Thomas Robert Malthus

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's painting, The Graham Children (1742).The Tate Gallery: An Illustrated Companion to the National Collections of British & Modern Foreign Art. London: Tate Gallery, 1979, p. 15 Malthus was born at The Rookery, a "small elegant mansion" at Westcott, near Dorking in Surrey, which his father had bought—at that time called Chertgate 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.Martineau, Harriet 1877. Autobiography. 3 vols, Smith, Elder, London. vol 1, p. 327.Essays in Biography, J. M. Keynes, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1933, pp. 96-99{{Cite ODNB|id=17902|title=Malthus, (Thomas) Robert|author=J. M. Pullen|year=2008}}{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/social-sciences-and-law/economics-biographies/thomas-robert-malthus|title=Thomas Robert Malthus - Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com}} William Petersen and John Maynard Keynes describe Daniel Malthus as "a gentleman of good family and independent means [...] [and] a friend of David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau". Daniel Malthus was son of Sydenham Malthus, who was a clerk of Chancery and director of the South Sea Company; he was also "proprietor of several landed properties in the Home Counties and Cambridgeshire". 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 (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.Petersen, William. 1979. Malthus. Heinemann, London. 2nd ed., 1999. p. 21Essays in Biography, J. M. Keynes, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1933, pp. 96-7, 99-103{{cite web | url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-environs/vol3/pp306-319 | title=Northall (Northolt) | British History Online }} 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.The Popularization of Malthus in Early Nineteenth-Century England- Martineau, Cobbett, and the Pauper Press, James P. Huzel, Ashgate, 2006, p. 15{{cite book|first=John|last=Avery|title=Progress, Poverty and Population: Re-Reading Condorcet, Godwin and Malthus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZA0lNlvbh0sC&pg=PA56|date=1997|publisher=Psychology Press|location=London, England|isbn=978-0-7146-4750-0|pages=56–57}}

Malthus entered Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1784. While there, he took prizes in English declamation, Latin and Greek, and graduated with honours, Ninth Wrangler in mathematics. His tutor was William Frend.Petersen, William. 1979. Malthus. Heinemann, London. 2nd ed., 1999. p. 28 He took the MA degree in 1791, and was elected a Fellow of Jesus College two years later.{{acad|id=MLTS784TR|name=Malthus, Thomas Robert}} In 1789, he took orders in the Church of England, and became a curate at Oakwood Chapel (also Okewood) in the parish of Wotton, Surrey.{{cite book|first=Thomas Robert|last=Malthus|title=T.R. Malthus: The Unpublished Papers in the Collection of Kanto Gakuen University|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-AgghdjSxQEC&pg=PA54|date=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|isbn=978-0-521-58138-7|page=54 note 196}}

{{more citations needed|section|date=February 2021}}

{{further|Malthusian catastrophe}}

File:Malthus - Essay on the principle of population, 1826 - 5884843.tif

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) 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).[https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2020.1823479 Henry-James Meiring, "Thomas Robert Malthus, Naturalist of the Mind," Annals of Science 77 (2020): 495-523] 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.{{cite book|first=G. Talbot|last=Griffith|title=Population Problems of the Age of Malthus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NkUoqtdA4oAC&pg=PA97|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|isbn=978-0-691-10240-5|page=97}}

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.{{cite book |last1=Walter |first1=R |title=Malthus Across Nations |date=2020 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing. |chapter=Malthus's principle of population in Britain: restatement and antiquation}} The controversy, however, concerns the relevance of Malthusian theory in the present world. This hypothesis is inapplicable in a number of ways. First, the hypothesis is rendered irrelevant,{{cite thesis |last=Brooks |first=Jonathan |title=Settler Colonialism, Primitive Accumulation, and Biopolitics in Xinjiang, China |type= MSc |publisher= London School of Economics |doi= 10.2139/ssrn.3965577 |date=18 Nov 2021}} 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).{{cite journal |last1=Mokyr |first1=J |title=The past and the future of innovation: Some lessons from economic history |journal=Explorations in Economic History |date=2018 |volume=69 |issue=69 |pages=13–26|doi=10.1016/j.eeh.2018.03.003 |s2cid=158447130 }} Second, the mathematical model employed to formulate the hypothesis is incorrect since it was constrained to England's specific situation.{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=K |title=The Malthusian Controversy |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge}} Other findings, such as food production exceeding population increase, may be borne out if the modeling could employ wide locations like Australia.{{cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=T |title=The Malthusian moment |date=2012 |publisher=Rutgers University Press.}} The Malthusian hypothesis is also limited by social change about family size,{{cite book |last1=Malthus |first1=T.R. |editor1-last=Winch |editor1-first=Donald |editor2-last=James |editor2-first=Patricia |title=An Essay on the Principle of Population |date=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location= Cambridge |isbn= 978-0-5214-2972-6}} as individuals tend to prefer a manageable family owing to economic restrictions.

