Plague and the Amsterdam annuitant
A new look at life annuities as a source for historical demography
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4267352 |
|---|---|
| Authors | George Alter (0000-0003-3823-4972, Indiana University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 23-41 |
| Publication date | 1983-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Population Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-4728 • E-ISSN: 1477-4747 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00324728.1983.10405922 |
| PMID | 11630871 |
| OpenAlex | W2091214102 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 8 |
A great deal of information about mortality can be found in the records of life annuities which were sold by governments in early modern Europe. Analysis of life annuities sold in Amsterdam in 1586–1590 and 1672–1674 shows the age-specific patterns and fluctuations in the level of mortality among an urban bourgeoisie at the beginning and end of the seventeenth century. Expectation of life at birth was approximately 25 years during the earlier period and rose to about 30 years at the end of the eighteenth century. Two major epidemics of plague stand out clearly when the records of annuitants entering the scheme between 1586 and 1590 are analysed by period. An examination of mortality in plague-free years indicates that plague reduced expectation of life at birth in early seventeenth-century Europe by about four years. Thus, most of the improvement in mortality found for the end of the century can be attributed to the absence of plague
Ancient history · Art · Bourgeoisie · Developed country · Economic history · Genealogy · Geography · Historical demography · Life annuity · Period (music) · Plague (disease) · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Demography · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
Mortality in early modern Scotland
Childhood conditions, migration, and mortality
Fertility in Historical Demography and a Homeostatic Method for Reconstituting Populations in Pre-Statistical Periods
Life expectancy of artists in the Low Countries from the fifteenth to the twentieth century
Was Plague an Exclusively Urban Phenomenon? Plague Mortality in the Seventeenth-Century Low Countries
Estimating Mortality from Annuities, Insurance, and Other Life Contingent Contracts
Anciennes familles genevoises. Etude démographique
A demographic study of the British ducal families
Plague mortality rates by age and sex in the parish of St. Botolph's without Bishopsgate, London, 1603
L'inégalité sociale devant la mort a Genève au XVIIe siècle
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,15 |
| Citation span | 1992 - 2016 (25) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |