William Forster Lloyd
FRS (1794 – 2 June 1852) was a British writer on economics. He is best known today for one of his 1833 lectures on population control which have influenced writers in modern economic theory.
Life
Born in 1794 at
Bradenham, Buckinghamshire
Bradenham is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is near Saunderton, off the main A4010 road between Princes Risborough and High Wycombe.
Village
The village name is Anglo-Saxon and means 'broad enclosure', referring t ...
, he was the fourth son of Thomas Lloyd, rector of
Aston-sub-Edge
Aston Subedge (also written Aston-sub-Edge) is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, close by the border with Worcestershire (to the west). According to the 2001 census the population was 55, increasing ...
, and his wife, Elizabeth Ryder;
Charles Lloyd was his elder brother. He was educated at
Westminster School
(God Gives the Increase)
, established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, head_label = Hea ...
and
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
, graduating BA in 1815 and MA in 1818. He was Greek Reader in 1823, Mathematical lecturer and Drummond Professor of Political Economy (1832–1837) at Christ Church, Oxford (successor to
Nassau Senior
Nassau William Senior (; 26 September 1790 – 4 June 1864), was an English lawyer known as an economist. He was also a government adviser over several decades on economic and social policy on which he wrote extensively.
Early life
He was born ...
). He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 1834, and died at
Prestwood
Prestwood is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about two miles west of Great Missenden and six miles north of High Wycombe.
History
Early history and creation of parish
The village name is Anglo Sax ...
, Missenden, Buckinghamshire in 1852.
Influential lectures
Lloyd published several of his lectures. In his ''Two Lectures on the Checks to Population'' (1833) he introduced the concept of the overuse of a common by its commoners (i.e. those with rights of use and access to it), which was later to be developed by the economist
H. Scott Gordon and later still by the ecologist
Garrett Hardin
Garrett James Hardin (April 21, 1915 – September 14, 2003) was an American ecologist. He focused his career on the issue of human overpopulation, and is best known for his exposition of the tragedy of the commons in a 1968 paper of the same ti ...
and termed by Hardin "
The Tragedy of the Commons
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
". However, Hardin's use of Lloyd's example has frequently been misunderstood, leading him to later remark that he should have titled his work "The Tragedy of the ''Unmanaged'' Commons".
The key passage in Lloyd's work is:
"If a person puts more cattle into his own field, the amount of the subsistence which they consume is all deducted from that which was at the command, of his original stock; and if, before, there was no more than a sufficiency of pasture, he reaps no benefit from the additional cattle, what is gained in one way being lost in another.
But if he puts more cattle on a common, the food which they consume forms a deduction which is shared between all the cattle, as well that of others as his own, in proportion to their number, and only a small part of it is taken from his own cattle. In an inclosed pasture, there is a point of saturation, if I may so call it, (by which, I mean a barrier depending on considerations of interest,) beyond which no prudent man will add to his stock. In a common, also, there is in like manner a point of saturation. But the position of the point in the two cases is obviously different. Were a number of adjoining pastures, already fully stocked, to be at once thrown open, and converted into one vast common, the position of the point of saturation would immediately be changed".
In his ''Lectures on Population, Value, Poor Laws and Rent'' (1837) he introduced a concise and complete statement of the concept of
diminishing marginal utility
In economics, utility is the satisfaction or benefit derived by consuming a product. The marginal utility of a good or service describes how much pleasure or satisfaction is gained by consumers as a result of the increase or decrease in consumpti ...
, and connected demand to value, but he presents neither derivation nor elaboration. Still this contribution places him clearly in the ranks of the Oxford-Dublin school of proto-Marginalists.
Major works of William F. Lloyd
*''Lecture on the Notion of Value, as distinguished not only from utility, but also from value in exchange'', 1833.
*''Two Lectures on the Checks to Population'', 1833.
*''Four Lectures on Poor-Laws'', 1835
*''Two Lectures on the Justice of the Poor-Laws and One Lecture on Rent'', 1837.
*''Lectures on Population, Value, Poor Laws and Rent'', 1837.
References
External links
*
Profile of William Forster Lloydat th
Two Lectures on the Checks to Population
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, William Forster
1794 births
1852 deaths
People from Buckinghamshire
British economists
Fellows of the Royal Society
People educated at Westminster School, London
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
Drummond Professors of Political Economy