Food production can also outpace population expansion, due to the industrial revolution.{{cite book |last1=Kallis |first1=G |title=Limits: Why Malthus was wrong and why environmentalists should care |date=2019 |publisher=Stanford University Press}} Another limitation of this theory is the belief that overall income is a key factor of population health,{{cite book |last1=Cremaschi |first1=S |title=Utilitarianism and Malthus's Virtue Ethics: Respectable, virtuous and happy |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge}} implying that wealthy countries will have various solutions for their rapidly rising populations.{{cite book |last1=Chiarini |first1=B |editor1-last=Malanima |editor1-first=P |editor2-last=Piga |editor2-first=G |title=From Malthus' stagnation to sustained growth: social, demographic and economic factors |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan}} An expanding population can be considered as an increase of available human capacity for increasing food production.{{cite news |title=Malthus, the false prophet |url=https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2008/05/15/malthus-the-false-prophet |access-date=30 January 2023 |newspaper=The Economist |date=2008}} The static aspect of the Malthusian hypothesis, which is based on the rule of decreasing returns,{{cite news |last1=Patel |first1=R |title='The End of Plenty,' by Joel K. Bourne Jr |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/books/review/the-end-of-plenty-by-joel-k-bourne-jr.html |access-date=30 January 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=2015}} limits its applicability. Finally, Malthusian Theory's failure to determine whether birth rates match death rates hampered its application,{{cite news |last1=Shermer |first1=M |title=Why Malthus Is Still Wrong |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-malthus-is-still-wrong/ |access-date=30 January 2023 |work=Scientific American |date=2016}} because it was possible that the population was not rising as fast as food production due to the presence of deaths.

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 tour to gather population data. Otter later wrote a Memoir of Malthus for the second (1836) edition of his Principles of Political Economy.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Otter, William|volume=42}}{{cite ODNB|id=20935|title=Otter, William|first=Arthur|last=Burns}} During the Peace of Amiens of 1802 he travelled to France and Switzerland, in a party that included his relation and future wife Harriet.{{cite book|first1=Jean-Antoine-Nicolas|last1=de Caritat Condorcet (marquès de)|author-link1=Marquis de Condorcet|first2=William|last2=Godwin|author-link2=William Godwin|first3=Thomas Robert|last3=Malthus|editor-first=John|editor-last=Avery|title=Progress, Poverty and Population: Re-Reading Condorcet, Godwin and Malthus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZA0lNlvbh0sC&pg=PA64|date=1997|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon, England|isbn=978-0-7146-4750-0|page=64}}

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.Malthus T. R. 1798. The Essay of the Population Principle. Oxford World's Classics reprint: xxix, Chronology. 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 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.{{cite book|author=Thomas Robert Malthus|title=T.R. Malthus: The Unpublished Papers in the Collection of Kanto Gakuen University|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-AgghdjSxQEC&pg=PA120|date=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-58138-7|page=120 notes}}

In 1818, Malthus became a Fellow of the Royal Society.

{{Capitalism sidebar}}

During the 1820s, a setpiece intellectual discussion took place among the exponents of political economy, often called the Malthus–Ricardo debate after its leading figures, Malthus and theorist of free trade 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.{{cite book|first=Mary|last=Poovey|author-link=Mary Poovey|title=A History of the Modern Fact: Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of Wealth and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cf7ProAtFBkC&pg=PA295|date=1998|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, Illinois|isbn=978-0-226-67525-1|page=295}} 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.On The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, London: John Murray, Albemarle-Street, by David Ricardo, 1817 (third edition 1821) – Chapter 6, On Profits: paragraph 28, "Thus, taking the former ..." and paragraph 33, "There can, however ..." Contrary to this concept, Malthus proposed rent to be a kind of economic surplus.{{Cite web|url=http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/jhamlin/4111/Malthus/Thomas%20Robert%20Malthus.htm|title=Thomas Robert Malthus|website=www.d.umn.edu|access-date=2019-11-19}}

