Socioeconomic structure and differential fertility by wealth in a mid-nineteenth century tuscan community

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between wealth and fertility in a pre-trans-itional Tuscan community of mid-XIXth century, Casalguidi. This is an issue of great interest in historical demography because the pattern for populations characterized by natural fertility and absence of voluntary birth control is not clear yet. By using micro-level data, we reconstructed not only individual and family life-histories of the inhabitants but also their wealth status year after year. Our results provide evidence that in this Tuscan pre-transitional population differential fertility by wealth was present even before the transition started. In particular, mothers living in well-off households showed higher fertility than those of the poorest strata of the population, pattern that was also correlated to a lower infant mortality among rich families.