Preface to an essay on the principle of population. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jeffrey Edwards. An essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus. Preface. 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 least light on a topic so generally interesting might be received with candor, 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 affected, 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 by 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 judgment 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. 7th of June, 1798. End of the Preface. Recording by Jeffrey Edwards. Chapter 1 of an essay on the principle of population. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jeffrey Edwards. An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus. Chapter 1. Question Stated. Little prospect of a determination of it, from the enmity of the opposing parties, the principal argument against the perfectability of man and of society has never been fairly answered. Nature of the difficulty arising from population. Outline of the Principle Argument of the Essay. The great and unlooked-for discoveries that have taken place of late years in natural philosophy, the increasing diffusion of general knowledge from the extension of the art of printing, the ardent and unshackled spirit of inquiry that prevails throughout the lettered and even unlettered world, the new and extraordinary lights that have been thrown on political subjects which dazzle and astonish the understanding, and particularly that tremendous phenomenon in the political horizon, the French Revolution, which, like a blazing comet, seems destined either to inspire with fresh life and vigor or to scorch up and destroy the shrinking inhabitants of the earth, have all concurred to lead many able men into the opinion that we were touching on a period big with the most important changes, changes that would in some measure be decisive of the future fate of mankind. It has been said that the great question is now at issue, whether man shall henceforth start forwards with accelerated velocity towards illimitable and hitherto unconceived improvement, or be condemned to a perpetual oscillation between happiness and misery, and after every effort remain still at an immeasurable distance from the wished-for goal. Yet, anxiously as every friend of mankind must look forwards to the termination of this painful suspense, and eagerly as the inquiring mind would hail every ray of light that might assist its view into futurity, it is much to be lamented that the writers on each side of this momentous question still keep far aloof from each other. Their mutual arguments do not meet with a candid examination. The question is not brought to rest on fewer points, and even in theory scarcely seems to be approaching to a decision. The advocate for the present order of things is apt to treat the sect of speculative philosophers either as a set of artful and designing naves who preach up ardent benevolence and draw captivating pictures of a happier state of society only the better to enable them to destroy the present establishments and to forward their own deep-laid schemes of ambition, or as wild and mad-headed enthusiasts whose silly speculations and absurd paradoxes are not worthy the attention of any reasonable man. The advocate for the perfectability of man, end of society, retorts on the defender of establishments in more than equal contempt. He brands him as the slave of the most miserable and narrow prejudices, or as the defender of the abuses of civil society only because he profits by them. He paints him either as a character who prostitutes his understanding to his interest or as one whose powers of mind are not of a size to grasp anything great and noble, who cannot see above five yards before him and who must therefore be utterly unable to take in the views of the enlightened benefactor of mankind. In this amicable contest the cause of truth cannot but suffer. The really good arguments on each side of the question are not allowed to have their proper weight. Each pursues his own theory, little solicitous to correct or improve it by an attention to what is advanced by his opponents. The friend of the present order of things condemns all political speculations in the gross. He is not even condescended to examine the grounds from which the perfectability of society is inferred. Much less will he give himself the trouble in a fair and candid manner to attempt an exposition of their fallacy. The speculative philosopher equally offends against the cause of truth. With eyes fixed on a happier state of society, the blessings of which he paints in the most captivating colors, he himself to indulge in the most bitter invectives against every present establishment, without applying his talents to consider the best and safest means of removing abuses and without seeming to be aware of the tremendous obstacles that threaten, even in theory, to oppose the progress of man towards perfection. This is an acknowledged truth in philosophy that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment. Yet so much friction in so many minute circumstances occur in practice, which it is next to impossible for the most enlarged and penetrating mind to foresee, that on few subjects can any theory be pronounced just, till all the arguments against it have been maturely weighed and clearly and consistently refuted. I have read some of the speculations on the perfectability of man and of society with great pleasure. I have been warmed and delighted with the enchanting picture which they hold forth. I ardently wish for such happy improvements, but I see great, and to my understanding, unconquerable difficulties in the way to them. These difficulties it is my present purpose to state, declaring, at the same time, that so far from exalting in them as a cause of triumph over the friends of innovation, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see them completely removed. The most important argument that I shall adduce is certainly not new. The principles on which it depends have been explained in part by Hume and more at large by Dr. Adam Smith. It has been advanced and applied to the present subject, though not with its proper weight, or in the most forcible point of view, by Mr. Wallace, and it may probably have been stated by many writers that I have never met with. I should certainly therefore not think of advancing it again, though I mean to place it in a point of view in some degree different from any that I have hitherto seen, if it had ever been fairly and satisfactorily answered. The cause of this neglect on the part of the advocates for the perfectability of mankind is not easily accounted for. I cannot doubt the talents of such men as Godwin and Condorcet. I am unwilling to doubt their candor. To my understanding, and probably to that of most others, the difficulty appears insurmountable. Yet these men of acknowledged ability and penetration scarcely deign to notice it, and hold on their course in such speculations with unabated ardor and undiminished confidence. I have certainly no right to say that they purposely shut their eyes to such arguments. I ought rather to doubt the validity of them when neglected by such men, however forcibly their truth may strike my own mind. Yet in this respect it must be acknowledged that we are all of us too prone to err. If I saw a glass of wine repeatedly presented to a man, and he took no notice of it, I should be apt to think that he was blind or uncivil. A juster philosophy might teach me rather to think that my eyes deceived me, and that the offer was not really what I conceived it to be. In entering upon the argument I must premise that I put out of the question, at present, all mere conjectures, that is, all suppositions, the probable realization of which cannot be inferred upon any just philosophical ground. A writer may tell me that he thinks man will ultimately become an ostrich. I cannot properly contradict him, but before he can expect to bring any reasonable person over to his opinion he ought to show that the necks of mankind have been gradually elongating, that the lips have grown harder and more prominent, that the legs and feet are daily altering their shape, and that the hair is beginning to change into stubs of feathers. Until the probability of so wonderful a conversion can be shown, it is surely lost time and lost eloquence to expatiate on the happiness of man in such a state. To describe his powers, both of running and flying, to paint him in a condition where all narrow luxuries would be contend, where he would be employed only in collecting the necessaries of life, and where, consequently, each man's share of labor would be light, and his portion of leisure ample. I think I may fairly make two postulata. First, that food is necessary to the existence of man. Secondly, that the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state. These two laws, ever since we have any knowledge of mankind, appear to have been fixed laws of our nature, and, as we have not hitherto seen any alteration in them, we have no right to conclude that they will ever cease to be what they now are, without an immediate act of power in the being who first arranged the system of the universe, and for the advantage of his creatures still executes, according to fixed laws, all its various operations. I do not know that any writer has supposed that on this earth man will ultimately be able to live without food. But, Mr. Godwin has conjectured that the passion between the sexes may in time be extinguished. As, however, he calls this part of his work a deviation into the land of conjecture, I will not dwell longer upon it at present than to say that the best arguments for the perfectability of man are drawn from a contemplation of the great progress that he has already made from the savage state and the difficulty of saying where he is to stop. But towards the extinction of the passion between the sexes, no progress whatever has hitherto been made. It appears to exist in as much force at present as it did two thousand or four thousand years ago. There are individual exceptions now, as there always have been, but, as these exceptions do not appear to increase in number, it would surely be a very unphilosophical mode of arguing to infer, merely from the existence of an exception, that the exception would, in time, become the rule, and the rule, the exception. Assuming then, my postulata is granted, I say that the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man. Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second. By the law of our nature, which makes food necessary to the life of man, the effects of these two unequal powers must be kept equal. This implies a strong and constantly operating check on population from the difficulty of subsistence. This difficulty must fall somewhere and must necessarily be severely felt by a large portion of mankind. Through the animal and vegetable kingdoms, nature has scattered the seeds of life abroad with the most profuse and liberal hand. She has been comparatively sparing in the room and the nourishment necessary to rear them. The germs of existence contained in this spot of earth, with ample food and ample room to expand in, would fill millions of worlds in the course of a few thousand years. Necessity, that imperious, all-pervading law of nature, restrains them within the prescribed bounds. The race of plants and the race of animals shrink under this great restrictive law, and the race of man cannot, by any efforts of reason, escape from it. Among plants and animals, its effects are waste of seed, sickness, and premature death. Among mankind, misery and vice. The former, misery, is an absolutely necessary consequence of it. Vice is a highly probable consequence, and we therefore see it abundantly prevail, but it ought not, perhaps, to be called an absolutely necessary consequence. The ordeal of virtue is to resist all temptation to evil. This natural inequality of the two powers of population and of production in the earth, and that great law of our nature which must constantly keep their effects equal, form the great difficulty that to me appears insurmountable in the way to the perfectability of society. All other arguments are of slight and subordinate consideration in comparison of this. I see no way by which man can escape from the weight of this law which pervades all animated nature. No fancied equality, no agrarian regulations in their utmost extent, could remove the pressure of it even for a single century, and it appears, therefore, to be decisive against the possible existence of a society, all the members of which should live in ease, happiness and comparative leisure, and feel no anxiety about providing the means of subsistence for themselves and families. Consequently, if the premises are just, the argument is conclusive against the perfectability of the mass of mankind. I have thus sketched the general outline of the argument, but I will examine it more particularly, and I think it will be found that experience, the true source and foundation of all knowledge invariably confirms its truth. End of Chapter 1, Recording by Geoffrey Edwards Chapter 2 of an essay on the principle of population. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Geoffrey Edwards. An essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus. Chapter 2 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. I said that population, when unchecked, increased in a geometrical ratio and subsistence for man in an arithmetical ratio. Let us examine whether this position be just. I think it will be allowed that no state has hitherto existed, at least that we have any account of, where the manners were so pure and simple and the means of subsistence so abundant that no check whatever has existed to early marriages among the lower classes from a fear of not providing well for their families or among the higher classes from a fear of lowering their condition in life. Consequently, in no state that we have yet known has the power of population been left to exert itself with perfect freedom. Whether the law of marriage be instituted or not, the dictate of nature and virtue seems to be an early attachment to one woman. Supposing a liberty of changing in the case of an unfortunate choice, this liberty would not affect population till it arose to a height greatly vicious, and we are now supposing the existence of a society where vice is scarcely known. In a state therefore of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, and where the means of subsistence were so abundant that no part of the society could have any fears about providing amply for a family, the power of population being left to exert itself unchecked, the increase of the human species would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known. In the United States of America, where the means of subsistence have been more ample, the manners of the people more pure, and consequently the checks to early marriage fewer than in any of the modern states of Europe, the population has been found to double itself in 25 years. This ratio of increase, though short of the utmost power of population, yet as a result of actual experience, we will take as our rule and say that population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every 25 years or increases in a geometrical ratio. Let us now take any spot of earth, this island for instance, and see in what ratio the subsistence it affords can be supposed to increase. We will begin with it under its present state of cultivation. If I allow that by the best possible policy, by breaking up more land and by great encouragements to agriculture, the produce of this island may be doubled in the first 25 years, I think it will be allowing as much as any person can well demand. In the next 25 years it is impossible to suppose that the produce could be quadrupled. It would be contrary to all our knowledge of the qualities of land. The very utmost that we can conceive is that the increase in the second 25 years might equal the present produce. Let us then take this for our rule, though certainly far beyond the truth, and allow that by great exertion the whole produce of the island might be increased every 25 years by a quantity of subsistence to what it at present