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 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.{{cite book|first=Donald|last=Winch|author-link=Donald Winch|title=Riches and Poverty: An Intellectual History of Political Economy in Britain, 1750–1834|url=https://archive.org/details/richespovertyint0000winc|url-access=registration|access-date=14 June 2013|date=26 January 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|isbn=978-0-521-55920-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/richespovertyint0000winc/page/365 365]}}

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.{{cite book|author1=Stefan Collini|author2-link=Donald Winch|author2=Donald Winch|author3-link=John Wyon Burrow|author3=John Wyon Burrow|title=That Noble Science of Politics: A Study in Nineteenth Century Intellectual History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E688AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA65|date=1983|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-27770-9|page=65|author1-link=Stefan Collini}} 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.{{cite book|author=Leslie Stephen|title=The English Utilitarians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-QKLMdbt5JIC&pg=PA238|date=2006|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8264-8816-9|page=238|volume=1|author-link=Leslie Stephen}}

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.{{cite book|author=Samuel Hollander|title=Jean-Baptiste Say and the Classical Canon in Economics: The British Connection in French Classicism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IZdF-SECz9cC&pg=PA170|date=2005|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-02228-3|page=170}}

In terms of public policy, Malthus was a supporter of the protectionist Corn Laws from the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He emerged as the only economist of note to support duties on imported grain.Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. xx in Oxford World's Classics series. xx By encouraging domestic production, Malthus argued, the Corn Laws would guarantee British self-sufficiency in food.Cannan E. 1893. A History of the Theories of Production and Distribution in English Political Economy from 1776 to 1848. Kelly, New York.

Malthus was a founding member in 1821 of the Political Economy Club, where John Cazenove tended to be his ally against Ricardo and Mill.{{cite book|author=Thomas Robert Malthus|title=Principles of Political Economy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qjs1DUxjFr8C&pg=PR58|date=1989|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-24775-7|page=lxviii}} 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, founded in March 1834. In 1827 he gave evidence to a committee of the House of Commons on emigration.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Malthus, Thomas Robert|volume=36}}

In 1827, he published Definitions in Political Economy{{cite book|last1=Malthus|first1=Thomas Robert|title=Definitions in Political Economy Preceded by an Inquiry into the Rules which Ought to Guide Political Economists in the Definition and Use of Their Terms, with Remarks on the Deviation from These Rules in Their Writings|url=https://archive.org/details/definitionsinpo00maltgoog|date=1827|publisher=John Murray|location=London}} 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 criticised 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.{{cite book|last1=Malthus|first1=Thomas Robert|title=Definitions in Political Economy|date=2016|publisher=Berkeley Bridge Press|location=McLean|isbn=978-1-945208-01-0|url=http://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781945208010}}

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.{{cite journal|last1=McCulloch|first1=John Ramsay|title=A Review of Definitions in Political Economy by the Rev. T. R. Malthus|journal=The Scotsman|date=1827-03-10|page=1}} 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,{{cite book|last1=McCulloch|first1=John Ramsay|title=The Principles of Political Economy|date=1825|publisher=William & Charles Tait|location=Edinburgh}} and his counter-attack "does little credit to his reputation", being largely "personal derogation" of Malthus.Morton Paglin's "Introduction" to: {{cite book|last1=Malthus|first1=Thomas Robert|title=Definitions in Political Economy|date=1986|publisher=Augustus M. Kelley|location=Fairfield, New Jersey|page=xiii}} 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.{{cite book|author=James P. Huzel|title=The Popularization of Malthus in Early Nineteenth-Century England: Martineau, Cobbett And the Pauper Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uPNic3dUOacC&pg=PA38|date=2006|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-5427-8|page=38}} On the other hand, Malthus did have supporters, including Thomas Chalmers, some of the Oriel Noetics, Richard Jones and William Whewell from Cambridge.{{cite book|author=Donald Winch|title=Riches and Poverty: An Intellectual History of Political Economy in Britain, 1750–1834|date=26 January 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-55920-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/richespovertyint0000winc/page/371 371–72]|url=https://archive.org/details/richespovertyint0000winc/page/371}}

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,Painted by John Linnell and seen here in a cropped and scanned monochrome version. and descriptions by contemporaries, present him as tall and good-looking, but with a cleft lip and palate.{{cite book|first=M.H|last=Hodgson|chapter=Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834)|editor-first=Donald|editor-last=Rutherford|title=Biographical Dictionary of British Economists|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|location=London, England|date=2007|isbn=9781843711513}}

