The Hazards of Wealth: Adult Mortality in Pre-Twentieth-Century England

English historical evidence suggests that before the twentieth century, adult mortality may have been as high among the wealthy as it was among the poor. Provisional data for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries indicate that in many areas, the aristocracy, gentry, merchants and professionals died in as great a number as labourers and poor husbandmen. Given the known association between poverty and ill-health, this finding represents something of a conundrum. A review of literary evidence suggests that the ownership of wealth carried its own risks. Medical authorities and other writers described in detail the hazards of wealth: the excessive consumption of food, alcohol and tobacco, linked to physical inactivity and other lifestyle factors. This paper suggests that the correlation between socio-economic status and adult mortality only emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, although this conclusion will require confirmation through further research on a systematic and nationally representative sample.