Trade, Taxation, and Population

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter presents three main variables that impacted how and why Sami land use changed in the early modern period. The first one is trade, that gained importance in the seventeenth century with fundamental changes in its infrastructure. Sami households accumulated a surplus in their growing herds of domesticated reindeer. The other variable is taxation and it was a complicated task for the government. They tried different methods for taxing Sami before they finally decided on a collective tax paid in money in 1695. It meant lowered tax levies and a more predictable tax for individual Sami. It had a positive effect on the household economy as well as on population numbers in the eighteenth century. The last variable to be defined is population size.