On 13 March 1804, Thomas Malthus married Harriet Eckersall, the eldest daughter of his first cousins John and Catherine Eckersall, who lived near Bath. Harriet became well-known at Haileybury College for hosting gatherings of notable scientists; eleven years younger than Thomas, she survived him by thirty years, remarrying after his death.{{cite book |last1=Knowlton |first1=Charles |last2=Besant |first2=Annie |editor1-last=Chandrasekhar |editor1-first=S |title=Reproductive Physiology and Birth Control |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |pages=4–6}}

The couple had a son, Henry, and two daughters, Emily and Lucille. Henry, the eldest, 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. Emily, the middle child, died in 1885, outliving her parents and siblings. Lucille, the youngest, died unmarried and childless in 1825, at age 17.{{cite book |last1=Malthus |first1=T |editor1-last=Pullen |editor1-first=J. |editor2-last=Parry |editor2-first=T. Hughes |title=T. R. Malthus: The Unpublished Papers in the Collection of Kanto Gakuen University |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |pages=242–274 |chapter=Letters to Harriet Malthus from her mother, Catherine Eckersall}}

{{main|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:

{{blockquote|Yet in all societies, even those that are most vicious, the tendency to a virtuous attachment [i.e., marriage] is so strong that there is a constant effort towards an increase of population. This constant effort as constantly tends to subject the lower classes of the society to distress and to prevent any great permanent amelioration of their condition.|Malthus, T. R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Chapter II, p. 18 in Oxford World's Classics reprint.}}

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.Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. viii

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.See, e.g., Peter Turchin 2003; [http://cliodynamics.info/PDF/Turchin_Korotayev_SEH_2006.pdf Turchin and Korotayev 2006] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229202712/http://cliodynamics.info/PDF/Turchin_Korotayev_SEH_2006.pdf |date=29 February 2012 }}; Peter Turchin et al. 2007; Korotayev et al. 2006.

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:

{{blockquote|If the subsistence for man that the earth affords was to be increased every twenty-five years by a quantity equal to what the whole world at present produces, this would allow the power of production in the earth to be absolutely unlimited, and its ratio of increase much greater than we can conceive that any possible exertions of mankind could make it ... yet still the power of population being a power of a superior order, the increase of the human species can only be kept commensurate to the increase of the means of subsistence by the constant operation of the strong law of necessity acting as a check upon the greater power.|Malthus T. R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Chapter 2, p. 8Oxford World's Classics reprint}}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.Essay (1826), I:2. See also A:1:17 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.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-q_SSfE6skC&pg=PA5 |title=An Essay on the Principle of Population (Two Volumes in One)|last=Malthus|first=Thomas Robert|date=2011-12-01|publisher=Cosimo, Inc.|isbn=9781616405700|pages=5–11|language=en}}

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."Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint, p. xviii

The first edition of the Essay on the Principle of Population also contained a sophisticated theory of mind which attempted to explain human behaviour. This materialist conception of mind emphasised its corporeal and irrational nature which operated according to an economy of desire. Malthus believed that innate bodily desires, passions, and impulses made demands on the organism to be satiated which in turn gave rise to the mental apparatus. He excised his theory of mind from all future editions of the Essay following accusations of materialism and atheism.

• 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.
• 1830: Malthus had a long extract from the 1823 article reprinted as A summary view of the Principle of Population.dates from Malthus T.R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint: xxix Chronology.

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.1800: The present high price of provisions, paragraph 26

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 passed legislation banning the importation of foreign corn into Britain until domestic corn cost 80 shillings per quarter.{{clarify|date=April 2018}} 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 in Manchester in 1819.{{cite book|first=Francis Wrigley|last=Hirst|title=From Adam Smith to Philip Snowden: a History of Free Trade in Great Britain|publisher=T. Fisher Unwin|location=London, England|date=1925|asin=B007T0ONNO|page=88}}{{cite book|first=Eric|last=Hobsbawm|title=Industry and Empire: The Birth of the Industrial Revolution|publisher=The New Press|location=New York City|date=1999|isbn=978-1565845619|page=175|quote=The Corn Laws... safeguarded farmers from the consequences of their wartime euphoria, when farms had changed hands at the fanciest prices, loans and mortgages had been accepted on impossible terms}}

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.

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).See {{cite book|last=Malthus|first=Thomas Robert|year=1820|title=Principles of Political Economy Considered with a View of their Practical Application|edition=1|publisher=John Murray|publication-date=1820|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b_dBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PR1}} 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".{{cite book|title=Jean-Baptiste Say: Critical Assessments of Leading Economists|volume=5|chapter=Say's Law and Keynesian Economics|first=Tyler|last=Cowen|date=2000|page=319}}

• 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.

