English Fertility, 1600–1900: Is an Economic Analysis Tenable?

  • P. R. Andrew Hinde
Chapter
Part of the Studies in Biology, Economy and Society book series (SBES)

Abstract

There is a current debate in the demographic literature about the adequacy of explanations of the demographic transition that see the fertility decline as a consequence of people (by which is usually meant married couples) adjusting their reproduction in the light of changing social and economic circumstances. These explanations, termed by Carlsson (1966) adjustment hypotheses, were characteristic of the original versions of the theory of the demographic transition (Notestein, 1945; Davis, 1963), in which it was held that social and economic development (termed ‘modernisation’ by Notestein, 1945) were ultimately responsible for the fertility decline. Davis’s account was particularly clear. He maintained that fertility decline was one of several possible responses that a population could make to increasing economic strain. This strain was, in turn, caused by rapid population growth consequent upon the decline in mortality, which resulted from economic development.

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© The Galton Institute 1995

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  • P. R. Andrew Hinde

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