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The Preventive Check in Medieval and Preindustrial England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2012

Morgan Kelly  and
Cormac Ó Gráda
Morgan Kelly*
Affiliation:
Professor, School of Economics, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland. E-mail: morgan.kelly@ucd.ie.
Cormac Ó Gráda*
Affiliation:
Professor, School of Economics, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland. E-mail: cormac.ograda@ucd.ie.
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Abstract

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.

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ARTICLES
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 72 , Issue 4 , 14 December 2012 , pp. 1015 - 1035
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Copyright © The Economic History Association 2012

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