To navigate the family economy over a lifetime: life-cycle squeezes in pre-industrial Swedish towns

Studies have shown that childrens incomes were important for working-class families during industrialization. We found that, even before industrialization, having children greatly affected the family economy of workers and master artisans. For workers, having children necessitated borrowing, but also made it easier later to pay off debts and accumulate wealth. They seem to have put into practice some sort of saving through children. For master artisans, running a business generally was a more important determinant of debts and assets over a lifetime, but, as adolescents, children positively affected wealth, probably because they provided cheap and flexible labour in the households and workshops.