ComicMonster
Consulatus
Posts : 197
Join date : 2017-10-24
 |  Subject: one-eighth of propertyless freemen Tue 20 Apr 2021, 10:42 | |
| Hello! I am sorry to ask, but I feel ridiculously puzzled by this "one-eighth". - Quote :
- In 1676, the overwhelming proportion of the population of Virginia was in the Tidewater region. Of its economically active (tithable) European-American population, half were bond-laborers and another one-eighth were propertyless freemen.
So, I am no Einstein, but as far as I see "one-eighth" means 1/8, so 0,125 %. But who does calculate demographic proportions so accurately, more so if the data come from seventeenth-century Virginian records? On the other hand, it might be interpreted (perhaps) as the eighth part of a total, so, in percentage, the eighth part of a hundred, that is a 12,5 % —just can't understand… No Internet search has been able to help me here…  Thanks a lot to all of you for your help. CM |
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nordmann
Nobiles Barbariæ
Posts : 7223
Join date : 2011-12-25
| | Subject: Re: one-eighth of propertyless freemen Tue 20 Apr 2021, 10:48 | |
| I see no problem with the statistic, CM, and the tithes are a good source from which to obtain pretty accurate statistics too as they would have listed income sources. In this case the 1676 returns indicate 12.5% of those paying tithes as propertyless but working legitimately, as you calculated (second time - your first calculation is way off and confuses fractions expressed as rational numbers with percentages).
PS: The reason they calculated this so diligently would have been simply that those with property also paid tithes on their property too, so the guys doing the counting had a good reason to distinguish between the two.
Last edited by nordmann on Tue 20 Apr 2021, 10:52; edited 1 time in total |
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Meles meles
Censura
Posts : 5120
Join date : 2011-12-30
Location : Pyrénées-Orientales, France
| | Subject: Re: one-eighth of propertyless freemen Tue 20 Apr 2021, 10:51 | |
| I see no problem either: it's basically saying one in eight of the records were for propertyless freemen. |
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ComicMonster
Consulatus
Posts : 197
Join date : 2017-10-24
| | Subject: Re: one-eighth of propertyless freemen Tue 20 Apr 2021, 11:01 | |
| You see no problem because you speak English…  If you know what I mean… Numbers and maths must be registered in a particular area of the brain, not close to the linguistic one… Otherwise it won't be common to hear (some) people reading aloud things like that: "In the year mil novecientos ochenta y ocho [1988] the president of the Parliament…" I am just joking, but I believe there's a grain of truth there… Thanks a zillion Meles meles and nordmann —at least zillion is a non-obligating number… Take care… |
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