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An Essay on the Principle of Population

An Essay on the Principle of Population

The 1803 Edition

by Thomas Robert Malthus

Edited by Shannon C. Stimson

Series: Rethinking the Western Tradition

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Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) was an English cleric and scholar. Shannon C. Stimson holds the Leavey Chair in the Foundations of American Freedom at Georgetown University. Her books include After Adam Smith: A Century of Transformation in Politics and Political Economy , Ricardian Politics , both with Murray Milgate, and The American Revolution in the Law .

“This affordable version represents significant added value, not only by providing a crisp readable text, but by its inclusion of five interpretive essays.”—Choice “This new edition fills a real gap and makes available a text of pivotal significance in nineteenth and twentieth century intellectual history. The ancillary essays make this a very useful edition for students and scholars alike.”—Robert Mayhew, author of Malthus: The Life and Legacies of an Untimely Prophet  

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An Essay on the Principle of Population by T. R. Malthus

Book Cover

An Essay on the Principle of Population

By thomas robert malthus.

There are two versions of Thomas Robert Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population . The first, published anonymously in 1798, was so successful that Malthus soon elaborated on it under his real name. * The rewrite, culminating in the sixth edition of 1826, was a scholarly expansion and generalization of the first.Following his success with his work on population, Malthus published often from his economics position on the faculty at the East India College at Haileybury. He was not only respected in his time by contemporaneous intellectuals for his clarity of thought and willingness to focus on the evidence at hand, but he was also an engaging writer capable of presenting logical and mathematical concepts succinctly and clearly. In addition to writing principles texts and articles on timely topics such as the corn laws, he wrote in many venues summarizing his initial works on population, including a summary essay in the Encyclopædia Britannica on population.The first and sixth editions are presented on Econlib in full. Minor corrections of punctuation, obvious spelling errors, and some footnote clarifications are the only substantive changes. * Malthus’s “real name” may have been Thomas Robert Malthus, but a descendent, Nigel Malthus, reports that his family says he did not use the name Thomas and was known to friends and colleagues as Bob. See The Malthus Homepage, a site maintained by Nigel Malthus, a descendent.For more information on Malthus’s life and works, see New School Profiles: Thomas Robert Malthus and The International Society of Malthus. Lauren Landsburg

Editor, Library of Economics and Liberty

First Pub. Date

London: J. Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-yard

1st edition

The text of this edition is in the public domain. Picture of Malthus courtesy of The Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter III
  • Chapter VII
  • Chapter VIII
  • Chapter XII
  • Chapter XIII
  • Chapter XIV
  • Chapter XVI
  • Chapter XVII
  • Chapter XVIII
  • Chapter XIX

The following Essay owes its origin to a conversation with a friend, on the subject of Mr. Godwin’s Essay, on avarice and profusion, in his Enquirer. The discussion, started the general question of the future improvement of society; and the Author at first sat down with an intention of merely stating his thoughts to his friend, upon paper, in a clearer manner than he thought he could do in conversation. But as the subject opened upon him, some ideas occurred, which he did not recollect to have met with before; and as he conceived, that every, the least light, on a topic so generally interesting, might be received with candour, he determined to put his thoughts in a form for publication.

The Essay might, undoubtedly, have been rendered much more complete by a collection of a greater number of facts in elucidation of the general argument. But a long and almost total interruption, from very particular business, joined to a desire (perhaps imprudent) of not delaying the publication much beyond the time that he originally proposed, prevented the Author from giving to the subject an undivided attention. He presumes, however, that the facts which he has adduced, will be found, to form no inconsiderable evidence for the truth of his opinion respecting the future improvement of mankind. As the Author contemplates this opinion at present, little more appears to him to be necessary than a plain statement, in addition to the most cursory view of society, to establish it.