produces. The most enthusiastic speculator cannot suppose a greater increase than this. In a few centuries it would make every acre of land in the island like a garden. Yet this ratio of increase is evidently arithmetical. It may be fairly said, therefore, that the means of subsistence increase in the arithmetical ratio. Let us now bring the effect of these two ratios together. The population of the island is computed to be about 7 millions, and we will suppose the present produce equal to the support of such a number. In the first 25 years the population would be 14 millions, and the food being also doubled. The means of subsistence would be equal to this increase. In the next 25 years the population would be 28 millions, and the means of subsistence only equal to the support of 21 millions. In the next period the population would be 56 millions, and the means of subsistence just sufficient for half that number. At the conclusion of the first century the population would be 112 millions, and the means of subsistence only equal to the support of 35 millions, which would leave a population of 77 millions totally unprovided for. A great emigration necessarily implies unhappiness of some kind or other in the country that is deserted. For few persons will leave their families, connections, friends, and native land to seek a settlement in untried foreign climes with some strong subsistence causes of uneasiness where they are, or the hope of some great advantage in the place to which they are going. But to make the argument more general and less interrupted by the partial views of emigration, let us take the whole earth instead of one spot, and suppose that the restraints to population were universally removed. If the subsistence for man that the earth affords was to be increased every 25 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 could conceive that any possible exertions of mankind could make it. Taking the population of the world at any number, a thousand millions for instance, the human species would increase in the ratio of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, etc. and subsistence as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, etc. In two centuries and a quarter, the population would be to the means of subsistence as 512 to 10, in three centuries as 4,096 to 13, and in 2,000 years the difference would be almost incalculable, though the produce in that time would have increased to an immense extent. No limits, whatever, are placed to the productions of the earth. They may increase forever 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. The effects of this check remain now to be considered. Among plants and animals, the view of the subject is simple. They are all impelled by a powerful instinct to the increase of their species, and this instinct is interrupted by no reasoning or doubts about providing for their offspring. Wherever therefore there is liberty, the power of increase is exerted, and the super abundant effects are repressed afterwards by want of room and nourishment, which is common to all animals and plants, and among animals are becoming the prey of others. The effects of this check on man are more complicated. Impelled to the increase of his species by an equally powerful instinct, reason interrupts his career and asks him whether he may not bring beings into the world for whom he cannot provide the means of subsistence. In a state of equality, this would be the simple question. In the present state of society, other considerations occur. Will he not lower his rank in life? Will he not subject himself to greater difficulties than he at present feels? Will he not be obliged to labour harder? And if he has a large family, will his utmost exertions enable him to support them? May he not see his offspring in rags and misery and clamouring for bread that he cannot give them? And may he not be reduced to the grating necessity of forfeiting his independence and of being obliged to the sparing hand of charity for support? These considerations are calculated to prevent, and certainly do prevent, a very great number in all civilized nations from pursuing the dictate of nature in an early attachment to one woman. And this restraint almost necessarily, though not absolutely so, produces vice. Yet in all societies, even those that are most vicious, the tendency to a virtuous attachment 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. The way in which these effects are produced seems to be this. We will suppose the means of subsistence in any country just equal to the easy support of its inhabitants. The constant effort towards population, which is found to act even in the most vicious societies, increases the number of people before the means of subsistence are increased. The food therefore, which before supported seven millions, must now be divided among seven millions and a half, or eight millions. The poor consequently must live much worse, and many of them be reduced to severe distress. The number of laborers also being above the proportion of the work in the market, the price of labor must tend toward a decrease, while the price of provisions would at the same time tend to rise. The laborer therefore must work harder to earn the same as he did before. During this season of distress, the discouragements to marriage, and the difficulty of rearing a family are so great that population is at a stand. In the meantime, the cheapness of labor, the plenty of laborers, and the necessity of an increased industry among them encourage cultivators to employ more laborer upon their land, to turn up fresh soil, and to manure and improve more completely what is already in tillage, till ultimately the means of subsistence become in the same proportion to the population as at the period from which we set out. The situation of the laborer being then again tolerably comfortable, the restraints to population are in some degree loosened, and the same retrograde and progressive movements with respect to happiness are repeated. This sort of oscillation will not be remarked by superficial observers, and it may be difficult even for the most penetrating mind to calculate its periods, yet that in all old states some such vibration does exist, though from various transverse causes in a much less marked and in a much more irregular manner than I have described it, no reflecting man who considers the subject deeply can well doubt. Many reasons occur why this oscillation has been less obvious and less decidedly confirmed by experience than might naturally be expected. One principal reason is that the histories of mankind that we possess are histories only of the higher classes. We have but few accounts that can be depended upon of the manners and customs of that part of mankind where these retrograde and progressive movements chiefly take place. A satisfactory history of this kind, on one people and of one period, would require the constant and minute attention of an observing mind during a long life. Some of the objects of inquiry would be, in what proportion to the number of adults was the number of marriages. To what extent vicious customs prevailed in consequence of the restraints upon matrimony? What was the comparative morality among the children of the most distressed part of the community and those who lived rather more at their ease? What were the variations in the real price of labour? And what were the observable differences in the state of the lower classes of society with respect to ease and happiness at different times during a certain period? Such a history would tend greatly to elucidate the manner in which the constant check upon population acts and would probably prove the existence of the retrograde and progressive movements that have been mentioned. Though the times of their vibrations must necessarily be rendered irregular from the operation of many interrupting causes such as the introduction or failure of certain manufacturers, a greater or less prevalent spirit of agricultural enterprise, years of plenty or years of scarcity, wars and pestilence, poor laws, the invention of processes for shortening labour without the proportional extension of the market for the commodity, and