It is commonly believed that England before the nineteenth century was a natural (i.e. uncontrolled) fertility society. The empirical analysis presented in this paper contests this view. We use duration models on a well-known historicaldataset of more than 15,000 families and 60,000 births to show that the sampled families adjusted the timing of their births in accordance with the prevalent economic conditions and with their stock of dependent children. The effects were larger among the lower socioeconomic ranks. Robust to a variety of specifications, our findings call for a re-interpretation of the demographic behaviour in historical England.  

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