{{further|An Essay on the Principle of Population#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.{{cite book|author1=Steven G. Medema|author2=Warren J. Samuels|title=The History of Economic Thought: A Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uY3TITTPxTIC&pg=PA291|date=2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-20550-4|page=291}}

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 into large manufacturing and commercial Towns",{{cite book|author=David Ricardo|date=1952|title=The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo: Vol. 7. Piero Sraffa, (ed.). p. 175}}{{Cite journal|last=Mokyr|first=Joel|date=1980|title=Malthusian Models and Irish History|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120439|journal=The Journal of Economic History|volume=40|issue=1|pages=(159–166), 159|doi=10.1017/S0022050700104681|jstor=2120439|s2cid=153849339 |issn=0022-0507|url-access=subscription}} a comparatively early contribution was Observations on the population and resources of Ireland (1821) by the polymath and physician Whitely Stokes.{{Cite book|last=Stokes|first=Whitley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fyBcAAAAcAAJ|title=Observations on the Population and Resources of Ireland|date=1821|publisher=Joshua Porter|pages=|language=en}} Finding fault in Malthus's calculations and juxtapositions--"the possible increase of man in America" measured against "the probable increase in [food] production 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.Stokes (1821), pp. 4-5, 89-91

{{in popular culture|date=January 2018}}

• Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens represents the perceived ideas of Malthus,{{cite book |last=Dickens |first=Charles |title=A Christmas carol in prose |page=[https://archive.org/details/achristmascarol00leecgoog/page/n32 14] |publisher=Bradword, Evans |year=1845 |url=https://archive.org/details/achristmascarol00leecgoog}} 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 and other novels), and he concentrated his attacks on Utilitarianism and many of its proponents, like Jeremy Bentham, whom he thought of, along with Malthus, as unjust and inhumane.{{cite book |last=Paroissien |first=David |title=A companion to Charles Dickens |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rATJ49kDnj8C&pg=PA160 |year=2008 |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-3097-4}}
• 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".{{cite book|last1=Huxley|first1=Aldous|title=Brave New World|url=https://opentextbc.ca/englishliterature/chapter/brave-new-world-chapter-three/|date=1932|chapter= Chapter 3|publisher=Harper & Brothers|oclc=459490586|location=New York}}
• In the musical Urinetown, written by Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann, 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.{{cite news|url=https://www.news18.com/news/movies/avengers-infinity-war-thanos-the-malthusian-purple-dude-is-the-best-villain-of-mcu-1732007.html|title=Avengers: Infinity War-Thanos, the Malthusian Purple Dude is the Best Villain of MCU|work=News18|access-date=2018-04-27}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/04/avengers-infinity-war-marvel-review/558983/|title='Avengers: Infinity War' Is an Extraordinary Juggling Act|last=Orr|first=Christopher|work=The Atlantic|access-date=2018-04-27|language=en-US}}
• 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".

File:Epitaph of Thomas Malthus.jpg of Malthus just inside the entrance to Bath Abbey]]

The epitaph of Malthus in Bath Abbey reads [with commas inserted for clarity]:

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.

{{div col|colwidth=25em}}

• Cornucopianism, a counter-Malthusian school of thought
• Exponential growth
• Food race, a related idea from Daniel Quinn
• The Limits to Growth, from the Club of Rome
• Hong Liangji, a similar theorist in China, contemporary with Malthus
• Human overpopulation
• Malthusian equilibrium
• Malthusian growth model
• Malthusian trap
• Malthusianism
• National Security Study Memorandum 200
• Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.
• World population

{{div col end}}

{{reflist}}

• {{DNB|wstitle=Malthus, Thomas Robert|volume=36}}
• Dupâquier, J. 2001. Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834). International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 9151–56. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080926130233/http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7MRM-4MT09VJ-4S9&_rdoc=91&_hierId=151000072&_refWorkId=21&_explode=151000072&_fmt=summary&_orig=na&_docanchor=&_idxType=SC&view=c&_ct=148&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=685fb8a1cd6de6058530507b5b86695f 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, {{doi|10.1080/09672567.2012.654805}}.
• Hollander, Samuel 1997. The Economics of Thomas Robert Malthus. University of Toronto Press. Dedicated to Malthus by the author. {{ISBN|0-521-64685-5}}.
• 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. {{ISBN|978-1-945208-01-0}}.
• Peterson, William 1999. Malthus, founder of modern demography 2nd ed. Transaction. {{ISBN|0-7658-0481-6}}.
• 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
• {{cite book |last=Spiegel |first=Henry William |title=The growth of economic thought |edition=3 |orig-year=1971 |year=1991 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham, NC |isbn=978-0-8223-0965-9|pages=868}}
• Wells, Roger. Wretched Faces: Famine in Wartime England 1793-1801. Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-862-99333-7}}.

