1490-1894 — Those were the days!
The Reykjavík Grapevine’s editorial meeting was nearing its conclusion and, as usual, the cigars were being lit and the snifters of brandy refilled. Lunch couldn’t come soon enough. After a light knock, the mahogany doors were opened: twitching and baggy-eyed, our in-house economists came cringing in.
“Good sirs, most esteemed madams,” they said in unison, “The global economy is facing strong headwinds. Leading indicators suggest negative growth. Near Selfoss a calf is said to have been born with three eyes.” Postponing the caviar, we immediately commissioned another Free Business Idea: a bold new type of article designed to make you — the common literate — repulsively rich, stimulating the world economy through your subsequent spending.
Before the industrial revolution reached Iceland the best way to get rich was with farming. Agriculture has always been the big moneymaker. Every right-thinking entrepreneur ached for a parcel of land and a chance to get at it with a scythe. The link between wealth and farming is so strong that it’s fossilised in the language itself: one Icelandic word for money is fé — sheep.
Man versus nature
Yet life was not always easy for these good farmers. The climate is classified by weather scientists as ‘sub-arctic,’ which does not bode well for agriculture. Above all, farming is a labour-intensive business, requiring a large complement of human resources.
These agricultural workers could be unruly and hard to manage. Some would come around at harvesting time and demand extravagant rates. Worse yet, others would go skipping off to the seaside to try their hands at fishing — that newfangled and sinister manpower drain.
A generous deal
Mercifully, before things went too far, powerful farmers pumped the brakes on this nascent industry. Sheep needed tending; the soil needed tilling! A new system, called vistarband was introduced. A clever and modern method of organising labour, it ensured that if you did not own a farm or pass certain property qualifications, then you needed to be attached to a farm as a worker.
The offer was extremely generous: free room, board and clothing at your local farmstead, under the wise patronage and guidance of a successful farmer. To reduce the waste inherent in job hopping, you also couldn’t switch farms except on one day a year.
The economic benefits were obvious to everyone: if you let these poor folk run their own affairs, the county (sýsla) would inevitably have to feed them when their schemes came to nothing. The vistarband ensured that things never devolved to that point.
Negative Nancies have their say
Detractors of this system have called it “restrictive” and “exploitative.” They point out that women enlisted in the cause of farming were paid nothing, and while the men were paid, it was far below market rate. This extremely one-sided view stems from a rather blinkered idea of what constitutes fair compensation. In the days of yore the most important wage, the one all good men and women clamoured for, was the satisfaction of a job well done.
Most importantly this system was profitable. It allowed those who had proved themselves as good landowners to reinvest their surplus into land improvement, increasing the wealth for all. Labour that would have been wasted fishing or wandering aimlessly between farms, grasping for inordinately high salaries, was instead put to solid productive use.
Getting the vistarband back together
Leading up to the 20th century the vistarband system slowly frayed and finally snapped, yet it lives on in our hearts. The attentive reader will, I trust, have drawn the obvious lessons from it and will apply it to their own dealings when possible.
Unfortunately a full-blown reintroduction of the vistarband isn’t feasible in today’s unimaginative political climate, although it is not totally without its allies. In 2020, Jón Gnarr, a parliamentarian for Viðreisn wrote on Twitter that “Keeping a certain part of the working population down has always been an absolute prerequisite for economic growth here and for Iceland to function as a nation-state.” Hear, hear!
Today’s farmers don’t wait around for politicians, though. Boldly ignoring red tape and restrictive labour laws, farmers have led the way yet again: they’ve made contact with foreign youth hell bent on living in and experiencing the Iceland countryside for a few months and invited them over. For food and board, they come in their droves. Is there a more beautiful match for youthful energy than a labour-intensive farm?
Freyr also writes a business newsletter: Atlantic Islander — where the rich go to get richer. Find it at freyr.substack.com
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