90 Malthusianism and the 



Attention must be called, firstly , to the great fall in the 

 marriage-rate in the first decade from 7-6 to 6-5, and 

 then to 6-o in the last ; secondly, to the apparent retard- 

 ation in the general prosperity of the country after the 

 first decade, as shown by the lower decennial actual in- 

 creases from 12-4 per cent to 7 per cent, on to 4-8 per cent 

 in 1884-93. As the labour market is always satisfied 

 whatever the rate of emigration may be, the numerical 

 increase obviously shows forth the commercial pros- 

 perity of a country ; thirdly, to the fact that, although 

 the labour market was calling for constantly diminish- 

 ing numbers, the natural increase did not tend to fall, 

 e.g. in decade 1884-93 the labour market only required 

 an increase of 4-8 per cent, the natural increase 

 amounted to 12 -i per cent. Thus we see that the birth- 

 rate made provision both for the labour and emigration 

 demand ; fourthly, to the rise of Swedish emigration 

 from the almost immaterial amount of 27,000 for the 

 decade 1854-63, till it reached 332,000 for the same 

 period, 1884 — 93, equivalent to 7-3 per cent of the 

 population. 



The decade 1854-63 was one that seemed to be of 

 unexampled prosperity, due to an inflated industrial 

 and commercial activity, fostered to a great extent by 

 the contemporaneous introduction of railways into the 

 country. Emigration during this decade was of the 

 slightest. In the three that followed the aggregate 

 excess of emigration over immigration was equal to 

 47 per cent of the natural increase, and amounted to 

 730,000 persons. This large number of emigrants left 

 their several posts to be filled by younger men, who, 

 then being able to marry, brought about such an increase 

 in the number of births to replace the numbers who 

 had departed. In the last decade of the table the emi- 

 gration movement suffers a very severe check, the bulk 

 of the natural increase being retained for the home 



