This volume explores the meaning and importance of marriage in Northern Europe, looking at differences and similarities within and between Scandinavia and the british Isles. The point of departure is the concept of 'marital economy'. It is used to denote the economic partnership of husband and wife, which was the basis of all economic activities in the medieval and early modern period. The book employs a life-course approach, discussing in 13 different empirical studies (1) creating the partnership, (2) managing the partnership, and (3) dissolving the partnership. The studies discuss courtship, servants' work, elite strategies, retirement, inheritance, wills, marital disputes, decision-making, divorce, separation, and various forms of property arrangements. The introduction emphasises the martial economy as a key to understanding pre-modern economic life, and the conclusion discusses the reasons why this key has been lost to modern conceptions of economy.
The authors argue that during the early modern period, the transition from manuscript to print brought on by the invention of the printing press temporarily exposed and disturbed the epistemic foundations of English culture. As a result of this cultural upheaval, the discursive field of parenting was profoundly transformed. Through an examination of the literature of the period, this volume illuminates how many important conceptual systems related to gender, sexuality, human reproduction, legitimacy, maternity, kinship, paternity, dynasty, inheritance and patriarchal authority came to be grounded in a range of anxieties and concerns directly linked to an emergent publishing industry and book trade.