Population and Technology in Preindustrial Europe

Most of the production in preindustrial European villages and towns was organized in family enterprises. This organization and the marriage system in these families resulted in a fertility rate that was low enough and a rate of savings that was high enough to secure the amount of investment necessary to accommodate the increasing population. Concentration of specialized producers and the intellectual elite in towns facilitated technology transfer from more advanced regions and later the invention of new technologies. Because of these developments the large demographic setbacks were not as often assumed subsistence crises due to population pressure on land; rather they were the result of internecine warfare and epidemics which were endemic in preindustrial Europe. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA) (EXCERPT)