particularly the difference between the nominal and real price of labour, a circumstance which has perhaps more than any other contributed to conceal this oscillation from common view. It very rarely happens that the nominal price of labour universally falls, but we well know that it frequently remains the same, while the nominal price of provisions has been gradually increasing. This is, in effect, a real fall in the price of labour, and during this period the condition of the lower orders of the community must gradually grow worse and worse, but the farmers and capitalists are growing rich from the real cheapness of labour. Their increased capitals enable them to employ a greater number of men. Work, therefore, may be plentiful, and the price of labour would consequently rise, but the want of freedom in the market of labour, which occurs more or less in all communities, either from parish laws, or the more general cause of the facility of combination among the rich. And its difficulty among the poor operates to prevent the price of labour from rising at the natural period, and keeps it down some time longer, perhaps till a year of scarcity, when the clamour is too loud, and the necessity too apparent to be resisted. The true cause of the advance in the price of labour is thus concealed, and the rich effect to grant it as an act of compassion and favour to the poor. In consideration of a year of scarcity, and when plenty returns, indulge themselves in the most unreasonable of all complaints, that the price does not again fall, when a little rejection would show them that it must have risen long before, but from an unjust conspiracy of their own. But though the rich, by unfair combinations, contribute frequently to prolong a season of distress among the poor, yet no possible form of society could prevent the almost constant action of misery upon a great part of mankind, if in a state of inequality, and upon all, if all were equal. The theory on which the truth of this position depends appears to me so extremely clear that I feel at a loss to conjecture what part of it can be denied. That population cannot increase without the means of subsistence is a proposition so evident that it needs no illustration. That population does invariably increase where there are the means of subsistence, the history of every people that have ever existed will abundantly prove. And that the superior power of population cannot be checked without producing misery or vice, the ample portion of these two bitter ingredients in the cup of human life and the continuance of the physical causes that seem to have produced them bear too convincing a testimony. But, in order more fully to ascertain the validity of these three propositions, let us examine the different states in which mankind have been known to exist. Even a cursory review will, I think, be sufficient to convince us that these propositions are incontrovertible truths. End of Chapter 2 Recording by Jeffrey Edwards Chapter 3 of an essay on the principle of population. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jeffrey Edwards An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus. Chapter 3 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. In the rudest state of mankind in which hunting is the principle occupation and the only mode of acquiring food, the means of subsistence being scattered over a large extent of territory, the comparative population must necessarily be thin. It is said that the passion between the sexes is less ardent among the North American Indians than among any other race of men. Yet, notwithstanding this apathy, the effort towards population, even in this people, seems to be always greater than the means to support it. This appears from the comparatively rapid population that takes place whenever any of the tribes happen to settle in some fertile spot and to draw nourishment from more fruitful sources than that of hunting. And it has been frequently remarked that when an Indian family has taken up its abode near any European settlement and adopted a more easy and civilized mode of life that one woman has reared five or six or more children, though in the savage state it rarely happens that above one or two in a family grow up to maturity. The same observation has been made with regard to the hotentots near the Cape. These facts prove the superior power of population to the means of subsistence in nations of hunters, and that this power always shows itself the moment it is left to act with freedom. It remains to inquire whether this power can be checked and its effects kept equal to the means of subsistence without vice or misery. The North American Indians, considered as a people, cannot justly be called free and equal. In all the accounts we have of them and, indeed, of most other savage nations, the women are represented as much more completely in a state of slavery to the men than the poor are to the rich in civilized countries. One half the nation appears to act as helots to the other half, and the misery that checks population falls chiefly as it always must do upon that part whose condition is lowest in the scale of society. The infancy of man in the simplest state requires considerable attention, but this necessary attention the women cannot give, condemned as they are to the inconveniences and hardships of frequent change of place and to the constant and unremitting drudgery of preparing everything for the reception of their tyrannic lords. These exertions, sometimes during pregnancy or with children at their backs, must occasion frequent miscarriages and prevent any but the most robust infants from growing to maturity. Add to these hardships of the women the constant war that prevails among savages and the necessity which they frequently labor under of exposing their aged and helpless parents and of thus violating the first feelings of nature and the picture will not appear very free from the blot of misery. In estimating the happiness of a savage nation, we must not fix our eyes only on the warrior in the prime of life. He is the gentleman, the man of fortune. The chances have been in his favor and many efforts have failed ere this fortunate being was produced, whose guardian genius should preserve him through the numberless dangers with which he would be surrounded from infancy to manhood. The true points of comparison between two nations seem to be the ranks in each which appear nearest to answer to each other, and in this view I should compare the warriors in the prime of life with the gentleman and the women, children and aged with the lower classes of the community in civilized states. May we not then fairly infer from this short review or rather from the accounts that may be referred to of nations of hunters that their population is thin from the scarcity of food, that it would immediately increase if food was in greater plenty, and that putting vice out of the question among savages misery is the check that represses the superior power of population and keeps its effects equal to the means of subsistence. Actual observation and experience tell us that this check with a few local and temporary exceptions is constantly acting now upon all savage nations, and the theory indicates that it probably acted with nearly equal strength a thousand years ago, and it may not be much greater a thousand years hence. Of the manners and habits that prevail among nations of shepherds, the next state of mankind, we are even more ignorant than of the savage state. But that these nations could not escape the general lot of misery arising from the want of subsistence. Europe and all the fairest countries in the world bear ample testimony. Want was the goat that drove the Scythian shepherds from their native haunts, like so many famished wolves in search of prey. Set in motion by this all-powerful cause, clouds of barbarians seem to collect from all points of the northern hemisphere. Gathering fresh darkness and terror as they rolled on, the congregated bodies at length obscured the sun of Italy and sunk the whole world in universal night. These tremendous effects, so long and so deeply felt throughout the fairest portions of the earth, may