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Social Developments of the Nineteenth Century
It was primitive, homogeneous society that existed in Denmark, as in many other countries, in the eighteenth century; but the enormous development which took place in the next century led to many changes. As early as the last decade of the eighteenth century the population had begun rapidly to increase, and it continued to do so throughout the nineteenth century. In 1801 the total population of Denmark was 929,000; in 1901 it was 2,450,000. The great technical development of both agriculture and industry provided a better living and even a fuller and easier life in 1901 for a population three times as large as that of a hundred years before.
But, meanwhile, the character of the community had completely changed. In the rural districts a large class of cottars or farm labourers had grown up alongside the seventy thousand peasants; and in the towns industries had developed which gave employment to large numbers of workmen who were widely separated, both socially and economically, from their employers, even though there still existed a middle stratum of society whose time-honoured customs and modes of thinking served, to a certain extent, to bridge the gap between the upper and lower classes. Moreover, the social reforms of the eighteenth century had been carried out without any pecuniary sacrifices; indeed, they had brought increased wealth to the country. This was not the case, however, in the nineteenth century. Almost all the land had now been allotted; and if the poorest class, the cottars, were to be helped, large assessments or voluntary contributions had to be made for that purpose. The obligation to relieve the poor rested in no less degree on the growing population of the towns. But in spite of all that had been done, the general state of affairs was not auspicious. The large group of the 'poor', so named in the census of 1787 without other qualification, indicated that circumstances were stringent even then and that the germs of coming troubles were already developing.