Thomas Malthus Essay On The Principle Of Population

We just want to mention what the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said.

In short: these people believed in progress or the improvement of the living conditions for all.

Thomas Malthus (1766 -1834) was a political economist and Enlightenment thinker who observed the growing population with increasing concern.

According to Malthus population increases faster than the supply of food available for its needs.

Whenever a relative gain occurs in food production over population growth, a higher rate of population increase is stimulated.

One hundred and fifty years before, Europe had a static population of approximately 100,000,000.

NEVER was a book more perfectly timed than Thomas Robert Malthus' "Essay on the Principle of Population." It appeared in 1798, in the midst of the Demographic Revolution, and in the land whose population was to increase at a faster pace in the coming "British century" than that of any country on the Continent.AN ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION AS IT AFFECTS THE FUTURE IMPROVEMENT OF SOCIETY, WITH REMARKS ON THE SPECULATIONS OF MR. But in 1798, when Europe's population of about 187,-000,000 was beginning to multiply -- and, despite vast migrations, was to reach a total of 550,000,000 -- the principles of population increase propounded in the "Essay" had a terrifying importance. One hundred and fifty years later the advanced nations of Western Europe were to face a problem of declining numbers.However, threat of dearth and famine was still a fact of life for many Europeans.In fact, population growth drove people to the margins of subsistence in an already impoverished environment.Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist and demographer.He was born in 1766 into a wealthy family: his father was a personal friend of the philosopher David Hume and was in contact with Jean-Jacques Rousseau.The young Malthus was educated at Jesus College in Cambridge.After graduation, he chose a religious career and in 1797 was ordained an Anglican pastor. In 1798, he published his most famous treatise, Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio.By the end of the 18th century population growth in England and other parts of Europe accelerated due to increases in agricultural production as well as technological innovation linked to the industrial revolution, but more important European expansion overseas.European powers were importing food and resources from other parts of the world that were in short supply at home and exported part of its excess population to the colonies.