be traced to the simple cause of the superior power of population to the means of subsistence. It is well known that a country and pasture cannot support so many inhabitants as a country in tillage. But what renders nations of shepherds so formidable is the power which they possess of moving all together to quickly feel of exerting this power in search of fresh pasture for their herds. A tribe that was rich in cattle had an immediate plenty of food. Even the parent stock might be devoured in a case of absolute necessity. The women lived in greater ease than among nations of hunters. The men, bold in their united strength and confiding in their power of procuring pasture for their cattle by change of place, felt probably but few fears about providing for a family. These combined causes soon produced their natural and invariable effect. An extended population, a more frequent and rapid change of place became the necessary. A wider and more extensive territory was successively occupied. A broader desolation extended all around them. One to pinch the less fortunate members of the society and, at length, the impossibility of supporting such a number together became too evident to be resisted. Young sions were then pushed from the parent stock and instructed to explore fresh regions and to gain happier seats for themselves by their swords. The world was all before them where to choose. Restless from present distress, flushed with the hope of fairer prospects and animated with the spirit of hearty enterprise, these daring adventurers were likely to become formidable adversaries to all who opposed them. The peaceful inhabitants of the countries on which they rushed could not long withstand the energy of men acting under such powerful motives of exertion. And when they fell in with any tribe like their own, the contrast was a struggle for existence, and they fought with a desperate courage inspired by the rejection that death was the punishment of defeat and life the prize of victory. In these savage contests many tribes must have been utterly exterminated. Some, probably, perished by hardship and famine. Others, whose leading star had given them a happier direction, became great powerful tribes and, in their turns, sent off fresh adventurers in search of still more fertile seats. The prodigious waste of human life occasioned by this perpetual struggle for room and food was more than supplied by the mighty power of population acting, in some degree, unshackled from the constant habit of emigration. The tribes that migrated towards the south though they won more fruitful regions by continental battles, rapidly increased in number and power increased means of subsistence, till at length the whole territory from the confines of China to the shores of the Baltic was peopled by a various race of barbarians, brave, robust and enterprising, enured to hardship and delighting in war. Some tribes maintained their independence. Others ranged themselves under the standard of some barbaric chieftain who led them to victory after victory, and what was of more importance to regions abounding in corn, wine the long wished for consummation and great reward of their labours. An alluric, an atilla, or a jingus con and the chiefs around them might fight for glory for the fame of extensive conquests but the true cause that set in motion the great tide of northern emigration and that continued to propel it till it rolled at different periods against China, Persia, Italy and even Egypt was a scarcity of food, a population extended beyond the means of supporting it. The absolute population at any one period in proportion to the extent of territory could never be great on account of the unproductive nature of some of the regions occupied but there appears to have been a most rapid succession of human beings and as fast as some are mowed down by the scythe of war or a famine, others rose in increased numbers to supply their place. Among these bold and improvident barbarians population was probably but little checked as in modern states the fear of future difficulties a prevailing hope of bettering their condition by change of place a constant expectation of plunder a power even if distressed of selling their children as slaves added to the natural carelessness of the barbaric character all conspired to raise a population which remained to be repressed afterwards by famine or war. Where there is any inequality of conditions and among nations of shepherds this soon takes place and the suffering from a scarcity of provisions must fall hardest upon the least fortunate members of the society. This distress also must frequently have been felt by the women exposed to casual plunder in the absence of their husbands and subject to continual disappointments in their expected return but without knowing enough of the minute and intimate history of these people to point out precisely on one part the distress for want of food chiefly fell and to what extent it was generally felt I think we may from all the accounts that we have of nations of shepherds the population invariably increased among them whenever by emigration or any other cause the means of subsistence were increased and that a further population was checked and the actual population kept equal to the means of subsistence by misery and vice. Four independently of any vicious customs that might have prevailed among them with regard to women which always operate as checks to population it must be acknowledged I think the notion of war is vice and the effect of it misery and none can doubt the misery of want of food. End of Chapter 3 Recording by Jeffrey Edwards Chapter 4 of an essay on the principle of population this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jeffrey Edwards an essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus Chapter 4 State of civilized nations probability that Europe is much more populist now than in the time of Julius Caesar best criterion of population probable error of Hume in one of the criteria that he proposes as assisting in an estimate of population slow increase of population in most of the states of Europe the two principle checks to population the first or preventative check examined with regard to England in examining the next state of mankind with relation to the question before us the state of mixed pasture and tillage in which with some variation in the proportions the most civilized nations must always remain we shall be assisted in our review by what we daily see around us by actual experience facts that come within the scope of every man's observation not withstanding the exaggerations of some old historians there can remain no doubt in the mind of any thinking man that the population of the principle countries of Europe France, England, Germany Russia, Poland, Sweden and Denmark is much greater than ever it was in former times the obvious reason of these exaggerations is the formidable aspect that even a thinly coupled nation must have when collected together and moving all at once in search of fresh seats if to this tremendous appearance be added a succession at certain intervals of similar emigrations we should not be much surprised that the fears of the timid nations of the south represented the north as a region absolutely swarming with human beings a nearer and juster view of the subject at present enables us to see that the inference was as absurd as if a man in this country continually meeting on the road droves of cattle from Wales in the north was immediately to conclude that these countries were the most productive of all the parts of the kingdom the reason that the greater part of Europe is more populist now than it was in former times is that the industry of the inhabitants has made these countries produce a greater quantity of human subsistence for a conceive that it may be laid down as a position not to be controverted that taking a sufficient extent of territory to include within it exportation and importation and allowing some variation for the prevalence of luxury or of frugal habits that population constantly bears a regular proportion to the food that the earth is made to produce in the controversy concerning the populistness of