Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English
cleric
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the t ...
, scholar and influential economist in the fields of
political economy
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...
and
demography
Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings.
Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
.
In his 1798 book ''
An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Malthus observed that an increase in a nation's food production improved the well-being of the population, but the improvement was temporary because it led to population growth, which in turn restored the original
per capita production level. In other words, humans had a propensity to utilize
abundance for population growth rather than for maintaining a high
standard of living, a view that has become known as the "
Malthusian trap" or the "Malthusian spectre". Populations had a tendency to grow until the lower class suffered hardship, want and greater susceptibility to war
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accom ...
and
disease
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
, a pessimistic view that is sometimes referred to as a
Malthusian catastrophe. Malthus wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible.
Malthus saw
population growth as inevitable whenever conditions improved, thereby precluding real progress towards a
utopian society: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man."
As an Anglican cleric, he saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behavior.
Malthus wrote that "the increase of population is necessarily limited by subsistence," "population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase," and "the superior power of population repress by moral restraint, vice, and misery."
Malthus criticized the
Poor Laws for leading to inflation rather than improving the well-being of the poor. He supported taxes on grain imports (the
Corn Laws). His views became influential and controversial across economic, political, social and scientific thought. Pioneers of
evolutionary biology read him, notably
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
and
Alfred Russel Wallace. Malthus's failure to predict the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
was a frequent criticism of his theories.
Malthus laid the "...theoretical foundation of the conventional wisdom that has dominated the debate, both scientifically and ideologically, on global hunger and famines for almost two centuries." He remains a much-debated writer.
Early life and education
Thomas Robert Malthus was the sixth of seven children
of Daniel Malthus and Henrietta Catherine, daughter of
Daniel Graham, apothecary to kings
George II and
George III, and granddaughter of
Thomas Graham, apothecary to kings
George I and
George II. Henrietta was depicted alongside her siblings in
William Hogarth
William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-lik ...
's painting, ''
The Graham Children'' (1742). Malthus was born at The Rookery, a "small elegant mansion" at
Westcott, near
Dorking
Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England, about south of London. It is in Mole Valley District and the council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs roughly east–west, parallel to the Pipp ...
in
Surrey, which his father had bought- at that time called Chert-gate farm- and converted into "a gentleman's seat"; the family sold it in 1768 and moved to "a less extensive establishment at
Albury, not far from
Guildford". Malthus had a
cleft lip and palate which affected his speech; such birth defects had occurred in previous generations of his family. His friend, the social theorist
Harriet Martineau, who was hard of hearing, nevertheless stated that due to his sonorous voice he was the only person she could hear well without her
ear trumpet.
William Petersen and
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
describe Daniel Malthus as "a gentleman of good family and independent means
.. nda friend of
David Hume and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revol ...
". Daniel Malthus was son of Sydenham Malthus, who was a clerk of
Chancery
Chancery may refer to:
Offices and administration
* Chancery (diplomacy), the principal office that houses a diplomatic mission or an embassy
* Chancery (medieval office), responsible for the production of official documents
* Chancery (Scotlan ...
and director of the
South Sea Company; he was also "proprietor of several landed properties in the
Home Counties and
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
". Sydenham Malthus's father, Daniel, had been apothecary to King William and later to
Queen Anne; Daniel's father, Rev. Robert Malthus, was appointed
vicar of
Northolt,
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...
(now
West London) under the regicide
Cromwell, but "evicted at the
Restoration"; he was described as "an ancient divine, a man of strong reason, and mighty in the Scriptures, of great eloquence and fervour, though defective in elocution", due to "a very great impediment in his utterance" which has been concluded to be likely to have been a cleft palate. The young Malthus received his education at the
Warrington Academy from 1782, where he was taught by
Gilbert Wakefield. Warrington was a
dissenting academy, which closed in 1783. Malthus continued for a period to be tutored by Wakefield at the latter's home in
Bramcote,
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
.
Malthus entered
Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1784. While there, he took prizes in English declamation,
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, and graduated with honours, Ninth
Wrangler in
mathematics. His tutor was
William Frend.
