Going round in circles: Some new evidence for population in the later middle ages

The Myntling Register contains some little known and, in some respects, highly unusual demographic evidence relating to the period from around the later fourteenth century up to the 1970s and to the wealthy Lincolnshire Priory of Spalding. It is in the form of hundreds of ‘family trees’ relating to the villein families of the priory's major manors. It has evidence of interest to economic historians of medieval England on several fronts, the three of which dealt with here are proportions of males to females, percentages of females marrying, and most particularly numbers of surviving children per family. This evidence, whilst by no means perfect, is of a much more direct kind than that often used in attempts to calculate later medieval population. As such it has a contribution to make to the very vexed question of later medieval demography.     

Reviews of books

Historical Archaeology -     

Reviews

THE GLASS CURTAIN BETWEEN ASIA AND EUROPE. Raghavan Iyer (ed.). London, Oxford University Press, 1965. Pp. 356. Australian price 64/6d.

NEO‐COLONIALISM: THE LAST STAGE OF IMPERIALISM. Kwame Nkrumah. London, Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1965. Pp. xx + 280. Australian price 66/‐.

THE ELEPHANTS AND THE GRASS. Cecil V. Crabb. New York, Frederick A. Praeger, 1965. Pp. xiii + 237. Australian price 62/‐.

CHINA AND THE BOMB. Morton Halperin. London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. 166, $5.10.

ON ESCALATION: METAPHORS AND SCENARIOS. Herman Kahn. London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. 308. $6.60.

NUCLEAR DISPERSAL IN ASIA AND THE INDO‐PACIFIC REGION. A. L. Burns, Nina Heathcote and G. P. King. Canberra, The Australian institute of International Affairs and The Australian National University, 1965. Pp. ii + 101. $1.50 Australian.

THE SECURITY OF SOUTHERN ASIA. D. E. Kennedy. For The Institute for Strategic Studies. London, Chatto and Windus, 1965. Pp. xi + 101. $5.80 Australian.

ISLAM IN THE MODERN NATIONAL STATE. E. I. J. Rosenthal. London. Cambridge University Press, 1965. Pp. xxi + 416. 55/‐ stg.

ISLAM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. J. Horris Proctor (ed.). London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. viii + 221. $7 Australian.

LIVING WITH ASIA. J. F. Cairns. Melbourne, Lansdowne Press, 1965. Pp. 179. $2.50 Australian.

BARBARIAN BEDS. THE ORIGIN OF THE CHAIR IN CHINA. C. P. Fiiz‐Gerald. Canberra, The Australian National University; London, The Cresset Press, 1965. Pp. xvii + 85. Australian price £5/5/‐.

THE CHINESE MODEL. Werner Klatt (ed.). Hong Kong University Press, 1965. Pp. xix + 233. Australian price 34/6d.

CHINESE COMMUNIST EDUCATION. RECORDS OF THE FIRST DECADE. Stewart Fraser (ed.). Nashville, Vanderbilt University Press, 1965. Pp. xvi + 542. U.S. $10.

THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN. Herbert Passin (ed.). For the American Assembly, Columbia University. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1966. Pp. ix + 169. $U.S. 3.95.

DEMOCRACY IN PAKISTAN. G. W. Choudhury. Vancouver, University of British Columbia, 1964. Pp. xix + 309. $6.00 Canadian.

THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. J. S. Dickey (ed.). New York, The American Assembly, Columbia University, 1964. Pp. 184. $U.S. 3.95.