It is an obvious truth, which has been taken notice of by many writers, that population must always be kept down to the level of the means of subsistence; but no writer, that the Author recollects, has inquired particularly into the means by which this level is effected: and it is a view of these means, which forms, to his mind, the strongest obstacle in the way to any very great future improvement of society. He hopes it will appear that, in the discussion of this interesting subject, he is actuated solely by a love of truth; and not by any prejudices against any particular set of men, or of opinions. He professes to have read some of the speculations on the future improvement of society, in a temper very different from a wish to find them visionary; but he has not acquired that command over his understanding which would enable him to believe what he wishes, without evidence, or to refuse his assent to what might be unpleasing, when accompanied with evidence.

The view which he has given of human life has a melancholy hue; but he feels conscious, that he has drawn these dark tints, from a conviction that they are really in the picture; and not from a jaundiced eye or an inherent spleen of disposition. The theory of mind which he has sketched in the two last chapters, accounts to his own understanding in a satisfactory manner, for the existence of most of the evils of life; but whether it will have the same effect upon others, must be left to the judgement of his readers.

If he should succeed in drawing the attention of more able men, to what he conceives to be the principal difficulty in the way to the improvement of society, and should, in consequence, see this difficulty removed, even in theory, he will gladly retract his present opinions and rejoice in a conviction of his error.

Malthus�s Population Principle Explained

By Frank W. Elwell

This essay is a faithful summary of Malthus�s original 1798 �Principle of Population .� While nothing will substitute for reading the original essay with an open mind, I hope this summary will go some way toward rehabilitating this man�s reputation.

Here is the key to that riddle: Malthus made the mistake of illustrating the unequal powers of production and reproduction with a mathematical illustration. He supposes that when unchecked, the earth�s human population would double every twenty-five years (a good estimate consistent with current knowledge). Agricultural production at best, he argues, could not possibly keep pace.

He knows full well that population cannot grow long beyond the means of subsistence (�population must always be kept down to the means of subsistence�), he is simply trying to illustrate to his readers the unequal powers of growth in population and food production and therefore the necessity of checks on population. At one point in the Essay he even states: �I am sufficiently aware that the redundant twenty-eight millions, or seventy-seven millions, that I have mentioned, could never have existed� (63). But for various reasons many critics have taken this mental experiment as the theory of population itself and delight in writing that Malthus was wrong, that overshoot and collapse did not occur. Contrary to popular belief (and the belief of many who should know better), Malthus did not predict a future in which population would outrun food supply and eventually collapse.

Other critics write that Malthus was wrong because he did not take into account the possibility of dramatic increases in the production of food. Many criticize him for not taking into account the revolution in agriculture. But he anticipated this argument as well:

No limits whatever are placed to the productions of the earth; they may increase for ever and be greater than any assignable quantity, 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 (9-10).

What are these checks that Malthus writes about? They are of two types: �Preventive checks� come into play through the �foresight of the difficulties attending the rearing of a family� (22). They include celibacy, contraception, and various forms of non-procreative sex. �Positive checks,� are the �actual distresses of some of the lower classes, by which they are disabled from giving the proper food and attention to their children� (22). Under this heading Malthus includes extreme poverty, diseases, plague, malnutrition, wars, infanticide, and famine. Positive checks are far more likely to operate within poor populations; preventive checks among the upper classes. In Malthus�s view, both positive and preventive checks�or the ways a people go about controlling their fertility�will greatly impact the rest of the sociocultural system.

Malthus�s principle of population is basically the law of supply and demand applied to the relationships between food production and population growth , which he makes clear time and again throughout the Essay. As the food supply increases, food becomes cheaper, and more children are brought into the world. As there are more mouths to feed, food becomes more expensive, thus causing stress on families, more children dying or steps taken to prevent conception itself. As food prices rise, more land is put under the plow, or greater efforts made in intensifying the production of the land itself.

Because people can reproduce faster than they can increase the production of food, population must always be checked through positive or preventive means. This and nothing more, is Malthus�s �Principle of Population.� Over the course of sociocultural evolution, however, the long-term tendency has been for both productivity and population to intensify. This reciprocal growth, of course, has great effect on other parts of the sociocultural system.

For a more extensive discussion of Malthus�s theories refer to Macro Social Theory by Frank W. Elwell.  Also see Sociocultural Systems: Principles of Structure and Change to learn how his insights contribute to a more complete understanding of modern societies.