He took the
MA degree in 1791, and was elected a
Fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
of Jesus College two years later.
In 1789, he
took orders in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
, and became a
curate at Oakwood Chapel (also Okewood) in the parish of
Wotton, Surrey.
Population growth
Malthus came to prominence for his 1798 publication, ''An Essay on the Principle of Population''. He wrote the original text in reaction to the optimism of his father and his father's associates (notably
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revol ...
) regarding the future improvement of society. He also constructed his case as a specific response to writings of
William Godwin (1756–1836) and of the Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794). His assertions evoked questions and criticism, and between 1798 and 1826 he published six more versions of ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', updating each edition to incorporate new material, to address criticism, and to convey changes in his own perspectives on the subject.
The Malthusian controversy to which the ''Essay'' gave rise in the decades following its publication tended to focus attention on the birth rate and marriage rates. The neo-Malthusian controversy, comprising related debates of many years later, has seen a similar central role assigned to the numbers of children born.
The goal of Malthusian theory is to explain how population and food production expand, with the latter experiencing arithmetic growth and the former experiencing exponential growth.
The key focus here, however, is the relevance of Malthusian theory in the present world. This hypothesis is inapplicable in a number of ways. First, the hypothesis is rendered irrelevant.
due to a disregard for technological advancement. This is because food production has increased as a result of technological advancements such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
Second, the mathematical model employed to formulate the hypothesis is incorrect since it was constrained to England's specific situation.
Other findings, such as food production exceeding population increase, may be borne out if the modeling could employ wide locations like Australia
The Malthusian hypothesis is also limited by social change about family size
as individuals will always prefer a manageable family owing to economic restrictions.
Food production can also outpace population expansion, thanks to the industrial revolution
Another limitation of this theory is the belief that overall income is a key factor of population health
implying that wealthy countries will have various solutions for their rapidly rising populations
The Malthusian theory is also irrelevant because an expanding population can be seen as an increase in available human capacity for boosting food production
0 The static aspect of the Malthusian hypothesis, which is based on the rule of decreasing returns
1 limits its applicability. Finally, Malthusian Theory's failure to determine whether birth rates match death rates hampered its application
2ecause it was possible that the population was not rising as fast as food production due to the presence of deaths.
Travel and further career
In 1799, Malthus made a European tour with
William Otter, a close college friend, travelling part of the way with
Edward Daniel Clarke and
John Marten Cripps, visiting Germany, Scandinavia and Russia. Malthus used the trip to gather population data. Otter later wrote a ''Memoir'' of Malthus for the second (1836) edition of his ''Principles of Political Economy''. During the
Peace of Amiens of 1802 he travelled to France and Switzerland, in a party that included his relation and future wife Harriet.
In 1803, he became rector of
Walesby, Lincolnshire.
In 1805, Malthus became Professor of History and Political Economy at the
East India Company College in
Hertfordshire. His students affectionately referred to him as "Pop", "Population", or "web-toe" Malthus.
Near the end of 1817, the proposed appointment of
Graves Champney Haughton
Sir Graves Chamney Haughton FRS (1788 – 28 August 1849) was a British scholar of Oriental languages.
Life and career
Haughton, the son of a doctor, was educated in England before travelling to India in 1808 to take up a position in Bengal as ...
to the college was made a pretext by Randle Jackson and
Joseph Hume to launch an attempt to close it down. Malthus wrote a pamphlet defending the college, which was reprieved by the East India Company within the same year, 1817.
In 1818, Malthus became a Fellow of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...
.
Malthus–Ricardo debate on political economy
During the 1820s, there took place a setpiece intellectual discussion among the exponents of
political economy
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...
, often called the Malthus–Ricardo debate after its leading figures, Malthus and theorist of
free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold ...
David Ricardo, both of whom had written books with the title ''Principles of Political Economy''. Under examination were the nature and methods of political economy itself, while it was simultaneously under attack from others. The roots of the debate were in the previous decade. In ''The Nature of Rent'' (1815), Malthus had dealt with
economic rent, a major concept in classical economics. Ricardo defined a theory of rent in his ''Principles of Political Economy and Taxation'' (1817): he regarded rent as value in excess of real production—something caused by ownership rather than by free trade. Rent therefore represented a kind of negative money that landlords could pull out of the production of the land, by means of its scarcity. Contrary to this concept, Malthus proposed rent to be a kind of
economic surplus.
