Cannon Fodder for the Crown (Europe 1600–1776)

Chapter 2 explores the origins of natalist thought, tracing thinking on fertility to the scientific revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in which modern forms of power and knowledge rose in tandem. Mercantilist attempts to grow the population for the greater glory of the monarch are documented, as is the discourse on fertility, which motivated and legitimized government behavior. In addition, the transnational nature of natalism is analyzed. Thinkers such as Englishman John Graunt and the French scientist Adolphe Quetelet cross-pollinated intellectually, and statesmen as diverse as Frederick the Great and Benjamin Franklin drew from the same narratives to understand the size and growth of the population and its significance for the state.