Bibliography

Elwell, F. (2009), Macrosociology: The Study of Sociocultural Systems . Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.

Elwell, F. (2013), Sociocultural Systems: Principles of Structure and Change. Alberta: Athabasca University Press.

Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert) (2012-05-12). An Essay on the Principle of Population.   Kindle Edition.

Referencing this Site

To reference Malthus's Population Principle Explained you should use the following format: 

Elwell, Frank W., 2003, "Malthus's Population Principle Explained," Retrieved August 31, 2013, [use actual date] http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Essay/Malthus1.htm 

�2013 Frank Elwell, Send comments to felwell at rsu.edu

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Malthus, Thomas - An Essay on the Principal of Population (1798)

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Thomas Malthus

An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus

Written: 1798 Source : Rod Hay's Archive for the History of Economic Thought , McMaster University, Canada html Markup: Andy Blunden

Question stated - Little prospect of a determination of it, from the enmity of the opposing parties - The principal argument against the perfectibility of man and of society has never been fairly answered - Nature of the difficulty arising from population - Outline of the principal argument of the Essay

The different ratio in which population and food increase - The necessary effects of these different ratios of increase - Oscillation produced by them in the condition of the lower classes of society - Reasons why this oscillation has not been so much observed as might be expected - Three propositions on which the general argument of the Essay depends -- The different states in which mankind have been known to exist proposed to be examined with reference to these three propositions.

The savage or hunter state shortly reviewed - The shepherd state, or the tribes of barbarians that overran the Roman Empire - The superiority of the power of population to the means of subsistence - the cause of the great tide of Northern Emigration.

State of civilized nations - Probability that Europe is much more populous now than in the time of Julius Caesar - Best criterion of population - Probable error of Hume in one the criterions that he proposes as assisting in an estimate of population - Slow increase of population at present in most of the states of Europe - The two principal checks to population - The first, or preventive check examined with regard to England.

The second, or positive check to population examined, in England - The true cause why th immense sum collected in England for the poor does not better their condition - The powerful tendency of the poor laws to defeat their own purpose - Palliative of the distresses of the poor proposed - The absolute impossibility, from the fixed laws of our nature, that the pressure of want can ever be completely removed from the lower classes of society - All the checks to population may be resolved into misery or vice.

New colonies - Reasons for their rapid increase - North American Colonies - Extraordinary instance of increase in the back settlements - Rapidity with which even old states recover the ravages of war, pestilence, famine, or the convulsions of nature.

A probable cause of epidemics - Extracts from Mr Suessmilch's tables - Periodical returns of sickly seasons to be expected in certain cases - Proportion of births to burials for short periods in any country an inadequate criterion of the real average increase of population - Best criterion of a permanent increase of population - Great frugality of living one of the causes of the famines of China and Indostan - Evil tendency of one of the clauses in Mr Pitt's Poor Bill - Only one proper way of encouraging population - Causes of the Happiness of nations - Famine, the last and most dreadful mode by which nature represses a redundant population - The three propositions considered as established.

Mr Wallace - Error of supposing that the difficulty arising from population is at a great distance - Mr Condorcet's sketch of the progress of the human mind - Period when the oscillation, mentioned by Mr Condorcet, ought to be applied to the human race.

Mr Condorcet's conjecture concerning the organic perfectibility of man, and the indefinite prolongation of human life - Fallacy of the argument, which infers an unlimited progress from a partial improvement, the limit of which cannot be ascertained, illustrated in the breeding of animals, and the cultivation of plants.

Chapter 10.

Mr Godwin's system of equality - Error of attributing all the vices of mankind to human institutions - Mr Godwin's first answer to the difficulty arising from population totally insufficient - Mr Godwin's beautiful system of equality supposed to be realized - In utter destruction simply from the principle of population in so short a time as thirty years.

Chapter 11.

Mr Godwin's conjecture concerning the future extinction of the passion between the sexes - Little apparent grounds for such a conjecture - Passion of love not inconsistent either with reason or virtue.

Chapter 12.

