Early modern Scandinavia was a sparsely populated region with varying natural conditions, stretching from fertile plains in the south of Sweden and Denmark, over huge spruce and pine forests in central Norway, Sweden, and Finland and fishing communities by the coasts, to large areas north of the limit for arable land. These natural conditions gave rise to diverse ways of making a living, which affected demography, gender division of labour, and the relationship between groups. This chapter describes how natural resources, production, trade, wars, laws, and taxation policies shaped the living conditions for different parts of the Scandinavian population. It focuses on how labour was organised and regulated, especially regarding how the poorer strata of the population were controlled and how their labour power was exploited in different settings. These everyday experiences are also related to foreign politics and the overarching economic development during the Early Modern Era.