Accounts of Lease Entrance Fees for Jämtland and Härjedalen 1601–1645. Edited by Georg Hansson and Olof Holm. With an index of place-names by Karl Göran Eriksson.

This is an edition, with commentary, of a series of accounts of lease entrance fees for the provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen, dating from 1601 to 1645. Jämtland and Härjedalen are today parts of Sweden, but belonged to Norway until 1645. During the period in question, Norway was part of the Danish-Norwegian state.

The present accounts were made by the bailiffs serving in Jämtland and Härje­dalen. They report an entrance fee called bygsel collected by the bailiffs when they let out crown land and so-called avradsland, i.e. divided parts of the com­mon land, on lease to individuals. The quantity of crown land in Jämtland dramatically increased from about 4% to 69% of all land after the Kalmar War of 1611–13, when most of the farmers in this province lost their land to the Danish-Norwegian King Kristian IV. The bailiffs were subordinate to the feudal lord residing in Trondheim, who had the right to a share of the entrance fees collected. The rest of the entrance fees went, together with the accounts and other revenues and records as well, to the King’s treasury in Copenhagen. Today all these records are kept in the national archives of Sweden and Norway.

In the introduction, Olof Holm describes and discusses the contents of the accounts, the lease agreements they deal with, the conditions for the lease­holders, the vast growth of crown land in Jämtland during the period, along with other subjects. In the main part of the edition all text of the bygsel accounts is transcribed. Two appendices are included: 1) excerpts from preserved letters de­scribing leasehold agreements from the period, and 2) testimonies concerning the bailiffs’ collecting of bygsel fees. The book ends with indices of place-names and officials, and a word list.