Population and Society in the 18thC

Question 1

What is an issue with studying 18th century demography?

Answer 1

18th century demographic data is almost none-existent and at the best patchy for everywhere but England

Question 2

What is an issue with Scottish and Irish demographic studies?

Answer 2

Scottish and Irish demographic studies come from Sinclair’s Analysis of the Statistical Account of Scotland (1825) or from Hearth taxes, and are therefore very narrow

Question 3

How is English demography of the 18th century usually studied?

Answer 3

English demography of the 18th century is largely studied via a sample of 404 parishes which are incredibly representative from 1993

Question 4

What is a drawback of the 404 parish sample?

Answer 4

The 404 parish sample does have too few small parishes and too many large ones

Question 5

What are the two ways of analysing demography pre-censuses?

Answer 5

Pre-census demographic studies can use inverse protection or back projection

Question 6

What is inverse projection?

Answer 6

inverse projection estimates the size & age of population from trends or events

Question 7

What is back projection?

Answer 7

Back projection back dates and revises the age structure the derive ‘earlier’ censuses at 5 year intervals

Question 8

By how much did the English population increase 1731-1871 according to R. Schofield?

Answer 8

R. Schofield found that the English population quadrupled, from 5.3 million to 21.5 million

Question 9

In the eighteenth century what was the percentage growth rate of population according to R. Schofield?

Answer 9

R. Schofield suggests the population growth rate to have been 154% throughout the eighteenth century

Question 10

What was the life expectancy 1781-1821?

Answer 10

35-39

Question 11

What was the gross reproduction rate in 1681 versus 1816? When did it peak?

Answer 11

The gross reproduction rate was 1.94 female children per woman in 1681, 3.06 in 1816- the peak was in the 1810s

Question 12

What can the acceleration in growth rates in the eighteenth century be attributed to?

Answer 12

The acceleration in growth rates can be attributed to an increase in fertility rather than a decrease in mortality- although there has been post-revisionist critique of the fertility-focused lens used

Question 13

What arguably impacted the birth rate?

Answer 13

The birth rate was arguably impacted by a fall in average marriage age by 3 years 1750-1850

Question 14

When (regarding life-cycles such as childhood, young-adulthood, old age) was the youngest year?

Answer 14

The “youngest” year for British demography was 1826- this arguably meant that the labour force by 1830s/40s was at its fittest and most able

Question 15

What did A. Lee find in regards to the national average wage of labour?

Answer 15

A. Lee found that the national average (real) wage of labour had a consistent growth rate of 0.6%

Question 16

When was Malthus’s catastrophe first proposed as a demographic theory?

Answer 16

The malthusian catastrophe was first proposed as a demographic theory in 1798

Question 17

What was the population of London by 1700?

Answer 17

By 1700 the population of London was 575,000

Question 18

What did D. Levine argue about early eighteenth-century life?

Answer 18

D. Levine suggested that proto-industrialisation provided a new and effective framework for family earning because the household was a unit of production

Question 19

What is the cottage economy argument with regards to eighteenth-century demography?

Answer 19

The cottage economy argument suggests that the main growth in demand for labour was outside of agriculture

Question 20

How did London’s share of Britain’s population increase 1811-71?

Answer 20

London’s share of the British population was 11% in 1811, by 1871 only 14%, showing that change was not concentrated at the centre

Question 21

How did large towns’ share of Britain’s population increase 1811-71?

Answer 21

The share large towns had of Britain’s population increased from 2% in 1811 to 18% in 1871

Question 22

How did small towns’ share of Britain’s population increase 1811-1871?

Answer 22

The share small towns had of Britain’s population increased from 12% in 1811 to 22% in 1871

Question 23

How did rural share of Britain’s population decline 1811-1871?

Answer 23

The rural population of Britain decreased to 60% of the total British population

Question 24

What was a link between demography and economic practise?

Answer 24

There was a consistent structural demand for unmarried and thus untethered labour

Question 25

How many years of the period 1740-1816 were considered poor harvests?

Answer 25

10 years out of the period 1740-1816 were considered poor harvests- with active intervention required 1740-1 and 1782-3

Question 26

What occurred with regards to the Irish population in the early nineteenth century?

Answer 26

In the nineteenth century, 1.5 million left Ireland- and only 500,000 to Britain- because of the potato famine