Population Growth and Agrarian Change: An Historical PerspectiveSince the 1950s much attention has been paid to the effect of rapid population growth on the rural societies of the Third World. Yet it is often forgotten that Europe faced similar problems in the past. This book, first published in 1980, suggests some ways of looking at the interrelationships between population growth and agrarian change, and uses these approaches to consider the demographic and agrarian problems of various parts of Europe in the past - in the fourteenth century, the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and in the early nineteenth century. These places are then compared with rural societies in the developing world at the present time. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
PART ONE METHODOLOGY | 9 |
definition and measurement | 11 |
The symptoms of overpopulation in agrarian communities | 20 |
The possibilities of increased output in preindustrial societies | 29 |
Demographic adjustments to population growth | 40 |
PART TWO MALTHUS JUSTIFIED | 49 |
European population in the long run | 51 |
Rural and urban populations of France 18111911 | 203 |
Loss by migration from rural areas France 185686 | 204 |
Rate of natural increase in France 181690 | 205 |
Scandinavia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries | 207 |
Population growth in Norway and Sweden | 208 |
Trends in crude birth and death rates Norway and Sweden | 210 |
Sweden 17511900 | 214 |
Rural social structure in Norway c 1845 | 215 |
4 | 55 |
Population change in Western Europe 17001970 | 61 |
a case of overpopulation? | 64 |
England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries | 83 |
Price indices 14501649 | 87 |
The urban population of England and Wales 15201851 | 94 |
Mean family size of British peers 15501799 | 100 |
For Jill Susan Catherine and Stephen | 101 |
France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries | 102 |
the great tragedy | 115 |
Agricultural population densities c 1841 | 121 |
The urban population of Ireland 18411926 | 128 |
116 | 134 |
Interim conclusions | 141 |
PART THREE MALTHUS REFUTED | 145 |
Holland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries | 147 |
The population of the Netherlands and some of its provinces | 149 |
The urban and rural populations of Holland 1514 and 1622 | 156 |
England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries | 163 |
The rural and urban populations of England and Wales | 169 |
Major land uses in England and Wales 16961866 | 177 |
Migrational gain and loss in England and Wales 18411911 | 186 |
Rate of loss by migration 18511939 | 187 |
Crude birth and death rates in England and Wales 180140 | 188 |
France in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries | 190 |
The population of France 17001911 | 191 |
Farm size in France 1892 | 195 |
The arable area of France 17011913 | 198 |
Population and arable land in Sweden in the nineteenth century | 216 |
Crop yields in Sweden 180120 to 18911900 | 218 |
Seedyield ratios in Norway 1835 and 1881 | 219 |
Land use in Norway 1870s and Sweden 1860s | 220 |
Annual overseas emigration per 100000 population | 223 |
Rural and urban populations in Norway and Sweden 180060 | 226 |
Rural and agricultural populations in Sweden 18001930 | 228 |
Coda to Part three | 231 |
PART FOUR MALTHUS RETURNS? | 235 |
the demographic response | 237 |
Average rates of increase in selected countries 190070 | 238 |
Expectation of life at birth in Latin America | 243 |
Agricultural densities in Western Europe in the nineteenth century and the developing world c 1975 | 245 |
Total population per 100 hectares of arable land | 250 |
Rates of increase of rural and urban populations in Western Europe 17501900 | 254 |
Rates of increase of rural and urban populations 192070 | 255 |
Urban and rural demographic differentials c 1960 | 256 |
the production response | 261 |
Arable land 195075 | 264 |
Longterm increases in the arable area in parts of Asia | 265 |
Arable area per head of agricultural and total populations 1950 and 1975 | 266 |
Potential actual 1962 and proposed 1985 arable areas | 269 |
Conclusions | 281 |
The rural population of Europe in the nineteenth century | 291 |
Notes | 296 |
Go little book and wish to all | 309 |
333 | |
Other editions - View all
Population Growth and Agrarian Change: An Historical Perspective D. B. Grigg No preview available - 1980 |
Population Growth and Agrarian Change: An Historical Perspective D. B. Grigg No preview available - 1980 |
Common terms and phrases
adoption Africa agricultural America arable argued Asia average began beginning birth Britain cause cereals common comparatively continued countries countryside crops cultivation decline demographic densities developing early East Economic History Review eighteenth century emigration employment England English estimates European evidence fall fallow Famine farmers farms fell fertility figures France French grain growing half head hectares higher holdings important improved income increase industry Ireland Irish Italy labour land landless Languedoc late later less limited living London major marriage methods middle migration million mortality nineteenth century Norway output overpopulation Paris particularly peasant period population growth population pressure possible potato production proportion rapid reduced regions rise rose rural population second half seems seventeenth century sixteenth century social society soil SOURCE Studies suggests Sweden towns urban wages Wales Western Europe yields
Popular passages
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