The Preventive Check in Medieval and Preindustrial England

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: University College Dublin
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050712000678
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 1015-1035
• 关键词: demographic interactions; seigneurial control; marriage; malthus

摘要

England's post-Reformation demographic regime has been characterized as low pressure. Yet the evidence hitherto for the presence of a preventive check, defined as the short-run response of marriage and births to variations in living standards, is rather weak. New evidence in this article strengthens the case for the preventive check in both medieval and early modern England. We invoke manorial data to argue the case for a preventive check on marriages in the Middle Ages. Our analysis of the post-1540 period, based on parish-level rather than aggregate data, finds evidence for a preventive check on marriages and births.