With the publication of The Population History of England in 1981 it has
become possible for the first time to trace in detail the demographic
changes that occurred in a major European country throughout the early
modern period and during the industrial revolution. It is therefore also
now possible to test our understanding of the functioning of early
modern economies in relation to their demographic patterns against the
new empirical data. The discussion of this historical theme, first
initiated by Malthus in the late eighteenth century, can now be taken a
substantial step further. All of the essays published here take
advantage of this new possibility, either by using the English data
themselves, or by reflecting on the implications of a comparison between
English patterns and those found elsewhere. The essays contribute not
only to a richer understanding of the relationships in the past between
population and economy, but also to a fuller appreciation of the
circumstances that limited economic growth in pre-industrial economies
and with the train of events that led to the escape from these
constraints with the industrial revolution.