Medical revolutions? The growth of medicine in England, 1660-1800

Teerapa Pirohakul and Patrick Wallis

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: This paper studies demand for commercial medical assistance in early modern England. We measure individual consumption of medical and nursing services using a new dataset of debts at death between c.1670-c.1790. Levels of consumption of medical services were high and stable in London from the 1680s. However, we find rapid growth in the provinces, in both the likelihood of using medical assistance, and the sums spent on it. The structure of medical services also shifted, with an increase in ‘general practice’, particularly by apothecaries. The expansion in medical services diffused from London, and was motivated by changing preferences, not wealth

Keywords: health; service sector; health care; Britain; seventeenth century; eighteenth century (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I19 N30 N33 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2014-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-his
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:wpaper:56053

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