Community Characteristics and Demographic Development: Three Württemberg Communities, 1558-1914 * Sheilagh Ogilvie, Markus Küpker, and Janine Maegraith Faculty of Economics University of Cambridge * Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Roland Deigendesch, Timothy Guinnane, and Daniel Kirn for their stimulating comments on an earlier version of this paper, but absolve them from responsibility for any errors that might remain. We also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Leverhulme Trust (Research Grant F/09 722/A) and the Economic and Social Science Research Council (RES-062-23-0759). Abstract Demographic behaviour is influenced not just by attributes of individuals but also by characteristics of the communities in which those individuals live. A project on ‘Economy, Gender, and Social Capital in the German Demographic Transition’ is analyzing the long- term determinants of fertility by carrying out family reconstitutions of three Württemberg communities (Auingen, Ebhausen, and Wildberg) between c. 1558 and 1914. A related project on ‘Human Well-Being and the “Industrious Revolution”: Consumption, Gender and Social Capital in a German Developing Economy, 1600-1900’ is using marriage and death inventories to investigate how consumption interacted with production and demographic behaviour in two of these communities. This paper examines the historical, political, institutional, geographical, and economic attributes of the communities analyzed in these projects and discusses their potential effects. The aim is to generate testable hypotheses and relevant independent variables for subsequent econometric analyses of demographic behaviour. JEL Classifications: N0; N33; N43; N53; N63; N73; N93; J1; J13; O13; O15 Keywords: economic history; demography; fertility; gender; social capital; institutions; politics; geography; occupational structure; Germany Table of Contents List of Maps i List of Tables ii List of Figures iii List of Abbreviations iv Coinage, Weights, and Measures v 1. Introduction 1 2. Location, Size, and Aggregate Population 3 3. History, Politics, and War 12 3.1. Medieval Origins 12 3.2. The Long Sixteenth Century (c. 1500 – 1618) 19 3.3. The Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648) 25 3.4. The Long Eighteenth Century (1648 – 1789) 33 3.5. The Long Nineteenth Century (1789 – 1914) 38 4. Social Institutions 48 4.1. State Institutions 48 4.2. Community Institutions 55 4.3. Guilds and Merchant Associations 72 4.4. Religious Institutions 83 4.4.1. Confessional Affiliation 83 4.4.2. Church Administration and Jurisdiction 87 4.4.3. Pietism 95 4.5. Educational Institutions 102 4.6. Welfare Institutions 114 5. Natural Endowments and Infrastructure 124 5.1. Location and Altitude 125 5.2. Geology and Soil 127 5.3. Weather and Climate 130 5.4. Water Sources 132 5.5. Roads 144 5.6. Railways 147 5.7. Post, Telegraph, Telephone, and Newspapers 152 6. Occupational Structure 155 6.1. Cross-Sectional Analysis 156 6.2. Longitudinal Analysis 160 7. Agriculture 174 7.1. Natural Endowments for Agriculture 177 7.2. Technological Challenges for Agriculture 184 7.3. Efforts to Improve Agriculture by Educated Reformers 189 7.4. Institutional Preconditions for Agricultural Development 193 7.4.1. Manorial Restrictions 194 7.4.2. Communal Regulation of Arable Cultivation 196 7.4.3. Communal Regulation of Pastoral Production 205 7.5. Potential Effects of Agriculture on Demographic Behaviour 208 8. Industry 211 8.1. Wool Textiles: Woollens and Worsteds 212 8.2. Linen Textiles 224 8.3. Centralized Industry: Manufactories and Factories 228 9. Conclusion 242 Bibliography 245 Appendix: Timeline of Historical Events and Developments 258 List of Maps 1. Eighteenth-Century Württemberg Showing Locations of Wildberg, Ebhausen, Münsingen, and Auingen 4 2. Württemberg 1810-1945 6 3. The District of Wildberg in the Eighteenth Century 56 4. The District of Nagold in the Nineteenth Century 58 5. The District of Münsingen in the Nineteenth Century 59 6. The Swabian Jura Water Supply (Albwasserversorgung), 1871 – 1881 142 7. The Württemberg Railway Network before 1867 147 8. The Nagold Valley Railway (Nagoldtalbahn) 149 9. The ‘Altensteigerle’ Narrow-Gauge Railway through Ebhausen 151 10. The Münsinger Hart in the Present Day 182 11. The Area of the Calwer Moderation, 1650 – 1797 217 i List of Tables 1. Population of Württemberg, Austria, Prussia, Stuttgart, and the Three Communities, Selected Years, c. 1200-c. 1918 8 2. Children Attending School in the Town of Wildberg, by Sex, 1676-1802 107 3. Children Attending School in the Village of Ebhausen, by Sex, 1601-1802 109 4. Children Attending School in the Villages of the District of Wildberg, by Sex, 1601-1802 110 5. Ability to Sign Name, by Sex, in Wildberg and Various Other Württemberg