Population in History: Essays in Historical Demography, Volume II: Europe and United States

by Eversley,D.E.C.

• ISBN13: 9780202362045
• ISBN10: 0202362043
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2008-08-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This large-scale comparative endeavor, complete in two volumes, reflects increasing concern with the population factor in economic and social change worldwide. Demographers, on their side, have been focusing on history. In response to this, Population in History represents the work of two practitioners that have begun to work together, using their combined approaches in an attempt to assess and account for population growth experienced by the West since the seventeenth century.There is a long record of interest in the history of population. But the interest now displayed is likely to be both more persistent and far more fruitful in its consequences. New studies have been initiated in many countries. And because the studies are more informed and systematic than many of those of earlier periods, they are already provoking the further spread of research. A much more positive part is now also being played by national and international associations of historians and demographers. It is not unlikely that, within the next fifteen or twenty years, the main outlines of population change in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries will be firmly established for much of Europe.Previous research has tended to appear in specialist journals and academic publications. This volume is intended to provide a more easily accessible publication. It has been thought appropriate to include some earlier work, both because of its intrinsic interest and because it provided the background and part of the stimulus to the later research. Of the twenty-seven contributions to this outstanding volume, seven are unabridged reprints of earlier work; the remaining contributions are either entirely new or represent substantial revisions of work published elsewhere.

Table of Contents

General
Introduction	p. 1
Population, Economy and Society	p. 23
The new economic history	p. 23
The regional framework of research	p. 26
The problem of periodization	p. 28
Some problems of measurement	p. 30
Defects in source material	p. 32
The ecology of population change	p. 35
Marriage and population growth	p. 39
Fertility of marriage	p. 46
Mortality	p. 52
Mortality: famine and epidemics	p. 53
Population, industry and agriculture	p. 57
The labour force and the domestic consumer	p. 63
Conclusion	p. 67
Towards a History of Population	p. 70
Demographic history as an instrument of history and of demography	p. 70
Nineteenth-century history and the explanation of contemporary demographic phenomena	p. 72
The usefulness of the demographic history of an earlier period	p. 76
The Vital Revolution Reconsidered	p. 79
Births and Deaths Among Europe's Ruling Families Since 1500	p. 87
Marriage and Birth	p. 88
Mortality: the perinatal period	p. 90
Infant mortality	p. 92
Children Aged 1-14 Years	p. 93
Adolescence and early maturity	p. 94
Late maturity	p. 96
Old Age	p. 98
Summary	p. 99
European Marriage Patterns in Perspective	p. 101
The uniqueness of the European pattern	p. 101
The eighteenth century	p. 106
The aristocracy	p. 113
The Middle Ages	p. 116
The Ancient World	p. 120
Non-statistical evidence	p. 122
The age-sex composition of the population	p. 125
Conclusion	p. 130
The evidence from data on marital status in the eighteenth century	p. 135
Great Britain
The Economic History of Modern Britain	p. 147
Two Papers on Gregory King	p. 159
Introductory Note	p. 159
Gregory King and the population of England and Wales at the end of the seventeenth century	p. 167
Gregory King's estimate of the population of England and Wales, 1695	p. 183
Note on the number of houses in England and Wales, 1690	p. 216
Population and Population Movements in England and Wales, 1700 to 1850	p. 221
The Population Problem During the Industrial Revolution: A Note on the Present State of the Controversy	p. 247
English Population in the Eighteenth Century	p. 269
Medical Evidence Related to English Population Changes in the Eighteenth Century	p. 285
Effectiveness of medical measures during the eighteenth century	p. 286
Relative influence of the birth rate and death rate on population according to the levels of the two rates	p. 293
The birth rate	p. 295
The death rate	p. 300
Possible cases of a reduction of mortality	p. 304
Three Essays on the Population and Economy of the Midlands	p. 308
Enclosure and labour supply in the Industrial Revolution	p. 308
The course of population change	p. 327
Population changes in a provincial town: Nottingham 1700-1800	p. 334
A Demographic Study of the British Ducal Families	p. 354
Introduction	p. 354
System of classification of information	p. 355
Mortality	p. 356
Nuptiality	p. 364
Fertility	p. 366
Further topics	p. 374
Summary	p. 377
The Changing Adequacy of English Registration, 1690-1837	p. 379
A Survey of Population in an Area of Worcestershire from 1660 to 1850 on the Basis of Parish Registers	p. 394
Choice of Parishes	p. 395
The registers	p. 395
The defects of the registers and the methods of allowing for them	p. 396
The use of rates and the attempt to calculate base populations	p. 398
The population of twelve parishes	p. 400
Population growth by stages	p. 402
The mortality of 1725-30	p. 408
Some other demographic information derived from the registers	p. 410
Conclusion	p. 414
Dr Brownlee's method	p. 415
Europe and the United States
Land and Population in Ireland 1780-1845	p. 423
The Population of France in the Eighteenth Century	p. 434
Problems	p. 435
Sources available	p. 436
Evaluations	p. 438
Evolution of the population during the eighteenth century	p. 440
Age distribution	p. 445
Mortality	p. 445
Fertility and birth-control	p. 448
Marriage and celibacy	p. 452
Age at first marriage	p. 454
Resume and conclusion	p. 455
Recent Theories and Research in French Population Between 1500 and 1700	p. 457
The sources	p. 458
The sixteenth century	p. 462
The seventeenth century	p. 466
The General Development of the Population of France Since the Eighteenth Century	p. 474
The choice of indices of measurement	p. 475
Demographic statistics from 1806 to 1850	p. 476
Reconstruction of the age-composition of the population	p. 476
Corrections for losses due to the war	p. 478
Demographic statistics before 1800	p. 479
Fertility and mortality before 1771	p. 482
Nuptiality around 1770	p. 483
Mortality since 1771	p. 484
Fertility since 1770	p. 489
Some general points	p. 490
Demographic Crisis in France from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century	p. 507
Epidemics	p. 508
Epidemics and dearth	p. 510
Mortality in times of crisis	p. 513
The fall in births	p. 520
Two Essays on Population in Eighteenth-Century Scandinavia	p. 523
A survey of some recent work and current problems	p. 523
An outline of some population changes in Sweden ca. 1660-1750, and a discussion of some current issues	p. 536
Finland's Population Movement in the Eighteenth Century	p. 549
Four Centuries of Italian Demographic Development	p. 570
The Population of Barmen Before and During the Period of Industrialization	p. 588
The Demographic Development of Flanders in the Eighteenth Century	p. 608
Literature and sources	p. 609
General development of the population	p. 611
Crude rates for births and marriages	p. 613
Age at marriage and average age of women at last confinement	p. 614
The spacing of births	p. 617
Rates of legitimate fertility by age groups	p. 618
The relationship between births and marriages	p. 619
Infantile mortality and mortality among children between two and fourteen years of age	p. 623
Adult mortality	p. 624
General conclusions	p. 626
The Growth of Population in America, 1700-1860	p. 631
The colonial period	p. 636
Survey by regions	p. 646
New England	p. 647
Mid-Atlantic	p. 652
The South	p. 660
Conclusions	p. 662
The national period	p. 666
Conclusion	p. 679
Notes on Contributors	p. 689
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