The debate developed over the economic concept of a
general glut, and the possibility of failure of
Say's Law. Malthus laid importance on
economic development
In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals a ...
and the persistence of
disequilibrium.
[Sowell, pp. 193–4.] The context was the
post-war depression; Malthus had a supporter in
William Blake, in denying that
capital accumulation (saving) was always good in such circumstances, and
John Stuart Mill attacked Blake on the fringes of the debate.
Ricardo corresponded with Malthus from 1817 about his ''Principles''. He was drawn into considering political economy in a less restricted sense, which might be adapted to legislation and its multiple objectives, by the thought of Malthus. In ''Principles of Political Economy'' (1820) and elsewhere, Malthus addressed the tension, amounting to conflict he saw between a narrow view of political economy and the broader moral and political plane.
Leslie Stephen wrote:
If Malthus and Ricardo differed, it was a difference of men who accepted the same first principles. They both professed to interpret Adam Smith as the true prophet, and represented different shades of opinion rather than diverging sects.
It is now considered that the different purposes seen by Malthus and Ricardo for political economy affected their technical discussion, and contributed to the lack of compatible definitions.
For example,
Jean-Baptiste Say used a definition of production based on
goods and services and so queried the restriction of Malthus to "goods" alone.
In terms of public policy, Malthus was a supporter of the
protectionist Corn Laws from the end of the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. He emerged as the only economist of note to support duties on imported grain. By encouraging domestic production, Malthus argued, the Corn Laws would guarantee British
self-sufficiency in food.
Later life
Malthus was a founding member in 1821 of the
Political Economy Club, where
John Cazenove
John Cazenove (1788–1879) was an English businessman and political economist.
Life
He was the elder brother of Philip Cazenove, who in 1823 founded Cazenove the firm of stockbrokers.
Cazenove was educated at Charterhouse School. He is thoug ...
tended to be his ally against Ricardo and Mill. He was elected in the beginning of 1824 as one of the ten royal associates of the
Royal Society of Literature. He was also one of the first fellows of the
Statistical Society
The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good.
...
, founded in March 1834. In 1827 he gave evidence to a committee of the House of Commons on emigration.
In 1827, he published ''Definitions in Political Economy'' The first chapter put forth "Rules for the Definition and Application of Terms in Political Economy". In chapter 10, the penultimate chapter, he presented 60 numbered paragraphs putting forth terms and their definitions that he proposed should be used in discussing political economy following those rules. This collection of terms and definitions is remarkable for two reasons: first, Malthus was the first economist to explicitly organize, define, and publish his terms as a coherent glossary of defined terms; and second, his definitions were for the most part well-formed definitional statements. Between these chapters, he criticized several contemporary economists—
Jean-Baptiste Say,
David Ricardo,
James Mill,
John Ramsay McCulloch, and
Samuel Bailey—for sloppiness in choosing, attaching meaning to, and using their technical terms.
McCulloch was the editor of ''The Scotsman'' of Edinburgh and replied cuttingly in a review printed on the front page of his newspaper in March 1827. He implied that Malthus wanted to dictate terms and theories to other economists. McCulloch clearly
felt his ox gored, and his review of ''Definitions'' is largely a bitter defence of his own ''Principles of Political Economy'', and his counter-attack "does little credit to his reputation", being largely "personal derogation" of Malthus. The purpose of Malthus's ''Definitions'' was terminological clarity, and Malthus discussed appropriate terms, their definitions, and their use by himself and his contemporaries. This motivation of Malthus's work was disregarded by McCulloch, who responded that there was nothing to be gained "by carping at definitions, and quibbling about the meaning to be attached to" words. Given that statement, it is not surprising that McCulloch's review failed to address the rules of chapter 1 and did not discuss the definitions of chapter 10; he also barely mentioned Malthus's critiques of other writers.
