Furthermore, in regard to the trajectories of individual fortunes, this divergent process can be
countered by shocks of various kinds, whether demographic (such as the absence of an heir or the
presence of too many heirs, leading to dispersal of the family capital, or early death, or prolonged
life) or economic (such as a bad investment or a peasant uprising or a financial crisis or a mediocre
season, etc.). Shocks of this sort always affect family fortunes, so that changes in the wealth
distribution occur even in the most static societies. Note, moreover, the importance of demographic
choices (the fewer children the rich choose to have, the more concentrated wealth becomes) and
inheritance laws.