Mantal

A mantal (Finnish: manttaali) is an obsolete unit once used in Finland and Sweden to measure the size and productivity of a piece of land. In the 1900s, the mantal lost its relevance because crown land taxes ceased to exist and the government started drawing revenue from income taxes. Today, mantal values are only used in connection with some rural obligations and rights, while the size of farms in Finland is reported in hectares. A mantal measures both physical area and monetary worth as it takes into account the productivity of the land. It is a cameral measurement instrument used to gauge the wealth of a farm to determine its apportionment. According to M. Sjöström, in essence the mantal values for farms in a village show their share of the village's lands. A landed estate's share of the joint properties of a village (such as bodies of water, undeveloped common land, and some specific things) is defined by its mantal value. The mantal value was also used as a basis for taxation. A farm had to pay a fixed annual land tax and several other taxes (i.e. auxiliary taxes and tithes).