To Part or Not to Part: Emigration and Inheritance Institutions in Nineteenth-Century Hesse–Cassel

Inheritance institutions in mid-19th-century Germany influenced overseas emigration patterns by affecting the amount of emigration and the type of emigrant. This study of emigration from the principality of Hesse–Cassel suggests that such traditions influence the village economic structure. They als...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Explorations in economic history 1999-01, Vol.36 (1), p.30-55
Main Author: Wegge, Simone A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology, Cultural - education
Anthropology, Cultural - history
Economic history
Economic structure
Emigrants and Immigrants - education
Emigrants and Immigrants - history
Emigrants and Immigrants - legislation & jurisprudence
Emigrants and Immigrants - psychology
Emigration
Emigration and Immigration - history
Emigration and Immigration - legislation & jurisprudence
Family Characteristics - ethnology
Family Relations - ethnology
Family Relations - legislation & jurisprudence
Germany - ethnology
History
History of medicine
History, 19th Century
Humans
Income - history
Inheritances
Men - education
Men - psychology
Occupational choice
Political systems
Rural areas
Social Change - history
Social Class - history
Social Conditions - economics
Social Conditions - history
Social Conditions - legislation & jurisprudence
Social history
Social Identification
Social impact
Villages
Wills - economics
Wills - ethnology
Wills - history
Wills - legislation & jurisprudence
Wills - psychology
Young Adult
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Summary:Inheritance institutions in mid-19th-century Germany influenced overseas emigration patterns by affecting the amount of emigration and the type of emigrant. This study of emigration from the principality of Hesse–Cassel suggests that such traditions influence the village economic structure. They also affect individuals' occupational choice and personal wealth, and ultimately the incentive to migrate. Individuals found important reasons to leave under both systems, but the impartible institution encouraged more emigration. Institutional variations manifest themselves in diverse patterns of individual emigrant characteristics: in comparison, emigrants from impartible villages took less cash, were slightly younger, and more likely to travel alone.
ISSN:0014-4983
1090-2457
DOI:10.1006/exeh.1998.0703