"Ett lika fritt folk bör äga lika rätt" : Om förändringarna i jordägandet i Öja socken före och efter 1789 och 1809/10

During the time between 1660-1680 the nobility in Sweden came to be a gigantic landowner with 65 % of the total amount of land, but only 20 years later they lost almost half of their possessions. The eighteenth century was on its way – a period in history were “ordinary” people started to question the nobility’s right to be excused from tax, at the same time as farmers and the “middlegroup” started to appropriate more and more land from the nobility and the Crown. Through King Gustav III:s document of 1789, land became free to own to whoever it was – except from the prime nobility’s land; but the Swedish Parliament followed the wind of change, and 1809/10 this land was also free to own. At the end of 1840, the nobility owned about 19 % of the land in Sweden, and the farmers and middlegroup owned 69 %. The tide had turned... But Öja parish showed a different development compered to the rest of Sweden. Instead of decreasing their land, nobility increased from 0 percent in 1784 to 33 percent in 1840, and at the same time farmers, the Crown and the middlegroup lost possessions