ABSTRACT
It has been known for many years that the population of England increased mightily during the period which is now called the “long eighteenth century”— the period stretching from the 1680s to the 1830s. In 1681 the population stood at about 4.93 million; in 1831, it was 13.28 million. But what hasn't been known with any certainty, at least until recently, was whether this extraordinary increase of people was due to a decline in mortality, to an increase in fertility, or to a combination of both. Historians, of course, have argued about the matter, some favoring one answer, some favoring another; but since their arguments
336 / Henry Abelove
have been based on scanty or broken data, nothing of what they have said could be really established and command general assent.
