Legal History
Legal Records Inform Economic Thesis
A researcher analyzed medieval wills and learned that the rich had more surviving children than the poor.
“The modern population of the English is largely descended from the economic upper classes of the Middle Ages,” concludes economic historian Gregory Clark. These children inherited not only money, but also different skills and dispositions—middle-class values, if you will. The change paved the way for the Industrial Revolution, he says.
The New York Times reports on Clark’s controversial conclusions and his upcoming book, A Farewell to Alms. Clark concludes that society became affluent after its surviving members adopted values of nonviolence, education, hard work and a willingness to save.
