Fertility, Economy, and Household Formation in England over Three Centuries

Abstract

This paper using pretransitional England as a case-study assesses long term trends in family organization and associated fertility in a society in which parity-dependent fertility control was for the most part absent. It also considers the means by which institutions especially those to do with labor organizations and family welfare mediated between trends in real incomes and completed family sizes. The study concludes that the distinctiveness of the English experience stems from the culturally specific nature of the rules of household formation that gave changes in marriage age and incidence a fundamental role in determining the markedly dynamic quality of fertility before the late nineteenth century. It is found that these household formation rules appear not to have been much altered by the growth of agrarian and industrial capitalism although they did undermine the capacity of the demographic system to act homeostatically. (summary in FRE SPA)