Thomas Robert Malthus | |
|---|---|
 Malthus in 1834 | |
| Born | 13/14 February 1766 Westcott, Surrey, England |
| Died | 29 December 1834 (aged 68) Bath, Somerset, England |
| Education | Jesus College, Cambridge (MA) |
| Spouse |
Harriet Eckersall (m. 1804) |
| Children | 3 |
| Academic career | |
| Field | |
| School or tradition | Classical economics |
| Influences | |
| Contributions | Malthusian growth model |
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Thomas Robert Malthus FRS (/ˈmælθəs/; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834)[1] was an English economist, cleric, and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography.[2]
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 use abundance for population growth rather than for maintaining a high standard of living, a view and stance 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, and disease, 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.[3]
Malthus considered 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."[4] As an Anglican cleric, he saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behavior.[5] 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."[6]
Malthus criticised the Poor Laws for leading to inflation rather than improving the well-being of the poor.[7] He supported taxes on grain imports (the Corn Laws).[8] His views became influential and controversial across economic, political, social and scientific thought. Pioneers of evolutionary biology read him, notably Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.[9][10] Malthus's failure to predict the Industrial Revolution was a frequent criticism of his theories.[11]
Malthus laid the "...theoretical foundation of the conventional wisdom that has dominated the debate, both scientifically and ideologically,[12] on global hunger and famines for almost two centuries."[13] He remains a much-debated writer.
- ^ Several sources give Malthus's date of death as 15 December 1834. See Meyers Konversationslexikon (Leipzig, 4th edition, 1885–1892), "Biography" by Nigel Malthus (the memorial transcription reproduced in this article). However, the article in . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 515. gives 23 December 1834.
- ^ Petersen, William (1979). Malthus: Founder of Modern Demography. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 19. ISBN 9780674544253.
- ^ Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. viii in Oxford World's Classics reprint.
- ^ Malthus, Thomas Robert (18 January 2010). An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxfordshire, England: Oxford World's Classics. p. 13. ISBN 978-1450535540.
- ^ Bowler, Peter J. (2003). Evolution: The History of an Idea. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. pp. 104–05. ISBN 978-0-520-23693-6.
- ^ Malthus, p. 61.
- ^ Malthus, pp. 39–45.
- ^ Malthus, p. xx.
- ^ Browne, Janet (1995). Charles Darwin: Voyaging. New York City: Random House. pp. 385–390. ISBN 978-1407053202.
- ^ Raby, Peter (2001). Alfred Russel Wallace: a Life. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 21, 131. ISBN 0-691-00695-4.
- ^ Weir D.R. (1987) Malthus’s Theory of Population. In: Palgrave Macmillan (eds) The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. DOI-10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1062-1
- ^ Daoud, Adel. (2010) "Robbins and Malthus on scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency: The missing sociocultural element." American Journal of Economics and Sociology 69.4 (2010): 1206-1229.-Daoud citing Harvey, David. (1974). "Population, Resources, and the Ideology of Science". Economic Geography 50(3): 256–277.
- ^ Daoud, Adel. (2010) "Robbins and Malthus on scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency: The missing sociocultural element." American Journal of Economics and Sociology 69.4 (2010): 1206-1229.-Daoud citing Kutzner, Patricia L. (1991). World Hunger: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio.