Maria Ågren, Amy Louise Erickson

'... a fascinating exercise in comparative history that makes a powerful argument for the vital importance of the marital economy to the history of Europe. It challenges assumptions about the distinctiveness of individual nations and will change the way historians and economists view the marriage partnership.' Tim Stretton, Associate Professor of History, Saint Mary's University, Nova Scotia 'The research is original and represents a significant contribution to our understanding of the economic, social and legal history of marital partnerships in northern Europe.' Parergon

• Contents: Introduction: the marital economy in comparative perspective, Amy Louise Erickson. Part I Forming the Partnership: Marriage or money? Legal actions for enforcement of marriage contracts in Norway, Hanne Marie Johansen; Making marriages in early modern England: rethinking the role of family and friends, Catherine Frances; Forming the partnership socially and economically: a Swedish local elite, 1650-1770, Gudrun Andersson; Forming the marital economy in the early modern Finnish countryside, Anu Pylkkänen; Servants in rural England c.1450-1650: hired work as a means of accumulating wealth and skills before marriage, Jane Whittle. Part II Managing the Partnership: Decision-making on marital property in Norway, 1500-1800, Hilde Sandvik; Property and authority in Danish marital law, Inger Dübeck; Marital conflict over the gender division of labour in agrarian households, Sweden 1750-1850, Rosemarie Fiebranz; Working together? Different understandings of marital relations in late 19th-century Finland, Ann-Catrin Östman. Part III Dissolving the Partnership: Marriage trouble, separation and divorce in early modern Norway, Hanne Marie Johansen; 'To the longer liver': provisions for the dissolution of the marital economy in Scotland, 1470-1550, Elizabeth Ewan; Death and donation: different channels of property transfer in late medieval Iceland, Agnes S. Arnórsdóttir; Individualism or self-sacrifice? Decision-making and retirement within the early modern marital economy in Sweden, Maria Ã…gren. Afterword: Recovering a lost inheritance: the marital economy and its absence from the prehistory of economics in Britain, Michael Roberts. Bibliography; Glossary; Index.