Mr Godwin's conjecture concerning the indefinite prolongation of human life - Improper inference drawn from the effects of mental stimulants on the human frame, illustrated in various instances - Conjectures not founded on any indications in the past not to be considered as philosophical conjectures - Mr Godwin's and Mr Condorcet's conjecture respecting the approach of man towards immortality on earth, a curious instance of the inconsistency of scepticism.

Chapter 13.

Error of Mr Godwin is considering man too much in the light of a being merely rational - In the compound being, man, the passions will always act as disturbing forces in the decisions of the understanding - Reasonings of Mr Godwin on the subject of coercion - Some truths of a nature not to be communicated from one man to another.

Chapter 14.

Mr Godwin's five propositions respecting political truth, on which his whole work hinges, not established - Reasons we have for supposing, from the distress occasioned by the principle of population, that the vices and moral weakness of man can never be wholly eradicated - Perfectibility, in the sense in which Mr Godwin uses the term, not applicable to man - Nature of the real perfectibility of man illustrated.

Chapter 15.

Models too perfect may sometimes rather impede than promote improvement - Mr Godwin's essay on 'Avarice and Profusion' - Impossibility of dividing the necessary labour of a society amicably among all -Invectives against labour may produce present evil, with little or no chance of producing future good - An accession to the mass of agricultural labour must always be an advantage to the labourer.

Chapter 16.

Probable error of Dr Adam Smith in representing every increase of the revenue or stock of a society as an increase in the funds for the maintenance of labour - Instances where an increase of wealth can have no tendency to better the condition of the labouring poor - England has increased in riches without a proportional increase in the funds for the maintenance of labour - The state of the poor in China would not be improved by an increase of wealth from manufactures.

Chapter 17.

Question of the proper definition of the wealth of a state - Reason given by the French economists for considering all manufacturers as unproductive labourers, not the true reason - The labour of artificers and manufacturers sufficiently productive to individuals, though not to the state - A remarkable passage in Dr Price's two volumes of Observations - Error of Dr Price in attributing the happiness and rapid population of America, chiefly, to its peculiar state of civilization - No advantage can be expected from shutting our eyes to the difficulties in the way to the improvement of society.

Chapter 18.

The constant pressure of distress on man, from the principle of population, seems to direct our hopes to the future - State of trial inconsistent with our ideas of the foreknowledge of God - The world, probably, a mighty process for awakening matter into mind - Theory of the formation of mind - Excitements from the wants of the body - Excitements from the operation of general laws - Excitements from the difficulties of life arising from the principle of population.

Chapter 19.

The sorrows of life necessary to soften and humanize the heart - The excitement of social sympathy often produce characters of a higher order than the mere possessors of talents - Moral evil probably necessary to the production of moral excellence - Excitements from intellectual wants continually kept up by the infinite variety of nature, and the obscurity that involves metaphysical subjects - The difficulties in revelation to be accounted for upon this principle - The degree of evidence which the scriptures contain, probably, best suited to the improvements of the human faculties, and the moral amerlioration of mankind - The idea that mind is created by excitements seems to account for the existence of natural and moral evil.

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An Essay on the Principle of Population

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An Essay on the Principle of Population begins with an appraisal of the technological discoveries that allowed for great societal changes in Malthus’s time. The pronounced advancements in the fields of natural philosophy, printing, and politics have encouraged a positive outlook on the perfectibility of humankind. Philosophers and other influential figures are fervently hooked to this topic: whereas some optimistically believe humankind may one day achieve perfection, others argue there is absolutely no escaping from “a perpetual oscillation between happiness and misery,” no matter how much growth is observed in society (1). Whereas conservative thinkers dismiss new ideas as “silly speculations,” progressives likewise believe their opponents profit too much from the abuses of society to modify their prejudiced outlooks (2). Malthus laments the lack of communication between these opposite factions and points out both are so concerned with dismissing the arguments of the other they have lost their drive to search for the truth.

