Socio-economic determinants of marital fertility in two eighteenth-century dutch villages

Several studies have found evidence for the practice of contraception before the fertility transition in Europe. Little, however, is known about the motives behind the practice of contraception during this period. Findings from an analysis of birth intervals in the two neighbouring Dutch agricultural villages of Gilze and Rijen in the second half of the eighteenth century suggest the use of deliberate birth spacing which was related to economic factors.