The Allotment System

For those of you who do not really know what the Allotment System and footsoldiers were for, you will learn a little here.

Picture from the movie "The battle of Poltava".

The Allotment System was a Swedish military organizational system created by Charles XI in 1682.

The Allotment System made sure that one or more farms merged and formed rust holders and roots that were responsible for a rider, soldier or boatman that they paid and gave a soldier's croft and some land to cultivate. Each officer was given a farm to live on in peacetime and also a salary.

The system was thus paid for by the farmers and served as their tax to the state. The peasants thus also avoided being drafted as soldiers.

A major advantage of the system was that the soldiers themselves collected their maintenance from the peasants. In this way, the state escaped tax control and did not have to pay out cash, which it had so little of.

Every detail of this intricate system was recorded in a giant register called a Allotment System.

Because the soldiers and their officers lived in the same area, they were able to gather quickly, ready for battle. The soldiers trained annually and thus Sweden got a very effective army.

Through the Allotment soldiers, who were more trained and drilled for war than ordinary peasants, Sweden acquired a powerful army that offset the country's low population.

//Daniel