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An Essay on the Principle of Population: A Quick Read edition

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This book is an essay written by Thomas Malthus titled "An Essay on the Principle of Population." Malthus argues that continued population growth leads to poverty. He wrote this essay in response to the optimism of his father and others who believed in the future improvement of society. Malthus explains that population growth expands in times of plenty until there is a shortage of resources, causing distress. He also discusses the impact of epidemics, famines, and wars on population growth. Malthus suggests that government welfare and privately supported benevolence should work together to alleviate poverty. He believes that the threat of poverty motivates hard work and virtuous behavior. Malthus also touches on the theory of mind and the relationship between population growth and the availability of resources. Despite criticism, Malthus's ideas continue to influence discussions on population growth and resource limitations. Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read. This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter. - Reading time of the complete text: about 5 hours - Reading time of the summarized text: 19 minutes

essay on the principle of population malthus

An Essay on the Principle of Population [1798, 1st ed.]

  • Thomas Robert Malthus (author)

This is the first edition of Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population. In this work Malthus argues that there is a disparity between the rate of growth of population (which increases geometrically) and the rate of growth of agriculture (which increases only arithmetically). He then explores how populations have historically been kept in check.

  • EBook PDF This text-based PDF or EBook was created from the HTML version of this book and is part of the Portable Library of Liberty.
  • Kindle This is an E-book formatted for Amazon Kindle devices.

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 (London: J. Johnson 1798). 1st edition.

The text is in the public domain.

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Critical Responses

essay on the principle of population malthus

William Godwin

A lengthy and belated reply to Malthus by the radical individualist Godwin. Whereas Malthus took a pessimistic view of the pressures of population growth, Godwin was more optimistic about the capacity of people to limit the growth of their families.

Connected Readings

Econlib Article

Morgan Rose

Thomas Robert Malthus is arguably the most maligned economist in history. For over two hundred years, since the first publication of his book An Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus’ work has been misunderstood and misrepresented, and severe, alarming predictions have been attached to his…

Malthus had no objection to the idea that wealth derived from manufacturing production could, subject to certain hindrances, be exchanged to increase the amount of food available. He seems only to have misjudged the degree to which those hindrances would be reduced over time. He did not recognize…

What to read next.

Ross Emmett

While many liberty-loving economists are happy to correct the criticisms of Smith, many are equally happy to criticize Malthus for the Malthusian trap, not realizing that the usual portrayal of Malthus is equally false. Malthus shares far more with Smith than most expect. He is, in many ways, as…

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  1. PDF An Essay on the Principle of Population

    An Essay on the Principle of Population 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. Thomas Malthus London Printed for J. Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1798. © 1998, Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project

  2. PDF Malthus: An Essay on the Principle of Population

    An essay on the principle of population: or a view of its past and present efects on human happiness, with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions / T. R. Malthus: selected and introduced by Donald Winch using the text of the 1803 edition as prepared by Patricia James for the Roya...

  3. An Essay on the Principle of Population

    Overview Between 1798 and 1826 Malthus published six editions of his famous treatise, updating each edition to incorporate new material, to address criticism, and to convey changes in his own perspectives on the subject.

  4. Thomas Malthus on population

    Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) demonstrated perfectly the propensity of each generation to overthrow the fondest schemes of the last when he published An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), in which he painted the gloomiest picture imaginable of the human prospect.

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    An Essay on the Principle of Population By Thomas Robert Malthus There are two versions of Thomas Robert Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population. The first, published anonymously in 1798, was so successful that Malthus soon elaborated on it under his real name.

  6. An Essay on the Principle of Population: The 1803 Edition on JSTOR

    An Essay on the Principle of Population: The 1803 Edition on JSTOR Journals and books Journals and books THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS Edited and with an Introduction by Shannon C. Stimson Niall O'Flaherty Deborah Valenze E. A. Wrigley Kenneth Binmore Karen O'Brien Series: Copyright Date: 2018 Published by: Yale University Press Pages: 448

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    An Essay on the Principle of Population by T. R. Malthus | Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg 72,857 free eBooks 6 by T. R. Malthus An Essay on the Principle of Population by T. R. Malthus Read now or download (free!) Similar Books Readers also downloaded… About this eBook Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by volunteers.

