Population, Family and City
From famine to steady growth
- In the 17th century, small landholdings, low-productivity agricultural practices, poor transportation and adverse weather limited and disrupted the food supply, causing periodic famines.
- By the 18th century, the balance between population and the food supply stabilised, resulting in steady population growth.
- Four named causes of the earlier crisis, and 3.3's Agricultural Revolution is what removes them.
Select all the causes of 17th-century food disruption the CED names.
Migration is a consequence of later growth, not a cause of famine.
Growth was still restrained
- Although the rate of illegitimate births increased in the 18th century, population growth was limited by the European marriage pattern, and in some areas by various birth control methods.
- 1.10 introduced the marriage pattern as a response to hardship; here it is still operating in better times.
- So a demographic habit outlived the crisis that produced it, which is a good example of continuity.
The European marriage pattern still limited growth in the 18th century.
A demographic habit that outlived the crisis that produced it.
Childhood and private life
- As infant and child mortality decreased, and commercial wealth increased, families dedicated more space and resources to children and child-rearing, as well as private life and comfort.
- The CED gives two causes — lower mortality and more wealth — and one consequence with three parts.
- More space is literal: houses acquire rooms with doors, and 4.5's consumer revolution furnishes them.
A cause of famine, a brake on growth, or a consequence?
Sort each element of the demographic change.
Select both causes the CED gives for families dedicating more to children.
And the consequence has three parts: children, private life, comfort.
The European marriage pattern was still restraining growth in better times. 1.10 introduced it as a response to hardship, and 4.4 records it still operating in the eighteenth century — a demographic habit that outlived the crisis that produced it.
The CED's sentence on cities gives...
Urban growth is a sign of movement, and movement is disruptive at both ends.
Cities pulled and strained
- Cities offered economic opportunities, which attracted increasing migration from rural areas, transforming urban life and creating challenges for the new urbanites and their families.
- The CED gives the pull and the cost in one sentence, as it did in 1.10.
- So urban growth is not a sign of prosperity alone — it is a sign of movement, and movement is disruptive at both ends.
The CED's phrase "more ____" is literal: houses acquire rooms with doors.
And 4.5's consumer revolution furnishes them.
Factors and consequences
- The objective is the factors contributing to and the consequences of demographic changes from 1648 to 1815.
- Factors: agricultural improvement, better transport, and the marriage pattern acting as a brake.
- Consequences: steady growth, changed childhood, more private life, and urban migration with its strains.
A house with a corridor and separate bedrooms is a demographic fact before it is an architectural one. It becomes possible when fewer children die, when a family has money, and when both are common enough that builders design for it. The CED's more space is doing exactly that work.
Seventeenth-century famines came from small landholdings, low productivity, poor transport and adverse weather; by the eighteenth century the balance stabilised, producing steady growth. Growth was still limited by the European marriage pattern. Lower infant mortality and commercial wealth led families to dedicate more space and resources to children, private life and comfort. Cities offered opportunities, attracted migration, and created challenges.