ancient and modern nations could it be clearly ascertained that the average produce of the countries in question taken together is greater now than it was in the times of Julius Caesar the dispute would be at once determined we are assured that China is the most fertile country in the world that almost all the land is in tillage and that a great part of it bears two crops every year and further that the people live very frugally we may infer with certainty that the population must be immense without busying ourselves in inquiries into the manners and habits of the lower classes and the encouragements to early marriages but these inquiries are of the utmost importance and a minute history of the customs of the lower Chinese would be of the greatest use in ascertaining in what manner the checks to a further population operate what are the vices and what are the distresses that prevent an increase of numbers beyond the ability of the country to support Hume in his essay on the populistness of ancient and modern nations when he intermingles as he says an inquiry concerning causes with that concerning facts does not seem to see with his usual penetration how very little some of the causes he alludes to could enable him to form any judgment of the actual population of ancient nations if any inference can be drawn from them perhaps it should be directly the reverse of what Hume draws though I certainly ought to speak with great diffidence in dissenting from a man who have all others on such subjects was the least likely to be deceived by first appearances if I find that at a certain period in ancient history the encouragements to have a family were great that early marriages were consequently very prevalent and that few persons remained single I should infer with certainty that population was rapidly increasing but by no means that it was then actually very great rather indeed the contrary that it was then thin and that there was room and food for a much greater number on the other hand if I find that at this period the difficulties attending a family were very great that consequently few early marriages took place and that a great number of both sexes remained single I infer with certainty that population was at a stand and probably because the actual population was very great in proportion to the fertility of the land and that there was scarcely room and food for more the number of footmen, housemaids and other persons remaining unmarried in modern states Hume allows to be rather an argument against their population I should rather draw a contrary inference and consider it an argument of their fullness though this inference is not certain because there are many thinly inhabited states that are yet stationary in their population to speak therefore correctly perhaps it may be said that the number of unmarried persons in proportion to the whole number existing at different periods in the same or different states will enable us to judge whether population at those periods was increasing stationary or decreasing but will form no criterion at which we can determine the actual population there is however a circumstance taken notice of in most of the accounts we have of China that it seems difficult to reconcile with this reasoning it is said that early marriages very generally prevail through all the ranks of the Chinese yet Dr. Adam Smith supposes that population in China is stationary these two circumstances appear to be irreconcilable it certainly seems very little probable that the population of China is fast increasing every acre of land has been so long in cultivation that we can hardly conceive there is any great yearly addition to the average produce the fact perhaps of the universality of early marriages may not be sufficiently ascertained if it be supposed true the only way of accounting for the difficulty with our present knowledge of the subject appears to be that the redundant population necessarily occasioned by the prevalence of early marriages must be repressed by occasional famines and by the custom of exposing children which in times of distress is probably more frequent than is ever acknowledged to Europeans relative to this barbarous practice it is difficult to avoid remarking that there cannot be a stronger proof of the distresses that have been felt by mankind for want of food than the existence of a custom that thus violates the most natural principle of the human heart it appears to have been very general among ancient nations and certainly tended rather to increase population in examining the principle states of modern Europe we shall find that though they have increased very considerably in population since they were nations of shepherds yet that at present progress is but slow and instead of doubling their numbers every 25 years they require 300 or 400 years or more for that purpose some indeed may be absolutely stationary and others even retrograde the cause of this slow progress in population cannot be traced to a decay of the passion between the sexes we have sufficient reason to think that this natural propensity exists still in undiminished vigor why then do not its effects appear in a rapid increase of the human species an intimate view of the state of society in any one country in Europe which may serve equally for all will enable us to answer this question and to say that a foresight of the difficulties attending the rearing of a family acts as a preventative check and the actual distresses of some of the lower classes by which they are disabled from giving the proper food and attention to their children act as a positive check to the natural increase of population England as one of the most flourishing states in Europe may be fairly taken for an example and the observations made will apply with but little variation to any other country where the population increases slowly the preventative check appears to operate in some degree through all the ranks of society in England there are some men even in the highest rank who are prevented from marrying by the idea of the expenses that they must retrench and the fancied pleasures that they must deprive themselves of on the supposition of having a family these considerations are certainly trivial but a preventative foresight of this kind has objects of much greater weight for its contemplation as we go lower a man of liberal education but with an income only just sufficient to enable him to associate in the rank of gentleman must feel absolutely certain that if he marries and has a family he shall be obliged if he mixes at all in society to rank himself with moderate farmers and the lower class of tradesmen the woman that a man of education would naturally make the object of his choice would be one brought up in the same tastes and sentiments with himself and used to the familiar intercourse of a society totally different from that to which she must be reduced by marriage can a man consent to place the object of his affection in a situation so discordant probably to her tastes and inclinations two or three steps of descent in society particularly at this round of the latter where education ends and ignorance begins will not be considered by the generality of people as a fancied and chimerical but a real and essential evil if society be held desirable it surely must be free equal and reciprocal society where benefits are conferred as well as received and not such as the dependent fines with his patron or the poor with the rich these considerations undoubtedly prevent a great number in this rank of life from following the bent of their inclinations in an early attachment others guided either by a stronger passion or a weaker judgment break through these restraints and it would be hard to read if the gratification of so delightful a passion as virtuous love did not sometimes more than counterbalance all its attendant evils but I fear it must be owned that the more general consequences of such marriages are rather calculated to justify than to repress the forebodings of the prudent the sons of tradesmen and farmers are exhorted not to marry and generally find it necessary to pursue this advice till they are settled in some business or farm that may