Rutger Macklean
Agricultural reforms and a new school
The agricultural revolution in the 18th century changed the Swedish society and the people's life in many ways. In Sweden this reform was initiated from Svaneholms Castle, by baron Rutger Macklean and his associate Carl Gideon Wahlman. The reform was not only an agricultural reform. It was a kind of significant change that changed Sweden socially, economically, politically and culturally.
Macklean´s agricultural reform became the law in Skåne in 1803 and in the rest of Sweden in 1827.
Due to the rationalization of the arable land and the introduction of the monetary system, the reform was a ground rule for the industrial revolution. It also made way for the start of free churchism and temperance movement. Even the emigration to the United States of America was a aftermath of those changes, as well as new and more independent forms for local politic and democracy.
At Svaneholms estate, the result was that 2000 small allotments turned to 74 homesteads with continuos acreage. The old village communities in Skurup eventually were split up and the farm buildings in four rows were pulled down. At the new homesteads, new farm buildings (three-rowed) were built after Mackleans instructions. To all this came new standing crops, cultivating and rotation of crops.
Macklean also invented a new kind of plough that made farm work easier. The prototype is today shown in the museum.
The leaseholders at Svaneholm´s estate had to follow strict rules. If they did not follow the contract, they were immediately evicted from their property.
The most important condition for the reform was that the farmers old day-work duty was abolished. From that point the farmer´s tenancy should be paid in cash. To facilitate this, the king Gustaf III granted 15 years of exemption from taxes. Macklean gave them five tenance-free years.
Rutger Macklean wrote in one of his books: "Agriculture is the source of personal and public prosperity".
The new school
Mackleans opinion was: To be able to build a new society with modern technique, monetary system and a new social order, mankind must have the freedom to develope themselves and learn to read and write.
In Switzerland a man named Heinrich Pestalozzi was active. His opinion was that every child should be fostered to know the facts about cause and context and be independent in their search for knowledge.
Macklean was very interested in this pedagogy. He and two other south-Swedish well-to-do farmers, Otto Ramel and Jakob de la Gardie, sent a student to Switzerland and paid his studies for one year. Upon his return, two schools were founded in the neighbourhood, one in Skurup   (in 1793) and one in Sandåkra (in 1795), half a century before common school became compulsory in Sweden.
Macklean also initiated vaccination against smallpox. The method came from England in 1798 and was used here from 1804. The first compulsory vaccination of school children was done in Skurup. The "doctor" was the parish clerk Christian Friis, former gardener at Svaneholm Castle.
About Macklean
Who was the man that initiated the agricultural reform and the new school in Sweden?
Rutger Macklean was born at the Ström mansion in Hjärtum (in the west of Sweden) the 27th of July 1742.
His ancestors immigrated from Holland in the 17th century, when the Swedish king Gustaf II Adolf (1597 - 1632) founded the town Göteborg (Gothenburg). At this time the family name was Mackeleir, but when they were ennobled it was changed to Macklier. During the Anglo-Saxon pre-romantic era it was changed again, this time to Macklean. Earlier theories that the family first came from Scotland are false.
Rutgers family name was Mackleir until 1783, one year after he had taken over Svaneholm Castle from his uncle Gustaf Adolf Coyet. His grandmother was a daughter of Rutger von Ascheberg, one of king Carl XI's kinsmen, who owned the Ström mansion. His father Rutger Mackleir was one of King Karl XII's warriors from Holofzin, Poltava and Tobolsk. His mother´s name was Vilhelmina Eleonora Coyet.
Mackleans education included law studies at the university of Lund. After that he served at the court in Jönköping, and after that as an officer at the Jämtland and Kalmar Regiments. As an officer he advanced to court service, first with the princess Sofia Albertina and after that with Gustaf III's queen Sofia Magdalena. He stayed in this duty until he took over Svaneholm.
Macklean was a man of the age of enlightenment. Politically he was left-winged and was, like many other Swedish high-nobility men at this time, close to the Jacobins in France. He stood up to king Gustaf III at the congress of 1789 . Three years later, after the king was murdered, Rutgers brother Gustaf hid one of the murderers at his farm Brodda, nearby Svaneholm. It is not known if Rutger Macklean was involved in the conspiracy.
The information above is collected from Eric Mårtensson's book "Rutger Macklean - Om den stora jordrevolutionen och den nya skolan" ("Rutger Macklean - About the great agricultural reform and the new School").
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