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.<<popula[w84,jmc]		Notes on population control>>
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.cb Notes on traditional population control

.<<Most of these ideas are probably in some other file, but I can't find>>
.<<it now.>>

	The %2Scientific American%1 special issue on population
heads the first article with the remark that population was stabilized
in the past by a balance between birth rate and death rate.  The
remark is unsupported and unquestioned in any of the articles,
and seems to be taken as a truism.  My opinion is that it is
false.  Population has often, perhaps usually, been stabilized
by various kinds of birth control, though not of the kind presently
recognized.

	The main traditional form of birth control is restriction
on who can form a family.  To form a family, i.e. to marry and
have children that have some chance of surviving, requires the
occupancy of a slot in society that permits this.  In traditional
societies such slots are limited and are usually inherited.  All
occupiable land is property, and the property owners prevent its
unauthorized use.

	Here is some favorable evidence.

.item←0
	#. A major theme of folk literature and even of novels is
obtaining a place in society, e.g. making one's fortune, that 
permits marriage.  Notice that this theme covers all levels of
society.  Even the youngest son of a king has such a problem
in some stories.  For every spinster daughter there would have
to be someone's bachelor son.

	#. Traditional societies had many positions that did not
permit marriage.  These included religious orders, many soldiers,
many sailors, many lower rank domestic servants.

	#. "Masterless men" were recognized as a menace.  There
was no place they could go without being regarded as illegal.

	#. The large increase in English population occurred before
significant medical advances.  They co-incided, however, with the
creation of a labor market.  One key fact about the labor market
in manufacturing was that anyone could enter, and the main entrants
were young farm people who had no place permitting marriage at
home.  The conditions of life in primitive factories were often 
worse than on the farm, but they did permit marriage.
The second key fact is that once capitalism got started, there
was no institutional limitation on the number of firms and their
numbers of employees.  The practical limit was the market and
secondarily the required natural resources.

	This theory suggests a number of predictions that might
be confirmed or refuted.

.item←0
	#. The population of a region of a country that has had
a stable population for even many generations will not be closely
related to the natural resource limits of what the region might
support.  Instead it will be related to the property relations.
A feudal landlord may keep most of his property unfarmed if he
has enough income to meet his needs.  A corresponding piece of
land may belong to several lords each of which requires the
standard number of retainers.

	#. Changes in the population of regions will often follow
political and military events that change the number of rulers
who share a piece of land.

	#. Birth and death records will show a bimodal distribution
of numbers of children born per woman and perhaps an even more
bimodal distribution in the number of children reaching maturity.
Many woman will have no children and not even marry.  Others will
have children none of which survive.  Still others will have
a large number of children.  There may be a lower than expected
number of women with two surviving children.