In spite of this and in the wake of McCulloch's scathing review, the reputation of Malthus as economist dropped away for the rest of his life.
On the other hand, Malthus did have supporters, including
Thomas Chalmers, some of the
Oriel Noetics
The Oriel Noetics is a term now applied to a group of early 19th-century dons of the University of Oxford closely associated with Oriel College. John Tulloch in 1885 wrote about them as the "early Oriel school" of theologians, the contrast being wi ...
,
Richard Jones Richard Jones may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*F. Richard Jones (1893–1930), American filmmaker
*Dick Clair (Richard Jones, 1931–1988), American producer, actor and TV writer
*Richard Jones (The Feeling), British bass guitarist
*Richard J ...
and
William Whewell from Cambridge.
Malthus died suddenly of
heart disease on 23 December 1834 at his father-in-law's house. He was buried in
Bath Abbey.
His portrait, and descriptions by contemporaries, present him as tall and good-looking, but with a
cleft lip and palate.
Family
On 13 March 1804, Malthus married Harriet, daughter of John Eckersall of Claverton House, near Bath. They had a son and two daughters. His first born Henry became vicar of
Effingham, Surrey in 1835 and of
Donnington, Sussex in 1837; he married Sofia Otter (1807–1889), daughter of Bishop
William Otter and died in August 1882, aged 76. His middle child Emily died in 1885, outliving her parents and siblings. The youngest Lucille died unmarried and childless in 1825, months before her 18th birthday.
''An Essay on the Principle of Population''
Malthus argued in his ''Essay'' (1798) that population growth generally expanded in times and in regions of plenty until the size of the population relative to the primary resources caused distress:
Malthus argued that two types of checks hold population within resource limits: ''positive'' checks, which raise the death rate; and ''preventive'' ones, which lower the birth rate. The positive checks include hunger, disease and war; the preventive checks:
birth control, postponement of marriage and
celibacy.
The rapid increase in the global population of the past century exemplifies Malthus's predicted population patterns; it also appears to describe socio-demographic dynamics of complex
pre-industrial societies. These findings are the basis for neo-Malthusian modern mathematical models of ''long-term historical dynamics''.
Malthus wrote that in a period of resource abundance, a population could double in 25 years. However, the margin of abundance could not be sustained as population grew, leading to checks on population growth:
In later editions of his essay, Malthus clarified his view that if society relied on human misery to limit population growth, then sources of misery (''e.g.'', hunger, disease, and war) would inevitably afflict society, as would volatile economic cycles. On the other hand, "preventive checks" to population that limited birthrates, such as later marriages, could ensure a higher standard of living for all, while also increasing economic stability. Regarding possibilities for freeing man from these limits, Malthus argued against a variety of imaginable solutions, such as the notion that agricultural improvements could expand without limit.
Of the relationship between population and economics, Malthus wrote that when the population of laborers grows faster than the production of food, real wages fall because the growing population causes the
cost of living (''i.e.'', the cost of food) to go up. Difficulties of raising a family eventually reduce the rate of population growth, until the falling population again leads to higher real wages.
In the second and subsequent editions Malthus put more emphasis on ''moral restraint'' as the best means of easing the poverty of the lower classes."
Editions and versions
* 1798: ''An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future improvement of society with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers.''. Anonymously published.
* 1803: Second and much enlarged edition: ''An Essay on the Principle of Population; or, a view of its past and present effects on human happiness; with an enquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions''. Authorship acknowledged.
* 1806, 1807, 1816 and 1826: editions 3–6, with relatively minor changes from the second edition.
* 1823: Malthus contributed the article on ''Population'' to the supplement of the
Encyclopædia Britannica
The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various ...
.
* 1830: Malthus had a long extract from the 1823 article reprinted as ''A summary view of the Principle of Population''.
Other works
1800: ''The present high price of provisions''
In this work, his first published pamphlet, Malthus argues against the notion prevailing in his locale that the greed of intermediaries caused the high price of provisions. Instead, Malthus says that the high price stems from the
Poor Laws, which "increase the parish allowances in proportion to the price of corn." Thus, given a limited supply, the Poor Laws force up the price of daily necessities. However, he concludes by saying that in time of scarcity such Poor Laws, by raising the price of corn more evenly, actually produce a ''beneficial'' effect.
