Thomas Robert Malthus

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Thomas Robert Malthus bigraphy, stories - English demographer and political economist

Thomas Robert Malthus : biography

13 February 1766 – 23 December 1834

The Reverend (Thomas) Robert Malthus FRS (13 February 1766 – 23 December 1834Several sources give Malthus’s date of death as 29 December 1834. See (Leipzig, 4th edition, 1885–1892), by Nigel Malthus (the memorial transcription reproduced in this article). But the 1911 gives 23 December 1834.) was a British cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography.Petersen, William. 1979. Malthus. Heinemann, London. 2nd ed 1999. Malthus himself used only his middle name Robert.

Malthus became widely known for his theories about change in population. His An Essay on the Principle of Population observed that sooner or later population will be checked by famine and disease. He wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible.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. He thought that the dangers of population growth precluded progress towards a utopian society: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man".Malthus T.R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Chapter 1, p 13 in Oxford World’s Classics reprint. As a cleric, Malthus saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behaviour.

Malthus wrote: 

Malthus placed the longer-term stability of the economy above short-term expediency. He criticised the Poor Laws,Malthus T.R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Chapter V, p 39–45. in Oxford World’s Classics reprint. and (alone among important contemporary economists) supported the Corn Laws, which introduced a system of taxes on British imports of wheat.Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World’s Classics reprint. xx. 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.Browne, Janet 1995. Charles Darwin: Voyaging. Cape, London. pp 385–390Raby P. 2001. Alfred Russel Wallace: a life. Princeton. p 21 and 131 He remains a much-debated writer.

Early life and education

The sixth of seven children of Daniel and Henrietta Malthus, Robert Malthus grew up in The Rookery, a country house in Dorking, near Westcott in Surrey. Petersen describes Daniel Malthus as "a gentleman of good family and independent means… [and] a friend of David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau".Petersen, William. 1979. Malthus. Heinemann, London. 2nd ed 1999. p 21 The young Malthus received his education at home in Bramcote, Nottinghamshire, and then at the Warrington Academy from 1782. Warrington was a dissenting academy, then at the end of its existence. and it closed in 1783. Malthus continued for a period to be tutored by Gilbert Wakefield who had taught him there.

Malthus entered Jesus College, Cambridge in 1784. 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. 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.

Reception and influence

Malthus developed the theory of demand-supply mismatches that he called gluts. Discounted at the time, this theory foreshadowed later works of an admirer, John Maynard Keynes.

The vast bulk of continuing commentary on Malthus, however, extends and expands on the "Malthusian controversy" of the early 19th century.

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: