utlandsbruk

Utlandsbruk is a historical term in Swedish agrarian history that refers to an outlying land unit linked to a larger farm or estate. The word combines utland, meaning “outland” or distant land, with bruk, meaning a farm, estate, or landholding. The concept appears in estate inventories, tax records, and historical studies as a way to describe land that was not situated on the main farmstead but remained under the ownership or administration of the same estate.

An utlandsbruk functioned as a separate farming unit within the broader estate system. It was often managed by a tenant, a renter, or a designated household connected to the main farm, and it could include fields, pastures, or forested areas located at some distance from the primary farm. The arrangement allowed landowners to exploit resources that lay beyond the immediate vicinity of the principal manor, spread labor across multiple locations, and diversify agricultural and economic activities. Rent, obligations, and administration were typically handled through arrangements such as arrende (lease) and other contractual ties to the estate.

Historically, utlandsbruk was more common in periods when large estates and rural economies required flexible use of scattered resources, roughly spanning the late medieval to early modern era. In contemporary Sweden, the term is mainly encountered in historical, genealogical, or scholarly contexts and is rarely used in current property law or everyday land management. Related concepts in historical sources include utmark and various forms of estate-based landholdings.