{{refbegin}}

• Bashford, Alison, and Joyce E. Chaplin. The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus: Rereading the Principle of Population (Princeton University Press, 2016). vii + 353 pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sKrPCgAAQBAJ excerpt]; also [http://eh.net/?s=New+Worlds+of+Thomas+Robert+Malthus online review]
• Elwell, Frank W. 2001. A Commentary on Malthus' 1798 Essay on Population as social theory Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. {{ISBN|0-7734-7669-5}}.
• Heilbroner, Robert, The Worldly Philosophers – the lives, times, and ideas of the great economic thinkers. (1953) [https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/w/the-worldly-philosophers/about-the-worldly-philosophers commentary]
• {{cite book |last=Kallis|first=Giorgos |author-link=Giorgos Kallis|date=2019 |title=Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care|url= |location= |publisher=Stanford Briefs|page= |isbn=978-1503611559}}
• {{cite book |last=Mayhew |first=Robert J. |year=2014 |title=Malthus: The Life and Legacies of an Untimely Prophet |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Belknap Press |isbn=978-0-674-72871-4}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060113213030/http://www.npg.org/projects/malthus/malthus_index.htm Negative Population Growth organization]: a collection of essays for the Malthus Bicentenary
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081020110110/http://www.naf.org.au/papers.htm National Academics Forum, Australia]: 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 ({{ISBN|978-4-902454-14-7}}) www.aplink.co.jp/ep/4-902454-14-9.htm
• National Geographic Magazine, June 2009 article, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090521115531/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/06/cheap-food/bourne-text/4 "The Global Food Crisis"]

{{refend}}

{{wikisource|works=or}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Commons category|Thomas Malthus}}

• {{Gutenberg author|id=1411}}
• {{Internet Archive author|sname=Thomas Robert Malthus}}
• {{Librivox author|id=5203}}
• {{cite book|last=Malthus|first=Thomas Robert|editor1-last=Gilbert|editor1-first=Geoffrey|title=An Essay on the Principle of Population|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yxoe-sEcHNgC|series=Oxford world's classics|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-283747-9|pages=208}}
• {{CathEncy|wstitle=Theories of Population}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051231111031/http://www.unfpa.org/intercenter/food/morefood.htm More Food for More People But Not For All, and Not Forever] United Nations Population Fund website [Not found]
• [http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles_pdf/feast_of_malthus.pdf The Feast of Malthus] by Garrett Hardin in The Social Contract (1998)
• [http://desip.igc.org/malthus The International Society of Malthus]
• [http://human-nature.com/dm/chap2.html Online chapter "Malthus and the Evolutionists: The Common Context of Biological and Social Theory"] from Darwin's Metaphor: Nature's Place in Victorian Culture by Professor Robert M. Young (1985, 1988, 1994). Cambridge University Press.
• {{cite encyclopedia |title=Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) |url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Malthus.html |encyclopedia=The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics |edition=2nd |series=Library of Economics and Liberty |publisher=Liberty Fund |year=2008 }}
• {{Find a Grave|21117}}

{{classical economists}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malthus, Thomas Robert}}

Category:1766 births

Category:1834 deaths

Category:18th-century British economists

Category:18th-century English Anglican priests

Category:18th-century British essayists

Category:18th-century English male writers

Category:19th-century British economists

Category:19th-century English writers

Category:19th-century English essayists

Category:19th-century British male writers

Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge

Category:Anglican writers

Category:British demographers

Category:British East India Company people

Category:Classical economists

Category:English essayists

Category:English male non-fiction writers

Category:English religious writers

Category:Charles Darwin

Category:English theologians

Category:Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:History of evolutionary biology

Category:British male essayists

Category:British non-fiction environmental writers

Category:People from Bramcote

Category:People from Mole Valley (district)

Category:Proto-evolutionary biologists

Category:British sustainability advocates

Category:Theoretical historians

Category:Environmental philosophers

Category:Malthusians