Nuptiality during the First Industrial Revolution in England: Explanations

Abstract

Change in the incidence of service in husbandry and the spread of rural industry are the two major explanations proposed for the rise in nuptiality [in England] during the second half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century. The major objective of this study is to examine via multiple-regression techniques the extent to which each of these explanations is able to account for this rise in nuptiality. The data are from a time series of nuptiality for the period 1541-1875 published in 1991 by Chris Wilson and Robert I. Woods. The author concludes that the increased demand for rural workers which was created by the Industrial Revolution and which resulted in higher incomes was the primary cause of the decline in the age of marriage. (EXCERPT)