Funded by Jan Wallanders and Tom Hedelius foundation and Tore Browaldhs foundation.
Project period: 2025–2028
Project team: Martin Dackling (PI, Lund University), Jakob Molinder (Uppsala University), Johan Ericsson (Uppsala University) and Mattis Korner (project assistant, Lund University).
This project explores the roots of economic inequality in Sweden and Finland at the turn of the nineteenth century. Drawing on the largely untapped Wealth Assessment of 1800—a nationwide survey of household wealth—it reconstructs the distribution of property across regions and social groups. Through large-scale digitization and advanced handwritten text recognition (HTR), the project will build a unique database of household wealth, enabling systematic comparisons. The results will illuminate the dynamics of inequality during the transition from the early modern to the modern economy, as well as contemporary understandings of wealth, taxation, and value.
