IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eurpop/v18y2002i2d10.1023_a1015511805628.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Population Policy in Early Victorian England

Author

Listed:
  • Warren C. Robinson

    (The Pennsylvania State University
    Economic Research Associates)

Abstract

This paper argues that the generally-held belief that there was no population policy in Great Britain during its fertility transition is incorrect. There were, in fact, clear and implicit and explicit policies in place by the early 19th Century which aimed at reducing population growth. These were negative, involving elimination of family allowances (the famous Poor Laws), and also positive, through subsidised emigration and ``transportation'' of felons to the colonies. Moreover, a changed ``ideation'' on the part of the nation's political, intellectual and spiritual leaders, changed norms about marriage and child-bearing, raising sharply the perceived economic and psychic cost of children. Lacking acceptable means to control pregnancies, many working class women resorted to abortion, infanticide and child abandonment to reduce their family size. The policy's actual impact on overall fertility is uncertain but it did constitute a deliberate attempt by society to affect demographic behaviour and outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Warren C. Robinson, 2002. "Population Policy in Early Victorian England," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 153-173, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:18:y:2002:i:2:d:10.1023_a:1015511805628
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1015511805628
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1023/A:1015511805628
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1015511805628?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Demeny, 1986. "Population and the invisible hand," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 23(4), pages 473-487, November.
    2. E. A. Wrigley, 1966. "Family Limitation in Pre-Industrial England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 19(1), pages 82-109, April.
    3. T. C. T. Kotiah, 1975. "Letter to the Editor—Errata," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(5), pages 1043-1044, October.
    4. Blaug, Mark, 1964. "The Poor Law Report Reexamined," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 229-245, June.
    5. James P. Huzel, 1969. "Malthus, the Poor Law, and Population in Early Nineteenth-Century England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 22(3), pages 430-452, December.
    6. Kindleberger, Charles P., 1996. "World Economic Primacy: 1500 to 1990," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195099027, Decembrie.
    7. J. T. Krause, 1958. "Changes In English Fertility And Mortality, 1781–1850," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 11(1), pages 52-70, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Greif, Avner & Iyigun, Murat, 2013. "What Did the Old Poor Law Really Accomplish? A Redux," IZA Discussion Papers 7398, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Francesco Cinnirella & Marc P. B. Klemp & Jacob L. Weisdorf, 2012. "Malthus in the Bedroom: Birth Spacing as a Preventive Check Mechanism in Pre-Modern England," CESifo Working Paper Series 3936, CESifo.
    3. Broadberry Stephen, 2012. "Recent Developments in the Theory of Very Long Run Growth: A Historical Appraisal," Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, De Gruyter, vol. 53(1), pages 277-306, May.
    4. A. W. Carus & Sheilagh Ogilvie, 2009. "Turning qualitative into quantitative evidence: a well‐used method made explicit1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(4), pages 893-925, November.
    5. Broadberry, Stephen & Ghosal, Sayantan & Proto, Eugenio, 2017. "Anonymity, efficiency wages and technological progress," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 379-394.
    6. William Baumol, 2012. "Mark Blaug (1927–2011)," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 36(2), pages 167-170, May.
    7. Hălăngescu, Constantin I., 2011. "Oeconomicus vs. Academicus din perspectiva diacronică a relaţiei între ciclurile Kondratieff şi reformele structurale ale învăţământului superior [Oeconomicus vs. Academicus - Diachronic perspectiv," MPRA Paper 33286, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Stefan Bauernschuster & Timo Hener & Helmut Rainer, 2016. "Children of a (Policy) Revolution: The Introduction of Universal Child Care and Its Effect on Fertility," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 975-1005.
    9. Stephen Broadberry & Claire Giordano & Francesco Zollino, 2011. "A Sectoral Analysis of Italy’s Development, 1861-2011," Quaderni di storia economica (Economic History Working Papers) 20, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    10. Park, Jun-ki & Ryu, Deockhyun & Lee, Keun, 2019. "What determines the economic size of a nation in the world: Determinants of a nation’s share in world GDP vs. per capita GDP," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 203-214.
    11. Piero Pasotti & Alessandro Vercelli, 2015. "Kindleberger and Financial Crises," Working papers wpaper104, Financialisation, Economy, Society & Sustainable Development (FESSUD) Project.
    12. Joseph Persky, 1997. "Retrospectives: Classical Family Values: Ending the Poor Laws as They Knew Them," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 179-189, Winter.
    13. Martin Kolk, 2011. "Deliberate Birth Spacing in Nineteenth Century Northern Sweden [L’espacement volontaire des naissances au 19e siècle dans le Nord de la Suède]," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 27(3), pages 337-359, August.
    14. D. Eversley, 1977. "Population patterns in the past," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 14(4), pages 539-548, November.
    15. María Inés Barbero & Andrea Lluch & Norma S. Lanciotti & Alexandre Macchione Saes, 2014. "American & Foreign Power in Argentina and Brazil (1926–65)," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 54(2), pages 120-144, July.
    16. Jonathan Boston & Frieder Lempp, 2011. "Climate change," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 1000-1021, October.
    17. David De La Croix & Frédéric Docquier & Alice Fabre & Robert Stelter, 2019. "The Academic Market And The Rise Of Universities In Medieval And Early Modern Europe (1000-1800)," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2019019, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    18. Matsuyama, Kiminori, 2017. "Geographical advantage: Home market effect in a multi-region world," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 740-758.
    19. Gerald Epstein, 2006. "Central Banks as Agents of Economic Development," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-54, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Le Bris, David & Tallec, Ronan, 2021. "The European Marriage Pattern and its Positive Consequences Montesquieu-Volvestre, 1660-1789," MPRA Paper 105324, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:18:y:2002:i:2:d:10.1023_a:1015511805628. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.