British Demographers' Opinions On Fertility, 1660 to 1760 83

There was a consensus of opinion among British demographers in the century preceding the Industrial Revolution that fertility, i.e. the actual production of children, lagged considerably behind fecundity, i.e. the child-bearing capacity. Some writers of the period thought that this had always been so. Thus David Hume (⁽¹⁵⁾, p. 159) states (1752) that “there is in all men, both male and female, a desire and power of generation more active than is ever universally exerted.” Other writers rather emphasize the big gap between fecundity and fertility in the England of their time as compared with former periods or with the American colonies. Most demographers contented themselves with pointing to the fact, but some made attempts actually to measure fecundity.