Feeding Capitalism and Facing its Consequences? Upland Pastoralism in Ireland and Sweden, AD1350-1850

This project seeks to develop an approach which can determine the role of livestock-rearing communities in the emergence of capitalism in north-west Europe (1350-1850).

With their extensive tracts of pasture, upland regions such as western Ireland and inland Scandinavia offer a window into the role of meat and dairy production in (literally) feeding crucial aspects of early modern capitalism, for example, the provisioning of New World colonies and the supply of industrial mining towns in Sweden.

However, there remains a conceptual gap between recent archaeological and palaeoecological research on uplands, and the mainstream research in early modern history.

This project will bridge the gap by integrating old and new sources in a landscape framework, and analysing change at three levels therein: 1) pastoral use of uplands; 2) community adaptability; 3) market links and impacts.

This multi-level approach will allow us to reconceptualise ´peripheral´ upland farmers as knowledgeable agents in commercialisation, and it will lay down a roadmap for tracking the influence of upland communities elsewhere in early-modern Europe.

Moreover, the landscape-based nature of the project means that it will reveal the socio-ecological consequences of economic adaptation for upland pastoralists in the long run.

We will present these findings at community events in Ireland and Sweden and discuss how historical lessons on grazing and social change can inform local land-use planning today.