Right, 20th century China is the example of government limiting reproduction which springs to mind. What I had in mind was people limiting their own. In the we

Right, 20th century China is the example of government limiting reproduction which springs to mind. What I had in mind was people limiting their own. In the west the main mechanism was delayed marriage (i.e. saving up a socially approved amount of money first) which kept us well away from starvation 500 years ago. In china/japan I believe the pattern was more infanticide (in the same period) but know less about this.