IRON PRODUCTION AND THE HOUSEHOLD AS A PRODUCTION UNIT IN 19TH-CENTURY SWEDEN

This article is about households at work. In a developed theoretical f ramework concerning the household as a production unit, particular con sideration is accorded forgemen's households in Gastrikland, Sweden, d uring the first half of the nineteenth century. The aim is to explore the process in which the production of bar iron, undertaken by skilled wage labourers in centralized workshops, was removed gradually from t he sphere of the household. The wage work of the men in the forges is considered first. Then follows discussion of the complicated relations hip between this work, women's work inside and outside the household a nd the size and structure of the household.