282 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



or three millions ; and if we take only the diffe- 

 rence from the average importation it will appear 

 that the assistance which the Swedes receive from 

 importation in a year of scarcity is perfectly 

 futile. 



The consequence of this state of things is, that 

 the population of Sweden is in a peculiar manner 

 affected by every variation of the seasons; and 

 we cannot be surprised at a very curious and 

 instructive remark of M. Wargentin, that the 

 registers of Sweden shew that the births, marriages 

 and deaths increase and decrease according to 

 the state of the harvests. From the nine years 

 of which he had given tables, he instances the 

 following : 



Marriages. Births. Deaths. 



Barren f 1757 18,799 81,878 68,054 



years. [l758 19,584 83,299 74,370 



Abundant^ 1759 23,210 85,579 62,662 



years. Il760 23,383 90,635 60,083.* 



Here it appears that in the year 1760 the 

 births were to the deaths as 15 to 10; but in the 

 year 1758 only as 1 1 to 10. By referring to the 

 enumerations of the population in 1757 and 1760, f 

 which M. Wargentin has given, it appears that the 

 number of marriages in the year 1760 in proportion 

 to the whole population was as 1 to 101 ; in the 

 year 1757, only as 1 to about 124. The deaths in 



* Memoires Abreges de l'Academie de Stockholm, p. 29. 

 t Id. p. 21,22. 