enable them to support a family and not perhaps occur till they are far advanced in life the scarcity of farms is a very general complaint in England and the competition in every kind of business is so great that it is not possible that all should be successful the laborer who earns 18 pence a day and lives with some degree of comfort as a single man will hesitate a little before he divides that pittance among four or five which seems to be just sufficient for one harder fare and harder labor he would submit to for the sake of living what he loves but he must feel conscious if he thinks at all that should he have a large family and any ill luck whatever no degree of frugality no possible exertion of his manual strength could preserve him from the heart-rending sensation of seeing his children starve or of forfeiting his independence and being obliged to the parish for their support the love of independence is a sentiment that surely none would wish to be erased from the breast of man though the parish law of England it must be confessed to him of all others the most calculated gradually to weaken this sentiment and in the end may eradicate it completely the servants who live in gentlemen's families have restraints that are yet stronger to break through in venturing upon marriage they possess the necessaries and even the comforts of life almost in as great plenty as their masters their work is easy and their food luxurious compared with the class of laborers and their sense of dependence is weakened by the conscious power of changing their masters themselves offended thus comfortably situated at present what are their prospects in marrying without knowledge or capital either for business or farming and unused and therefore unable to earn a subsistence by daily labor their only refuge seems to be a miserable alehouse which certainly offers no very enchanting prospect of a happy evening to their lives by much the greater part therefore deterred by this uninviting view of their future situation content themselves with remaining single where they are if this sketch of the state of society in England be near the truth and I do not conceive that it is exaggerated it will be allowed that the preventative check to population in this country operates though with varied force through all the classes of the community the same observation will hold true with regard to all old states the effects indeed of these restraints upon marriage are but too conspicuous in the consequent vices that are produced in almost every part of the world vices that are continually involving both sexes in inextricable unhappiness end of chapter 4 recording by Jeffrey Edwards chapter 5 of an essay on the principle of population this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jeffrey Edwards an essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus chapter 5 the second or positive check to population examined in England the true cause why the 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 distressed 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 the positive check to population by which I mean the check that represses an increase which is already begun is confined chiefly though not perhaps solely to the lowest orders of society this check is not so obvious to common view as the other have mentioned and to prove distinctly the force and extent of its operation would require perhaps more data than we are in possession of but I believe it has been very generally remarked by those who have attended to bills of morality that of the number of children who die annually much too great a proportion belongs to those who may be supposed unable to give their offspring proper food and attention exposed as they are occasionally to severe distress and confined perhaps to unwholesome habitations and hard labor this mortality among the children of the poor has been constantly taken notice of in all towns it certainly does not prevail in an equal degree in the country but the subject has not hitherto received sufficient attention to enable anyone to say that there are not more deaths in proportion among the children of the poor even in the country than among those of the middling and higher classes indeed it seems difficult to suppose that a laborer's wife who has six children and who is sometimes an absolute want of bread should be able always to give them the food and attention necessary to support life the sons and daughters of peasants will not be found such rosy cherubs in real life as they are described to be in romances it cannot fail to be remarked by those who live much in the country that the sons of laborers are very apt to be stunted in their growth and are a long while arriving at maturity boys that you would guess to be 14 or 15 are upon an inquiry frequently found to be 18 or 19 and the lads who drive plough which must certainly be a healthy exercise are very rarely seen with any appearance of calves to their legs a circumstance which can only be attributed to want either a proper or of sufficient nourishment to remedy the frequent distresses of the common people the poor laws of England have been instituted but it is to be feared that though they may have alleviated a little the intensity of individual misfortune they have spread the general evil over a much larger surface it is a subject often started in conversation and mentioned always as a matter of great surprise that not withstanding the immense sum that is annually collected for the poor in England there is still so much distress among them some think that the money must be embezzled others that the church wardens and overseers consume the greater part of it in dinners all agree that somehow or other it must be very ill managed the fact that nearly 3 millions are collected annually for the poor and yet that their distresses are not removed is the subject of continual astonishment but a man who sees a little below the surface of things would be very much more astonished if the fact were otherwise than it is observed to be or even if a collection universally of 18 shillings in the pound instead of 4 were materially to alter it I will state a case which I hope will elucidate my meaning by a subscription of the rich the 18 pence a day which men earn now was made up 5 shillings it might be imagined perhaps that they would then be able to live comfortably and have a piece of meat every day for their dinners but this would be a very false conclusion the transfer of 3 shillings and 6 pence a day to every labourer would not increase the quantity of meat in the country there is not at present enough for all who have a decent share what would then be the consequence the competition among the buyers in the market of meat would rapidly raise the price from 6 pence or 7 pence to 2 or 3 shillings in the pound and the commodity would not be divided among many more than it is at present when an article is scarce and cannot be distributed to all he that can show the most valid patent that is he that offers most money becomes the possessor if we can suppose the competition among the buyers of meat to continue long enough for a greater number of cattle to be reared annually this could only be done at the expense of the corn which would be a very disadvantageous exchange for it is well known that the country could not then support the same population and when subsistence is scarce in proportion to the number of people it is of little consequence whether the lowest members of the society possess 18 pence or 5 shillings they must at all events be reduced to live upon the hardest fare and in the smallest quantity it will be said perhaps that the increased number of purchasers in every article would give a spur to productive industry and that the whole produce of the island would be increased this might in some degree be the case but the spur that these fancied riches would give to population would more than counterbalance it and the increased produce would be to be divided among a more than proportionably increased number of people all this time I am supposing that the same quantity of work would be done as before but this would not really take place the receipt of 5 shillings a day instead of 