Marriage today is our prime social and legal institution. Historically, it was also the principal economic institution. This collection of essays offers a wealth of original research into the economic, social and legal history of the marital partnership in northern Europe over a 500-year period.

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 Pylkkÿnen; 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 Dÿbeck; 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 ÿstman. 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 ÿgren. Afterword: Recovering a lost inheritance: the marital economy and its absence from the prehistory of economics in Britain, Michael Roberts. Bibliography; Glossary; Index.