In this paper, we set out to explore trends in mobility levels in six smaller towns in the Low Countries during the late Middle Ages and early modern period. We use pairs of tax lists to divide the population into quintiles and draw up mobility tables. We estimate mobility as the proportion of people moving into a different quintile. We did not find a long-term trend in mobility levels. Mobility levels did fluctuate in the towns we investigate, but we did not find any relation to trends in or levels of population or inequality. Our results suggest that preindustrial urban societies remained fairly rigid. Many people remained either in the top or bottom half of the distribution. It seems particularly people at the top managed to stay at the top.
Free University of Brussels, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0001-6582-6418
VUB, Free University of Brussels, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0003-0269-4950
Chapter Title
Income and wealth mobility in the smaller towns of the late medieval and early modern Low Countries: an exploratory analysis
Authors
Wouter Ronsijn, Wouter Ryckbosch
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0667-9.16
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
La mobilità sociale nelle società preindustriali: tendenze, cause ed effetti (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Social mobility in pre-industrial societies: tendencies, causes and effects (13th-18th centuries)
Editors
Angela Orlandi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
612
Publication Year
2025
Copyright Information
© 2025 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0667-9
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0666-2
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0667-9
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0668-6
Series Title
Datini Studies in Economic History
Series ISSN
2975-1241
Series E-ISSN
2975-1195