Flour merchants and millers

[Mary Nelson Keithahn]

My grandfather's brother, born 1860 and died in 1913, was a flour merchant in Hjärsås, and two of his sons were mjölnare which I think translates miller.  I would like to know more about their work.  Where would the mill had been located?  What was the power source (wind or water)? What kind of grain was milled? What kind of store would a flour merchant have had?  How were the grain and flour transported? How well did these jobs pay in comparison to other kinds of work?  Thanks to anyone who can help me fill in the background for some of the people in my genealogy.

[Gunnar Håkansson]

As Hjärsås is situated near a river, I thought a water mill was most probable. And when looking at the old map, I found a water mill at the river, near the nothern part of the village of Hjärsås. And I found no windmills, as is natural in this rather wooden landscape.
In the later part of the 19th century, many kinds of grain were grown and milled here. Most popular was certainly rye, but wheat and buckwheat were common, too. Barley and oats were grown, but usually not milled, just crushed.
For transports oxen and horses were used. Economically, I am not quite sure. A mill (big enough to have a miller) is worth a considerable amount of money, and was a good tax-payer, but socially a farmer was a step down on the ladder cf. to a real farmer, although two steps better than a crofter.

[Ingela Martenius]

A watermill wasn't as good, financially speaking, as a windmill. Watermills generally operated only in spring and fall since the water froze in winter and was generally too low and too slow-flowing in summer. A windmill could of course operate year round, and windmills are typical of the wide open Skåne plains. But Hjärsås is, as Gunnar points out, situated in a more wooded area.
Few millers - particularly those having a watermill - could have milling as their only means of income. Before it became common to grow potatoes in Sweden, around 1800, millers were often the local maker of liquor, since they had ready access to two main ingredients (water and grain). When potatoes were shown to make just as good liquor, millers would often continue as the local destillers since they had both the means and the know-how.
 
Before WW I wheat wasn't grown in very large quantities. In the south rye dominated and in the north barley (Swedish farmers thought they couldn't grow rye very far north while nobody told the Finnish farmer this - so the Finnish farmers successfully grew rye in the far north). Oat was a specialty of western Sweden. Already by the late 18th century oat was exported from Sweden - to England, and in particular all the horses needed in London were fed Swedish oat!
 
As for social status, I'd say a lot depended on the individual farmer and miller. A farmer with a good-size farm certainly outranked a miller, but a farmer with a small farm and a miller who had lots of other business ventures - well, I wouldn't be dogmatic.
My great-great-grandfather and two of his brothers owned three of the six main farms in their little village down in Skåne - and married off one of their sisters to the miller. They wouldn't have done so unless they felt he was about equal to them, and could contribute to the clan.
 
Ingela

[Sten Pettersson]

Some comments about watermills and windmills. In my home river Esse river in Ostrobotnia in Finland, we have a rapid called Hjulfors. There where situated 4 watermills owned by a handful of farmers. Wy could they not use one mill? Because as Ingela mentioned the spring flood was so short that they could´nt wait on their turn. They had to have their own mill. A few windmills where situated in Esse too, so they could grind some flour in the summertime. Because the river was almost emty. All timber floating in the rivers was also in the spring.  
Sten