been studied in detail. This paper conducts a local analysis of nineteenth century wetland reclamation in two parishes in Sweden, Knätte and Mörlunda, through combining a study of specific reclamation processes with an analysis of local agrarian-economic development. The results show that these processes varied depending on specific historical-geographical circumstances. In Knätte, reclamation was not primarily related to population rise, but to increasing commercialization during the period. The case in Mörlunda instead shows how reclamation was first a response to increasing population but later developed into a project of agricultural market adaptation. In both cases, the physical environment led to varying degrees of geographic constraint in the process. In combination, these results point to the importance of detailed case studies in nuancing our understanding of nineteenth century wetland reclamation both in Sweden and internationally.

This paper presents a systematic study of floodplain meadows along the rivers Ätran and Emån in Southern Sweden based on geometric maps from 1690-1750. The study examines the relationship between the meadowland descriptions in historical maps and the underlying physical-geographic context in terms of soil types and depth. It also investigates the impact of the character of floodplain meadows on the local agricultural economy. The results suggest that the soil depth determines whether a flood meadow is dry or wet, with dry floodplain meadows often found on soils with greater depth than wet meadows. There is also a tendency for dry floodplain meadows to be located on floodplains with coarser sediment. The higher infiltration capacity of deeper, coarser soils leads to shorter incoming floods and reduced wet conditions. In terms of production capacity, there are small differences in yield between Ätran's dry and wet meadows, while wet meadows along the Emån river show higher yields. Detailed studies show that flood meadows along Ätran have similar or slightly lower yields per acre than meadows outside the floodplain, while flood meadows along Emån have higher yields due to the production-enhancing effect of floods on the meadows