1. Late Medieval Society Population Pressures and the Black Death: 1347

2. Spread of the Black Death - 1347

3. Malthus and the Theory of Population.... In 1800, Thomas Malthus theorized that the human population would always face periodic demographic disasters. He reasoned that food supply grew arithmetically, but human population grew geometrically.

4. And….. Thus periodically population would outstrip food supply, and people would face war, famine, pestilence or other disasters which would reduce the population, return the relationship between food and population to balance and start the process over again.

5. Europe in 1099

6. By 1300…. Europe was ‘crowded’ –not by today’s standards, but according to the economic and technological standard of the time. So people either had to (1) decide that their children would get poorer; (2) figure out how to control population growth. Malthus called (2) the “preventive check.”

7. Castle

8. Peasant House

10. For individuals.....What Regulates Family Formation? Age of Maturity Permission of Parents, Kin, or Perhaps Lord or Master Resources to Set Up a Household: land, housing, trade

11. Results…. Agnatic lineages become common. Sons had to await the death of their fathers to inherit. Inheritances were organized to concentrate economic resources, not disperse property, so land was ‘entailed’ and ‘primogeniture’ was practiced.

12. And….. Entail prevents the break up of land parcels, Primogeniture requires that the eldest son inherit all family resources. Other children were (1) sent into the church; (2) sent to the Crusades; (3) given small property settlements which left them downwardly mobile.

13. And…. Men wait to marry; Women marry young because they might ‘miss’ a mate.

14. Cultural Results... 1. large age differences once again between husbands and wives, and thus perceptions of distant fathers and more loving mothers 2. a system adjusted to the economic realities - slow expansion with potential for adjustment and additional growth

15. To reiterate the Malthusian Question Periodically population would outstrip food supply, and people would face war, famine, pestilence or other disasters which would reduce the population, return the relationship between food and population to balance and start the process over again.

16. Malthus was right... In the history of human society up to the time Malthus was writing, the theory held. Malthus could look back and seem demographic disasters. The decline of the Roman Empire (around 500 AD), and The Plague or Black Death in (the late 1340s):Black Death

17. Late Medieval Society About 1000, the medieval world had stabilized. For the next 300 years it grew. –200 - 40 million –600 - 20 million –1000- 23 million –1340 - 60 million –1400 - 35 million –1500 - 55 million –Detailed Population EstimatesPopulation Estimates

18. Florentine Catasto

19. Florentine Catasto: 1427 Circulation of children to the households of the rich Richest households are larger than poorer households Bottom quartile has little property and therefore incentive based upon inheritance to regulate sexual behavior