1814: ''Observations on the effects of the Corn Laws''
Although government in Britain had regulated the prices of grain, the
Corn Laws originated in 1815. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars that year,
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...
passed legislation banning the importation of foreign corn into Britain until domestic corn cost 80 shillings per
quarter. The high price caused the cost of food to increase and caused distress among the working classes in the towns. It led to serious rioting in London and to the
Peterloo Massacre
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliam ...
in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
in 1819.
In this pamphlet, printed during the parliamentary discussion, Malthus tentatively supported the free-traders. He argued that given the increasing cost of growing British corn, advantages accrued from supplementing it from cheaper foreign sources.
1820: ''Principles of political economy''
In 1820 Malthus published ''
Principles of Political Economy''.
(A second edition was posthumously published in 1836.) Malthus intended this work to rival Ricardo's ''Principles'' (1817). It, and his 1827 ''Definitions in political economy'', defended
Sismondi's views on "general glut" rather than Say's Law, which in effect states "there can be no general glut".
Other publications
* 1807. ''A letter to Samuel Whitbread, Esq. M.P. on his proposed Bill for the Amendment of the Poor Laws''. Johnson and Hatchard, London.
* 1808. Spence on Commerce. ''Edinburgh Review'' 11, January, 429–448.
* 1808. Newneham and others on the state of Ireland. ''Edinburgh Review'' 12, July, 336–355.
* 1809. Newneham on the state of Ireland, ''Edinburgh Review'' 14 April, 151–170.
* 1811. Depreciation of paper currency. ''Edinburgh Review'' 17, February, 340–372.
* 1812. Pamphlets on the bullion question. '' Edinburgh Review'' 18, August, 448–470.
* 1813. ''A letter to the Rt. Hon. Lord Grenville''. Johnson, London.
* 1817. ''Statement respecting the East-India College''. Murray, London.
* 1821. Godwin on Malthus. ''Edinburgh Review'' 35, July, 362–377.
* 1823. ''The Measure of Value, stated and illustrated''
* 1823. Tooke – On high and low prices. ''
Quarterly Review'', 29 (57), April, 214–239.
* 1824. Political economy. ''Quarterly Review'' 30 (60), January, 297–334.
* 1829. On the measure of the conditions necessary to the supply of commodities. ''Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom''. 1, 171–180. John Murray, London.
* 1829. On the meaning which is most usually and most correctly attached to the term ''Value of a Commodity''. ''Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom''. 2, 74–81. John Murray.
Reception and influence
Malthus developed the theory of demand-supply mismatches that he called
gluts. Discounted at the time, this theory foreshadowed later work by an admirer,
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
.
The vast bulk of continuing commentary on Malthus, however, extends and expands on the "Malthusian controversy" of the early 19th century. In Ireland where (writing to
Ricardo in 1817) Malthus proposed that "to give full effect to the natural resources of the country a great part of the population should be swept from the soil", a comparatively early contribution was ''Observations on the population and resources of Ireland'' (1821) by the polymath and physician
Whitely Stokes. Finding fault in Malthus's calculations and juxtapositions--"the possible increase of man in America" measured against "the probable increase in
oodproduction in Great Britain"—and insisting upon the advantages mankind derives from "improved industry, improved conveyance, improvements in morals, government and religion", Stokes argued that Ireland's difficulty lay not in her "numbers", but in indifferent government.
In popular culture
*
Ebenezer Scrooge from ''
A Christmas Carol'' by
Charles Dickens represents the perceived ideas of Malthus, famously illustrated by his explanation as to why he refuses to donate to the poor and destitute: "If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population". In general, Dickens had some Malthusian concerns (evident in ''
Oliver Twist'', ''
Hard Times
Hard may refer to:
* Hardness, resistance of physical materials to deformation or fracture
* Hard water, water with high mineral content
Arts and entertainment
* ''Hard'' (TV series), a French TV series
* Hard (band), a Hungarian hard rock supe ...
