Introduction

The traditional view among Danish historians is that the standard of living in Denmark was low and fluctuating from year to year up to 1775. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, a series of agricultural reforms and other measures were introduced which promoted economic growth, and by the middle of the nineteenth century, the situation had changed in such a way that short-term economic stress had largely disappeared and only the poorest inhabitants lived on the margin of existence (see Johansen 1998).

This view has mainly been based on non-quantitative sources, but in the following sections will be tested by means of various quantitative analyses in order to find out what the content of different measures really is and in which way the various measures can be used to evaluate the changes in the standard of living.

2.