Communities, 1690-1840 112 6. Dependence on Different Economic Activities, District of Wildberg, 1736 157 7. Development of Occupational Recording in Parish Registers, Wildberg, Ebhausen, and Auingen, 1558-1914 161 8. Full-Time Farmer (Bauer) as an Occupational Designation, Wildberg, Ebhausen, and Auingen, 1670-1914 163 9. Day-Labourer (Tagelöhner) as an Occupational Designation, Wildberg, Ebhausen, and Auingen, 1670-1914 166 10. Worsted-Weaver (Zeugmacher) as an Occupational Designation, Wildberg, Ebhausen, and Auingen, 1670-1914 171 11. Linen-Weaver (Leineweber) as an Occupational Designation, Wildberg, Ebhausen, and Auingen, 1670-1914 173 12. Share of the Labour Force in Agriculture, Württemberg and Other European Countries, 1750-1910 176 13. Yield Ratios in Württemberg and Other European Countries, 1500-1840 188 ii List of Figures 1. Total Population in Wildberg, Ebhausen, and Auingen, c. 1580-c. 1920 10 2. Burials in Wildberg, Ebhausen, and Auingen, 1680-1715 35 3. The Vicious Cycle of Agriculture and the Challenges of Reform in Nineteenth-Century Württemberg 185 4. Total Worsted-Weavers in Wildberg, Ebhausen, and the Whole District, 1590-1862 216 5. Male Worsted-Weavers in Wildberg, Ebhausen, and the Whole District, 1640-1850 220 6. Female Worsted-Weavers in Wildberg, Ebhausen, and the Whole District, 1640-1760 221 iii List of Abbreviations Archives: HStAS Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart (Central State Archive Stuttgart) LKA Landeskirchliches Archiv Stuttgart (State Church Archive Stuttgart) PAA Pfarrarchiv Auingen (Parish Archive Auingen) PAE Pfarrarchiv Ebhausen (Parish Archive Ebhausen) PAW Pfarrarchiv Wildberg (Parish Archive Wildberg) Sources: KKP Kirchenkonventsprotokolle (community church court minutes) Archival file designations: Bü. Büschel (archive parcel) Bd Band (volume) fol. folio (folio) r recto (front side of sheet) v verso (reverse side of sheet) Zettel Zettel (loose piece of paper) Document transcription conventions: ins. followed by word(s) enclosed in square brackets = these words were inserted after original text was written (usually above the line or in the page-margin) gstr. followed by word(s) enclosed in square brackets = these words are crossed out in document iv Coinage, Weights, and Measures Coinage 1 Taler (Rtl.) = 1.5 Gulden 1 Gulden (fl.) = 60 Kreuzer 1 Batzen = 4 Kreuzer 1 Kreuzer (kr., x) = 3 Pfennig = 6 Heller 1 Pfennig (pf.) = 2 Heller (h.) 1 Pfundheller (lbhlr.) = 20 Schilling (sch.) = 43 Kreuzer Weights 1 Pfund (lb.) = 467.59 gram = 0.97 pounds 1 Centner (C.) = 100 Pfund Cubic measure (grain) 1 Scheffel (schf.) = 8 Simri = 177.2 litres 1 Simri (sri.) = 22.15 litres Area measure (land) 1 Morgen = 0.32 hectare = 0.78 acre v 1. Introduction Demographic behaviour is influenced not just by human biology and attributes of individual persons, such as wealth and occupation, but also by characteristics of local communities – factors specific to the particular village or town in which people are living. Such community characteristics work in two ways. First, there are exogenous features – natural endowments of the locality and events that strike it from the outside, without its inhabitants having any significant capacity to affect these features. Second, there are endogenous characteristics – features of the locality arising from, or significantly shaped by, collective decisions reached by the community or its decision-makers. The exogenous influences seem at first sight to be straightforward. Different localities experience different historical events – for example, territorial annexation, military invasion, revolution, or fire. Alternatively, different localities experience the same event, but at different times – thus ultimately all communities may get clean drinking-water, good roads, agrarian reforms, or railway links, but they get them decades or even generations apart. Endogenous community influences work through collective decisions or shared norms of the inhabitants. Thus a community may hold particular norms – or embrace particular decisions – about religion, education, women’s status, child labour, poor relief, extra-marital sexuality, or permission to marry. Such norms can be self-sustaining and will influence demographic decisions both directly (through mandating marriage age or family size) and indirectly (through altering the costs or benefits of fertility). Even apparently exogenous influences may turn out to be partly endogenous, when a community decides collectively on whether to resist invaders, set up fire brigades, organize revolts, reform agrarian institutions, or pay for connection to infrastructure. This paper examines those community characteristics with a potential to affect demographic decisions for three German communities – a small town and two villages – between