'' and other novels), and he concentrated his attacks on
Utilitarianism and many of its proponents, like
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham (; 15 February 1748 O.S. 4 February 1747">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 4 February 1747ref name="Johnson2012" /> – 6 June 1832) was an English philosopher, jurist, an ...
, whom he thought of, along with Malthus, as unjust and inhumane.
* In ''
Brave New World'' by
Aldous Huxley, a
dystopian novel set in a
World State which controls reproduction, women wear the "Malthusian belt," containing "the regulation supply of contraceptives."
* In the musical ''
Urinetown
''Urinetown: The Musical'' is a satirical comedy musical that premiered in 2001, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, b ...
'', written by
Greg Kotis and
Mark Hollmann
Mark Hollmann is an American composer and lyricist.
Hollmann grew up in Fairview Heights, Illinois, where he graduated from Belleville Township High School East in 1981. He won a 2002 Tony Award and a 2001 Obie Award for his music and lyrics to ' ...
, the characters live in a society in which a fee must be paid in order to urinate, for a drought has made water incredibly scarce. A revolution starts with a "pee for free" agenda. At the end of the show, the revolution wins but the characters end up dying because water was not being conserved, unlike when the 'pee fee' was in place. The penultimate line is "Hail Malthus!"
*In the film ''
Avengers: Infinity War'', the main villain called
Thanos appears to be motivated by Malthusian views about population growth, and commits universal mass genocide known as
The Blip.
* In ''
Xenoblade Chronicles 2'', one of the games antagonists, Amalthus, is inspired by Malthus.
* in the song ''rät'' by
Penelope Scott, Malthus is referenced in the verse "I bit the apple 'cuz I trusted you, But it tastes like Thomas Malthus".
Epitaph
The epitaph of Malthus in Bath Abbey reads
ith commas inserted for clarity
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
Sacred to the memory of the Rev THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS, long known to the lettered world by his admirable writings on the social branches of political economy, particularly by his essay on population.
One of the best men and truest philosophers of any age or country, raised by native dignity of mind above the misrepresentations of the ignorant and the neglect of the great, he lived a serene and happy life devoted to the pursuit and communication of truth, supported by a calm but firm conviction of the usefulness of his labors, content with the approbation of the wise and good.
His writings will be a lasting monument of the extent and correctness of his understanding.
The spotless integrity of his principles, the equity and candour of his nature, his sweetness of temper, urbanity of manners and tenderness of heart, his benevolence and his piety are the still dearer recollections of his family and friends.
Born 14 February 1766 – Died 29 December 1834.
See also
*
Cornucopianism, a counter-Malthusian school of thought
*
Exponential growth
Exponential growth is a process that increases quantity over time. It occurs when the instantaneous rate of change (that is, the derivative) of a quantity with respect to time is proportional to the quantity itself. Described as a function, a ...
*
Food race, a related idea from
Daniel Quinn
* ''
The Limits to Growth'', from the
Club of Rome
*
Hong Liangji, China's Malthus
*
Human overpopulation
*
Malthusian equilibrium
A population is in Malthusian equilibrium when all of its production is used only for subsistence. Malthusian equilibrium is a locally stable and a dynamic equilibrium.
See also
*Thomas Malthus — ''See this article for further exposition.'' ...
*
Malthusian growth model
*
Malthusian trap
*
Malthusianism
*
National Security Study Memorandum 200
* ''
Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.''
*
World population
In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded 8 billion in November 2022. It took over 200,000 years of human prehistory and human history, ...
Notes
Walter, R. (2020). Malthus's principle of population in Britain: restatement and antiquation. In Malthus Across Nations. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Brooks, J. (2021). Settler Colonialism, Primitive Accumulation, and Biopolitics in Xinjiang, China. Primitive Accumulation, and Biopolitics in Xinjiang, China (September 4, 2021).
Mokyr, J. (2018). The past and the future of innovation: Some lessons from economic history. Explorations in Economic History, 69, 13-26.
Smith, K. (2013). The Malthusian Controversy. Routledge.
