Nuptiality and Rural Industry: Families and Labor in the French Countryside

This essay examines the impact of rural industry on nuptiality from several perspectives. First, aggregate data on marriage behavior during the sec ond half of the eighteenth century are considered for one of the major proto- industrial regions of France, the departments along the northern border. No clear relationship is found between nuptiality and the presence of rural industry. The essay then examines the composition of the proto-industrial labor force in the department of the Loire during the nineteenth century and suggests some clarifi cations of this relationship. Two different models of proto-industrial family economy emerge. It is the combination of these two kinds of family economy in the same area that produced the ambiguous results found in the aggregate data. Thus, while in some parts of Europe proto-industrialization may have influenced age at marriage and proportions ever-marrying, this was by no means a universal effect. The household context of proto-industry played a major role in determin ing its impact on nuptiality.