Population growth and social structure in a market-oriented agricultural economy in the Netherlands, 1750-1820

Abstract

From the middle of the eighteenth century onwards rural population growth in Western Europe accelerated. The effects of increasing population pressures on social structure, as this article shows for the Groningen clay soil area, could be profound. As part of the prosperous coastal Dutch area, the agricultural market played a decisive role in determining one's fate in the eighteenth century already. In the Groningen clay soil area, population growth provoked a slight fall in the agricultural labour productivity, as well as stimulated concentration in agriculture despite the practise of equal inheritances. The number of farms fell while thier average size increased, suggesting that importante economies of scale could be obtained. Large farmers profited from rising agricultural prices and an increase in the value of theri right to use the land. Population growth thus created growing economic inequality, proletarianization, and increasing downward social mobility. With upward social mobility diminished for the working class, average ages at marriage fell, reinforcing population growth at the end of the eighteenth century. Rather than distributing the adverse effects of population pressure equally, the market-oriented economy in the Groningen clay soil area produced increased economic and social differentiation.