Male Inheritance Expectations in the United States in 1870

An examination is conducted of the relationships among wealth, number of children, and age of fathers, as related to the inheritance and ages of sons; data were taken from the 1870 US census of wealth. Statistics are presented to describe the possible amounts of wealth that are passed on from generation to generation in any given year during the life cycle of the son. It is contended that a 4% wealth-age gradient, which duplicates any original wealth-age configuration, can manifest itself within one generation. Incentive implications of any current patterns are less cogent in this sense even though only a third of all current aggregate wealth may be regarded as a transfer from the past. The patterns described are significant not only for the general cultural historian but also for anyone attempting to comprehend an economic model of inheritance. The extent of parental domination, the influence of family size, and, more generally, the degree of wealth inequality imposed from one generation to the next all contribute some sense of the quantitative impact of inheritance factors, even if the model is very elementary.