282 THE EEGULATION OF NUMBEKS 



serve out their time, but before they are 18 or 20 years old betake 

 themselves to marriage.' ^ 



Eubin, whose conclusions regarding the age at marriage in 

 the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries have already 

 been quoted, sums up the position in these words : ' The domestic 

 servant class then, as now, was unmarried, but that class was 

 much more numerous than at present. Subordinates in the 

 industrial class and in handicrafts were not, as in our own time, 

 free and independent, but lived for the most part in the houses 

 of their masters, and, at any rate, were accustomed to wait until 

 they became masters before marrying ; the chances of attaining 

 the position of master were greater than now. The same rule 

 applied to other journeymen in various employments, whether in 

 town or country.' - 



Thus in the town as well as on the land the pressure was at 

 work. The result was twofold. Marriage was made difficult, and 

 many sought refuge in lifelong celibacy in religious institutions. 

 Again, a standard of skill was insisted upon which tended to 

 ensure that young husbands would be able to support a family 

 as well as ensuring that they would not have a family at all 

 until there was a place for them. And it must be assumed 

 that the number of families felt to be desirable was somewhere 

 about that which given all circumstances produces the maximum 

 benefit from co-operation. It may also be observed that we can 

 in evidence of the above kind detect the recognition of a standard 

 of living — the essential feature in any community in which an 

 approach to the desirable number is to be attained. For this 

 standard of living is only the income per head which, given all 

 the circumstances, is the highest within reach. 



10. Eegulations prohibiting the marriage of the poor were not 

 uncommon in this period. ' In Bavaria . . . the regulations of the 

 Government and the Police Ordinances of 161 6 forbade the marriage 

 of servants, day labourers, and others without property, and the 

 punishments by which those were threatened by the legislation of 

 1751 who, without the permission of the superior authorities, 

 entered into wedlock, and were afterwards unable to support 

 themselves without begging or the like, extended to corporal 

 chastisement and the Hke.' ^ The Poor Law Commission of 1834 



> Tawney, Agrarian Problem, p. 105, note. ^ Rubin, loc. cit., p. 598. 



* Rubin, loc. cit., p. 597. 