  9. Malthus: 'An Essay on the Principle of Population'

    Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population began life in 1798 as a polite attack on some post-French-revolutionary speculations on the theme of social and human perfectibility. It remains...

  10. An Essay on the Principle of Population as It Affects the Future

    In 1798 Thomas Malthus wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population. It posed the conundrum of geometrical population growth's outstripping arithmetic expansion in resources. Malthus, who was an Anglican clergyman, recommended late marriage and sexual abstinence as methods of birth control.

  11. An Essay on the Principle of Population

    An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus was first published anonymously in 1798. Its core argument, that human population will inevitably outgrow its capacity to produce food, widely influenced the field of early 19th century economics and social science.

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    Malthus: 'An Essay on the Principle of Population' T. R. Malthus Cambridge University Press, Aug 28, 1992 - Political Science - 430 pages This book provides a student audience with the...

  13. Thomas Robert Malthus

    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.

  14. An Essay on the Principle of Population, vol. 1 [1826, 6th ed

    Thomas Robert Malthus (author) Vol. 1 of the 6th expanded edition of the work. There are two versions of Thomas Robert Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population. The first, published anonymously in 1798, was so successful that Malthus soon elaborated on it under his real name. The rewrite, culminating in the sixth edition of 1826, was a ...

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    Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population began life in 1798 as a polite attack on some post-French-revolutionary speculations on the theme of social and human perfectibility. It remains one of the most powerful statements of the limits to human hopes set by the tension between population growth and natural resources. This edition is based ...

  16. An Essay on the Principle of Population

    An Essay on the Principle of Population By Thomas Robert Malthus There are two versions of Thomas Robert Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population. The first, published anonymously in 1798, was so successful that Malthus soon elaborated on it under his real name.

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    Malthus's Population Principle Explained. By Frank W. Elwell . This essay is a faithful summary of Malthus's original 1798 "Principle of Population." While nothing will substitute for reading the original essay with an open mind, I hope this summary will go some way toward rehabilitating this man's reputation. ...

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    In 1798 Thomas Malthus published anonymously An Essay on the Principle of Population. In subsequent editions (published from 1803 to 1826), he expanded his argument, adding more factual material and illustrations. Malthus also published a variety of pamphlets and tracts on economics and the book-length summary Principles of Political Economy ...

  19. Malthus, Thomas

    2017-03-24 03:26:49 Identifier MalthusThomasAnEssayOnThePrincipalOfPopulationEN1798140p. Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t8z94gg9q Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 Ppi 600 Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.3 Malthus, Thomas - An Essay on the Principal of Population (EN, 1798, 140p.)

  20. An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus

    An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus Written: 1798 Source: Rod Hay's Archive for the History of Economic Thought, McMaster University, Canada html Markup: Andy Blunden Preface Chapter 1.

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    Chapter 1 Summary. An Essay on the Principle of Population begins with an appraisal of the technological discoveries that allowed for great societal changes in Malthus's time. The pronounced advancements in the fields of natural philosophy, printing, and politics have encouraged a positive outlook on the perfectibility of humankind.

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    Thomas Robert Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population Chapter Summary. Find summaries for every chapter, including a An Essay on the Principle of Population Chapter Summary Chart to help you understand the book.

  23. An Essay on the Principle of Population: A Quick Read edition

    This book is an essay written by Thomas Malthus titled "An Essay on the Principle of Population." Malthus argues that continued population growth leads to poverty. He wrote this essay in response to the optimism of his father and others who believed in the future improvement of society. Malthus expl…

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    In 1 7 9 8, Thomas Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population was published. In it, he wrote: "Population, when unchecked, ncreases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.... This implies a strong and constantly operating check on population from the difficulty of subsistence."

  25. An Essay on the Principle of Population [1798, 1st ed.]

    Thomas Robert Malthus (author) There are two versions of Thomas Robert Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population. The first, published anonymously in 1798, was so successful that Malthus soon elaborated on it under his real name. The rewrite, culminating in the sixth edition of 1826, was a scholarly expansion and generalization of the first.

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    Rev. Thomas Malthus' 1798 'Essay on the Principle of Population' led to an overpopulation-scare which inspired the eugenics policies of many who came...