Pre-Transition Fertility in Asia : A Comparative-historical Approach

This paper questions the proposition that fertility was invariably high among populations beforethe fertility transition. By examining factors affecting pre-transition fertility based on the evidence fromJapan and India in the pre-World War II period, together with that from England and Germany in thetraditional period, it suggests that in most historical populations fertility was below the supposed biologicalmaximum, and that there was a pre-transition rising phase in fertility in countries at both ends ofthe Eurasian continent. Then the paper asks if the phenomenon of rising fertility really was an obstacleto the onset of fertility transition