Robertson, T. (2012). The Malthusian moment. Rutgers University Press.
Malthus, T. R., Winch, D., & James, P. (1992). Malthus: 'An Essay on the Principle of Population'. Cambridge University Press.
Kallis, G. (2019). Limits: Why Malthus was wrong and why environmentalists should care. Stanford University Press.
Cremaschi, S. (2014). Utilitarianism and Malthus's Virtue Ethics: Respectable, virtuous and happy. Routledge.
Chiarini, B., Malanima, P., & Piga, G. (Eds.). (2012). From Malthus' stagnation to sustained growth: social, demographic and economic factors. Palgrave Macmillan.
0The Economist. (2008). Malthus, the false prophet. Retrieved 10 April 2022, from https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2008/05/15/malthus-the-false-prophet
1Patel, R. (2015). 'The End of Plenty,' by Joel K. Bourne Jr. (Published 2015). Retrieved 10 April 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/books/review/the-end-of-plenty-by-joel-k-bourne-jr.html
2Shermer, M. (2016). Why Malthus Is Still Wrong. Why Malthus makes for bad science policy. Retrieved 10 April 2022, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-malthus-is-still-wrong/
References
*
* Dupâquier, J. 2001. Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834). ''
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences'', 9151–56
Abstract.* Elwell, Frank W. 2001. ''A commentary on Malthus's 1798 Essay on Population as social theory''. Mellon Press.
* Evans, L.T. 1998. ''Feeding the ten billion – plants and population growth''. Cambridge University Press. Paperback, 247 pages.
* Klaus Hofmann: Beyond the Principle of Population. Malthus' Essay. In: The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought. Bd. 20 (2013), H. 3, S. 399–425, .
*
Hollander, Samuel 1997. ''The Economics of Thomas Robert Malthus''. University of Toronto Press. Dedicated to Malthus by the author. .
* James, Patricia. ''Population Malthus: his life and times''. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1979.
* Malthus, Thomas Robert. ''Definitions in Political Economy''. Edited by Alexander K Bocast. Critical edition. McLean: Berkeley Bridge Press, 2016. .
* Peterson, William 1999. ''Malthus, founder of modern demography'' 2nd ed. Transaction. .
* Rohe, John F., ''A Bicentennial Malthusian Essay: conservation, population and the indifference to limits'', Rhodes & Easton, Traverse City, MI. 1997
* Sowell, Thomas, ''The General Glut Controversy Reconsidered'', Oxford Economic Papers New Series, Vol. 15, No. 3 (November 1963), pp. 193–203. Published by: Oxford University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2661714
*
Further reading
* Bashford, Alison, and Joyce E. Chaplin. ''The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus: Rereading the Principle of Population'' (
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent Academic publishing, publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, ...
, 2016). vii + 353 pp
excerpt also
online review* Elwell, Frank W. 2001. ''A Commentary on Malthus' 1798 Essay on Population as social theory''
Lewiston, New York
Lewiston is a town in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 15,944 at the 2020 census. The town and its contained village are named after Morgan Lewis, a governor of New York.
The Town of Lewiston is on the western borde ...
:
Edwin Mellen Press. .
*
Heilbroner, Robert, ''The Worldly Philosophers – the lives, times, and ideas of the great economic thinkers''. (1953)
commentary*
*
a collection of essays for the Malthus Bicentenary
a collection of essays for the Malthus Bicentenary Conference, 1998
* ''Conceptual origins of Malthus's Essay on Population'', facsimile reprint of 8 Books in 6 volumes, edited by Yoshinobu Nanagita () www.aplink.co.jp/ep/4-902454-14-9.htm
* National Geographic Magazine, June 2009 article, "The Global Food Crisis
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
More Food for More People But Not For All, and Not Forever' United Nations Population Fund website
ot foundThe Feast of Malthusby
Garrett Hardin in ''The Social Contract'' (1998)
The International Society of Malthusfrom ''Darwin's Metaphor: Nature's Place in Victorian Culture'' by Professor Robert M. Young (1985, 1988, 1994). Cambridge University Press.
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malthus, Thomas Robert
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