Work and Way of Life

Time Period 1600-2000

Various social statistics emerged only with the first census, in 1703. At that same time an exhaustive Register of Estates was compiled, containing information on every farm in the country. Households varied greatly in size. At the coast, less labour was required on the land, and households were smaller than in inland areas. Estates were of three main categories: legal estates, smallholdings and houses without land. Legal estates were the original farms, from which land had been leased to form smallholdings. Houses without land were known as “empty houses,” as they had no livestock. Such homes were found at seasonal fishing stations, where residence fluctuated and was dependent upon the fisheries.

The period 1600 to 1800 is characterised by stagnation in agriculture and in the fisheries. In the later half of the 18th century the Danish king tried to combat the situation by introducing various economic innovations. In Reykjavík, the first steps towards industrialisation were taken with the founding of woolworking and tanning workshops. The horizontal loom and spinning wheel were introduced, cod-fishing with nets began, and potato cultivation commenced. At Reykjavík and other places, the first stages of urban development were taking place.

In 1870 less than 5% of Icelanders lived in villages. The population had risen considerably in the 19th century, and rural Iceland was over-crowded. It could not support such a large population without economic changes. People started moving to the nascent coastal villages, defying the legal requirement that every worker should be bound to a master. In the villages, they could find casual work, especially in connection with the schooner fishery.

In the period 1880-1930 about half the population left the rural areas for urban centres on the coast. This migration has not ceased, and still today people are leaving villages for the capital area, where about two-thirds of the population now live. Family structure has also changed dramatically. Households are smaller, and one-parent families are commonplace.

Shortly after 1900, mechanisation of the fisheries began. This marked the beginning of a huge change in work and residence patterns which has been likened to the industrial revolution. Subsistence farming drew to a close, while the fisheries, industry and services grew in importance. Initially, only small-scale industry existed, but heavy industry followed in the late 20th century. In the past few decades, computerisation and high technology have made their mark on the working environment, e.g. in hospitals and genetic research.



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