Abbé Giovanni Maria Ortes (March 1713 – 1790) was a
Venetian composer,
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
,
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
,
Camaldolese monk
A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...
, and
philosopher. He is better known for his population predictions that preceded those of Malthus.
Ortes belonged to the
Camaldolese monastic order. He was probably the first person, according to Adam Ferguson, to use the term "economics" for the science in which he exercised a remarkable activity, particularly in his works ''Economia Nazionale'' (1774) and ''Riflessioni sulla popolazione'' (1790), which along with other of his works were reprinted in Pietro Custodi's anthologies "Scrittori classici italiani di economia politica" (1802–16). He was opposed to mercantilism.
He anticipated certain doctrines of Adam Smith and Thomas Robert Malthus, especially the latter, as he felt that the population propagation, if it were allowed free rein, would take place in a geometric progression with a doubling every 30 years. These views were expounded in his ''Riflessioni sulla popolpzione delle nazioni per rapporto all' economia nazionale (Reflections on the Population of Nations in respect to National Economy)'', published in 1790.
No one knows exactly how he died.
Works
* ''Della economia nazionale'' (1774)
* ''Sulla religione e sul governo dei popoli'' (1780)
* ''Dei fedecommessi a famiglie e chiese'' (1784)
References
* Alfred Sauvy, ''Deux techniciens, précurseurs de Malthus, Boesnier de l'Orme et Auxiron'', Population, 1959, no 4.
External links
*
1713 births
1790 deaths
18th-century composers
18th-century Italian male musicians
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