Balthasar, A.

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BOOK REVIEWSMarkus Mattmuller with contributions by Fridolin Kurman and AndreSchluchter, Bevolkerungsgeschihte der Schweiz. Teil I: Diefriihe Neuzeit1500-1700, 2 vols., Balser Beitrage zur Geschichtswissenschaft, 154 and154a. (Basel and Frankfurt am Main: Helbling & Linchterhahn, 1987.)Pages 735. SFr 88, DM 106.In his famous essay on the Principle of population T. R. Malthus wrote: 'Itis the nature of pasturage to produce food for a much greater number ofpeople than it can employ. In countries strictly pastoral, therefore, manypersons will be idle, or at most be very inadequately occupied. This stateof things naturally disposes to emigration, and is the principal reason whythe Swiss have been so much engaged in foreign service.' (T. R. Malthus,An essay on the principle of population, Reprint of the 7th edition of 1872,London 1973, 211). In the meantime the debate has been developedfurther. But the question remains: was the fact that Swiss men were oftenengaged in foreign service an answer to over-population or was it anormal way to earn one's living?In Bevolkerungsgeschichte der Schweiz Markus Mattmuller shows thatforeign service was of greater significance at certain times than at others.When the economic situation was 'normal', an insufficient number ofpersons left Switzerland to influence the demographic system in a relevantway. However, in times of economic distress, emigration could help toreduce the size of the surplus population by offering an alternative living.Foreign services reduced mortality at times of crisis, since the poor had theopportunity to emigrate. However, the knowledge of this opportunity didnot have any evident influence on fertility. Although migration studiespresent Switzerland as a highly populated country with limited foodresources, Mattmuller rejects the assumption that emigration was requiredas a permanent solution to demographic difficulties.The ' foreign service debate' is just one example from a large number ofsubjects which are discussed in this long-expected book on the earlymodern demographic history of Switzerland. The author's main objective,however, is the discussion of the basic conditions of demographic growthin this country and of factors impeding it, such as plague, famine andemigration. By means of constant dialogue between theory and data anempirically supported model of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centurySwiss demographic system is developed.The starting point is the community of Lausen in the canton of Basel,which is used to discuss some of the basic sources and concepts ofhistorical demography. The results are discussed in terms of the model ofdemographic development, developed by R. Schofield (R. Schofield,' Therelationship between demographic structure and environment in pre-114https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416000001247Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 11:37:03, subject to theBOOK REVIEWSindustrial Western Europe', in W. Conze (ed.), Sozialgeschichte derFamilie in der Neuzeit Europas (Stuttgart, 1976), 147-60. Fertility,nuptiality, migration and mortality are set in the context of economicenvironment, inheritance customs, production and income. Mattmullerargues, like G. Mackenroth, that every region has its characteristicdemographic system (G. Mackenroth, Bevolkerungslehre, Theorie, Sozi-ologie und Statistik der Bevolkerung (Berlin/Gottingen/Heidelberg, 1953).Taking Lausen as an example one can already see that real income wascritical for demographic growth. In addition to Lausen, most areas ofSwitzerland are included in the investigation apart from those regions stillunresearched by historical demographers, for instance the BerneseOberland, some regions between Bern and Geneva and parts of the Alps.Mattmuller is able to identify very different patterns of population growthin agrarian than in pastoral regions with the former experiencing thefastest growth. Among his more general findings are also that in earlymodern times high nuptiality and fertility were characteristic features ofthe Swiss demographic system. In the sixteenth century plague maintainedthe balance between population size and the means of subsistence. Atendency towards population growth in excess of the ' economic ceiling'was answered either by an increase in mortality and emigration or by areduction in fertility and nuptiality (p. 427).With the cessation of the plague in the first half of the seventeenthcentury, death rates fell by about 10 per thousand. Almost immediatelybirth rates fell to a similar extent and total population size remainedrelatively stable. This immediate adjustment of the demographic system isconsidered by Mattmuller as a first demographic transition. The difficultyof feeding a large population in the seventeenth century demanded animmediate adaptation of the system since there was no possibility as yetof lifting the economic ceiling. Only in the eighteenth century with theimprovement of agriculture and a large extension of domestic industrywould this be possible. People were able, it is argued, to lower fertilitybecause they had ' learnt' from their experience between successive plagueepidemics:' The population had acquired a natural feeling of the fact thatonly in times of recuperation were early marriage and uncontrolledfertility allowed. The situation after the definitive disappearance of theplague simply allowed couples to generalize a behaviour, which had beenpractised before in the short periods after recuperation and before a newplague wave' (p. 399). However, with this first demographic transition nostable balance between population size and means of subsistence wasachieved. The system remained vulnerable, as was dramatically demon-strated in the crisis of the 1690s. The fact that the disappearance of theplague did not involve a return to the intensive population growth of the115https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416000001247Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 11:37:03, subject to theBOOK REVIEWSsixteenth century is emphasized. Previously it had been assumed thatmodern population growth started in Switzerland with the end of theplague, a theory closely associated with W. Bickel, pioneer of Swisspopulation history (W. Bickel, Bevolkerungsgeschichte und Bevolkerung-spolitik der Schweiz seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, Zurich, 1947).Considering the whole of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, theSwiss demographic system is defined by Mattmuller as one characterizedby economic shortage. He adopts a further Malthusian perspective whenhe concludes that mortality and emigration were more critical for thebalance between population size and economic resources than the'preventive checks'. Here the argument becomes part of the internationaldiscussion about fertility-dominated versus mortality-dominated popu-lation systems. Unfortunately, there is no mention of this debate in thebook and the opportunity to view these new findings in a Europeancontext is lost.The book ends with a successful attempt to link historical demographywith the history of society. In a few pages the results of the asymmetricpopulation development of the midlands and alpine regions are discussedin relation to their political and social structure and the development ofSwitzerland. Admittedly, such a view must remain speculative and subjectto qualification. However, it offers a refreshing and very useful contrast tothe sometimes dry and technical demographic parts of the volume.The results presented in volume I and the scientific appendix whichconstitutes volume II are both impressive. The author is successful incorrecting the traditionally harmonized picture of Swiss history. Hismethod of estimating population sizes by working backwards from 1700to 1500 relying on regional and local studies leads to substantially lowerbut more reliable figures than W. Bickel produced 40 years ago. WhileBickel relied on overall figures of population size from census-type data,Mattmiiller has improved on the work of Bickel by the use of vitalstatistics derived in part from family reconstitution. It remains to be seenwhether he will be equally successful with this approach in connectionwith the proposed second part of the population history of Switzerlandcovering the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this period moredetailed demographic source material will allow the application ofsophisticated quantitative methods like generalized inverse projection (anew version of Back Projection) to analyse typical specifications of Swissdemographic system.A. BALTHASARUniversity of Berne, Switzerland116https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416000001247Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 11:37:03, subject to the

Book Review: Bevölkerungsgeschihte der Schweiz. Teil I: Die frühe Neuzeit 1500-1700: MattmüllerMarkus with contributions by KurmanFridolin and SchluchterAndré, Bevölkerungsgeschihte der Schweiz. Teil I: Die frühe Neuzeit 1500-1700, 2 vols., Balser Beiträge zur Geschichtswissenschaft, 154 and 154a. (Basel and Frankfurt am Main: Helbling & Linchterhahn, 1987.) Pages 735. SFr 88, DM 106

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