Positive Or Preventive? Ences Between Reproduction in Low Pressure and High Pressure Demographic Y I N G - C H a , Regimes

Life at the Extremes 2 Omslag 16-05-2006 15:45 Pagina 1 C P o This book adresses an important issue in historical demography—the differ- h s u i Positive or preventive? a t i ences between reproduction in low pressure and high pressure demographic n v g e Y regimes. The existence of such differences was first noted in 1789 by Thomas o r i n p Reproduction in Taiwan g r Malthus when he contrasted the low pressure European regimes with the high - C e v h e a pressure regimes found in “the less civilized parts of the world,” most notably n n t g i and the Netherlands, v , China and Japan. This contrast, long taken as fundamental by historical demog- e T ? h raphers, has recently been challenged by authors who argue that it should be dis- e o E 1850-1940 carded as “Malthusian mythology.” The papers included here evaluate the n g e l received and revisionist views by comparing reproduction in a high pressure e n Chuang Ying-Chang, regime – Taiwan during the Japanese occupation – and a low pressure regime – & A r the Netherlands in the years 1830-1920. The papers examine the impact of t h u Theo Engelen & infant mortality, social class, ethnic identity, illegitimacy, form of marriage, and r P . W rural vs. urban settings. “Reality or mythology?” that is the question. o l Arthur P. Wolf (eds.) f ( e d s Positive or Preventive? is the second volume in the series Life at the Extremes: The . ) Demography of Europe and China, edited by Chuang Ying-chang (Academia Sinica, Taiwan), Theo Engelen (Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands), Life at the Extremes Volume 11 and Arthur P. Wolf (Stanford University, u.s.a.). LatE 2 Distribution in North America by Transaction Publishers. Positive or preventive? Reproduction in Taiwan and the Netherlands, 1850-1940 This publication has been made possible with the financial support of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (nwo). Part of the research for this volume is financed with research grants of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (nwo), the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation (Taiwan) and the National Science Council of Taiwan. This volume is the second in the series Life at the Extremes. The demography of Europe and China (LatE) edited by Chuang Ying-Chang (Academia Sinica, Taiwan), Theo Engelen (Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands) and Arthur P. Wolf (Stanford University, U.S.A.). Previously published: LatE 1: Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf (eds.), Marriage and the family in Eurasia. Perspectives on the Hajnal hypothesis (Amsterdam: Aksant, 2005) isbn 90 5260 213 1 © 2006, the editors & authors/Aksant Academic Publishers All rights reserved including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prioir permission from the copyright owner. Book Design: MulderVanMeurs, Amsterdam Printed in the Netherlands by A-D Druk BV, Zeist Aksant Academic Publishers Cruquiusweg 31 nl-1019 at Amsterdam www.aksant.nl Positive or preventive? Reproduction in Taiwan and the Netherlands, 1850-1940 Chuang Ying-Chang, Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf (eds.) Aksant Amsterdam, 2006 Contents 7 1 Introduction: Malthusian realities Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf 19 2 Quantifying the colonized The history and significance of demographic sources from colonial Taiwan Paul R. Katz & Chiu Cheng-lueh 41 3 Sources for the historical demography of the Netherlands in the 19th and early 20th centuries Jan Kok 53 4 Two ethnographies of reproduction Hill Gates & Marloes Schoonheim 81 5 Burden or opportunity? Illegitimate births in the Netherlands and Taiwan Hill Gates, Jan Kok & Sping Wang 107 6 Fertility four ways Dutch urban and rural and Taiwanese urban and rural Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf 121 7 Group identity and fertility: An evaluation of the role of religion and ethnicity in the Netherlands and Taiwan John Shepherd, Pan Inghai, Jan Kok, Claudia Engel, Theo Engelen & Melissa Brown 163 8 Fertility and infant and early childhood mortality: Some lessons on stopping behavior from Taiwanese and Dutch cases John R. Shepherd, Jan Kok & Hsieh Ying-hui 199 9 Marital fertility and birth control in rural Netherlands and Taiwan, 19th and early 20th centuries Jan Kok, Yang Wen-shan & Hsieh Ying-hui 237 10 Malthus on China: A brief for the received view Arthur P. Wolf & Theo Engelen 263 Bibliography 1 7 Introduction: Malthusian realities Theo Engelen & Arthur P. Wolf 8 Writers willing to risk global comparisons have long expressed interest in the differences between European and Chinese fertility. In eighteenth century they include Adam Smith, François Quesnay, and Thomas Malthus; in the nine- teenth, Adolphe Quetelet; and in the twentieth R. H. Tawney, Thomas Mallory, Warren Thompson, and, most recently, Kenneth