The forest industry expansion of the 19th century

The delineation land reform that begun during the 17th century in northern Sweden not only continued during the 19th century, but increased in scope. The delineation included delimitation of land between the crown and private owners. This division of property was unclear or even legally invalid. The aim was the ability for each homestead to support a peasant household. Regulated forest properties could also be subject to taxation. 

It was often a matter of demarcation between villages and the large woodlands that lay beyond. These forests were used as commons but the crown also laid claims to them. In southern Sweden, parish and hundreds commons had already been formed out of these woodlands, but many forest areas in northern Sweden were still unregulated. 

The forests that belonged to the farmers was an important base of resources for the expanding forest industry. This industry developed quickly throughout the 1840s and production peaked in the 1890s. The wood pulp industry experienced a similar rise during the 1870s. In the period 1850–1872 the export of lumber and related products quintupled. Between 1860 and 1895, the log driving routes in Sweden increased in length from 1000 kilometres (621 miles) to 20000 kilometres (12427 miles).

Even prior to the 1850s, the milling companies ensured their access to lumber—and thereby the supply of raw materials for the industry—through felling agreements for the farmers’ forests or by buying their homesteads.

The delineation was concurrently in in effect, with vast woodlands being transferred to the farmers. These farmers also bought forest land from each other. The foresters were at the epicentre of the lumber companies’ acquisitions of land and lumber. There was no room for reforestation measures.