Plague and the Amsterdam annuitant: A new look at life annuities as a source for historical demography

Abstract

A great deal of information about mortality can be found in the records of life annuities which were sold by governments in early modern Europe. Analysis of life annuities sold in Amsterdam in 1586–1590 and 1672–1674 shows the age-specific patterns and fluctuations in the level of mortality among an urban bourgeoisie at the beginning and end of the seventeenth century. Expectation of life at birth was approximately 25 years during the earlier period and rose to about 30 years at the end of the eighteenth century. Two major epidemics of plague stand out clearly when the records of annuitants entering the scheme between 1586 and 1590 are analysed by period. An examination of mortality in plague-free years indicates that plague reduced expectation of life at birth in early seventeenth-century Europe by about four years. Thus, most of the improvement in mortality found for the end of the century can be attributed to the absence of plague.

This paper has benefited from the helpful comments of James C. Riley, Ann Carmichael, and Stanley Engerman.

This paper has benefited from the helpful comments of James C. Riley, Ann Carmichael, and Stanley Engerman.

Notes

This paper has benefited from the helpful comments of James C. Riley, Ann Carmichael, and Stanley Engerman.