ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the relationship of the work on historical demography to some of the principal questions which concern the modern economic and social historian. Historians of industry and trade described economic change largely in terms of three main lines of development: technical innovation, the institutional framework, and economic policy. The Industrial Revolution, in these categories, appears as a succession of machines and engines, the story of particular firms, and the transition from mercantilism to laissez-faire. Research into the process of population change is therefore based upon an investigation into the lives of individuals. This is in accord with tendencies in other fields of historical work. The economic historian, faced with the need to throw light on the process of growth and change in an industrializing society, has certain quite specific requests to make of the historical demographer to assist in the task of clarification.