Pomeranz, James Lee, Cameron Campbell, and Wang Feng. But despite three centuries of interest and a great deal of speculation, quantitative comparisons are rare and the differences between European and Chinese fertility remain ill-defined and subject to incon- clusive controversy. The papers included in this volume are the first fruits of an effort to repair this situation. The strategy is to begin with two localities that have excellent data. These are Taiwan and the Netherlands where highly reliable household registers allow one to construct accurate and highly contextualized fertility rates. Euro- peanists are certain to object that the Netherlands does not represent all of Europe. They will be right. And sinologists are certain to object that Taiwan does not represent all of China. And they will also be right. But what both parties will have failed to consider is that when the known ranges of Chinese and European marriage and fertility rates are compared there is no overlap. The societies of Europe and the provinces of China are all separate entities, but the distance between them is not significant compared to the distance between Europe and China. For most purposes it does not matter if one compares England and Kiangsu, France and Kwangtung, or the Netherlands and Taiwan. The point is implicit in John Hajnal’s distinction between what he called “the European marriage pattern” and the “non-European marriage pattern.”1 In the small corner of the world that includes the Netherlands, women did not marry until ten or more years after menarche and many did not marry at all; in the rest of the world, including most conspicuously China, they married at and some- times even before menarche and all but an exceptional few married. Hajnal recognized that “significant departures from the European pattern may be found not only as one proceeds eastward but on the southern edge of Europe as well.”2 And he also recognized that non-European societies may show “wide variation in the pattern of their rates.” He nonetheless insisted – rightly in our view – that “all the varieties that exist are separated by a distinct gap from the European.”3 The first volume in this series lays the foundation for this and subsequent volumes with a detailed examination of Hajnal’s generalization and the research it has stimulated. This volume, the second in the series, takes the obvious next step by examining the extent to which the difference identified by Hajnal is asso- 1. Hajnal, “European marriages patterns in perspective”. 2. Ibid., 103. 3. Ibid., 106. ciated with a difference in fertility. Readers who are familiar with recent research 9 in comparative history will recognize that the timing is fortunate. The past decade has seen the publication of a series of books and articles arguing that the differences between Europe and China have been greatly exaggerated.4 Hajnal himself escapes the revisionists’ ire because no one can dispute the difference in European and Chinese marriage rates. The target instead is Malthus who argued that the difference in the marriage rates resulted in a difference in fertility and consequently a difference in population pressure and general well-being. All of the papers in this volume are relevant to the debate generated by this claim and most address it directly. The first two papers in the volume, by Paul Katz and Jan Kok, introduce the reader to the sources that are the basis of the subsequent papers and the proj- ect as a whole. They will be invaluable for anyone who is so inspired by our work – or so incensed – that they want to undertake research of their own in Taiwan or the Netherlands. We also intend them as justification of our strategy of initiating detailed comparisons of China and Europe with Taiwan and the Netherlands. The two papers demonstrate the quality of the data available in the two countries as well as provide guidance for those who would like to pursue the questions raised on their own. The argumentative section of the volume opens with a paper by Hill Gates and Marloes Schoonheim entitled “Two ethnographies of reproduction.” The paper compares customs and attitudes in Taiwan and the Netherlands and is therefore “ethnographic,” but it does not treat the facts presented as showcase curiosities. They are all organized as the basis for a comparison with a strong thesis. The thesis flows from a premise that is, surprisingly, foreign to most demographic analyses. It is what Gates and Schoonheim take to be “a fundamental human commonality – pregnancy, lactation, and child care are exhaust- ing.” The result is that “in high fertility societies, women, at least, will endlessly reinvent antinatalism.” Gates and Schoonheim find evidence for this antinatalism in both individual and global phenomena. At the individual level they cite examples of Chi- nese women using their financial contribution to their family to negotiate reduced fertility.

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