18 pence would make every man fancy himself comparatively rich and able to indulge himself in many hours or days of leisure this would give a strong and immediate check to productive industry and in a short time not only the nation would be poorer but the lower classes themselves would be much more distressed then when they received only 18 pence a day a collection from the rich of 18 shillings in the pound even if distributed in the most judicious manner would have a little the same effect as that resulting from the supposition I have just made and no possible contributions or sacrifices of the rich particularly in money could for any time prevent the recurrence of distress among the lower members of society whoever they were great changes might indeed be made the rich might become poor and some of the poor rich but a part of this society must necessarily feel a difficulty of living a difficulty will naturally fall on the least fortunate members it may at first appear strange but I believe it is true that I cannot by means of money raise a poor man and enable him to live much better than he did before without proportionably depressing others in the same class if I retrench the quantity of food consumed in my house and give him what I have cut off and then benefit him without depressing any but myself and family who perhaps may be well able to bear it if I turn up a piece of uncultivated land and give him the produce I then benefit both him and all the members of the society because what he before consumed is thrown into the common stock and probably some of the new produce with it but if I only give him money supposing the produce of the country to remain the same I give him a title to a larger share of that produce than formerly which share he cannot receive without diminishing the shares of others it is evident that this effect of individual instances must be so small as to be totally imperceptible but still it must exist as many other effects do which, like some of the insects that people the air elude our grosser perceptions supposing the quantity of food in any country to remain the same for many years together it is evident that this food must be divided according to the value of each man's patent or the sum of money that he can afford to spend on this commodity so universally in request Mr. Godwin calls the wealth that a man receives from his ancestors a moldy patent it may I think very properly be termed a patent but I hardly see the propriety of calling it a moldy one as it is an article in such constant use it is a demonstrative truth therefore that the patents of one set of men could not be increased in value without diminishing the value of the patents of some other set of men if the rich were to subscribe and give five shillings a day to five hundred thousand men without retrenching their own tables no doubt can exist that as these men would naturally live more at their ease and consume a greater quantity of provisions there would be less food remaining to divide among the rest and consequently each man's patent would be diminished in value or the same number of pieces of silver would purchase a smaller quantity of subsistence an increase of population without a proportional increase of food will evidently have the same effect in lowering the value of each man's patent it would ideally be distributed in smaller quantities and consequently a day's labor will purchase a smaller quantity of provisions an increase in the price of provisions would arise either from an increase of population faster than the means of subsistence or from a different distribution of the money of the society the food of a country that has been long occupied if it be increasing increases slowly and regularly and cannot be made to answer any sudden demands but variations in the distribution of a society are not infrequently occurring and are undoubtedly among the causes that occasion the continual variations which we observe in the price of provisions the poor laws of England tend to depress the general condition of the poor in these two ways their first obvious tendency is to increase population without increasing the food for its support a poor man may marry with little or no prospect of being able to support a family in independence and therefore in some measure to create the poor which they maintain and as the provisions of the country must in consequence of the increased population be distributed to every man in smaller proportions it is evident that the labor of those who are not supported by parish assistance will purchase a smaller quantity of provisions than before and consequently more of them must be driven to ask for support secondly the quantity of provisions consumed in work houses upon a part of the society that cannot be considered as the most valuable part diminishes the share that would otherwise belong to more industrious and more worthy members and thus in the same manner forces more to become dependent if the poor in the work houses were to live better than they now do this new distribution of the money of the society would tend more conspicuously to depress the condition of those out of the work houses by occasioning a rise in the price of provisions fortunately for England a spirit of independence still remains in the country the poor laws are strongly calculated to eradicate this spirit they have succeeded in part but had they succeeded as completely as might have been expected their pernicious tendency would not have been so long concealed artisan may appear in individual instances dependent poverty ought to be held disgraceful such a stimulus seems to be absolutely necessary to promote the happiness of the great mass of mankind and every general attempt to weaken this stimulus however benevolent apparent intention will always defeat its own purpose if men are induced to marry from a prospect of parish provision with little or no chance of maintaining their families in independence they are not only unjustly tempted to bring unhappiness and dependence upon themselves and children but they are tempted without knowing it to injure all in the same class with themselves a laborer who marries without being able to support a family may in some respects be considered as an enemy to all his fellow laborers I feel no doubt whatever that the parish laws of England have contributed to raise the price of provisions and to lower the real price of labor they have therefore contributed to impoverish that class of people whose only possession is their labor it is also difficult to suppose that they have not powerfully contributed to generate that carelessness and want of frugality observed among the poor so contrary to the disposition frequently to be remarked among petty tradesmen and small farmers the laboring poor to use a vulgar expression seem always to live from hand to mouth their present wants employ their whole attention and they seldom think of the future even when they have an opportunity of saving they seldom exercise it but all that is beyond their present necessities goes generally speaking to the alehouse the poor laws of England may therefore be said to diminish both the power and the will to save among the common people and thus to weaken one of the strongest incentives to sobriety and industry and consequently to happiness it is a general complaint among master manufacturers that high wages ruin all their workmen but it is difficult to conceive that these men would not save a part of their high wages for the future support of their families instead of spending it in drunkenness and dissipation if they did not rely on parish assistance for support in case of accidents and that the poor employed in manufacturers consider this assistance as a reason why they may spend all the wages they earn and enjoy themselves while they can appears to be evident from the number of families that upon failure of any great manufactory immediately fall upon the parish when perhaps the wages earned in this manufactory while it flourished were sufficiently above the price of common country labour to have allowed them to save enough for their support till they could find some other channel for their industry a man who might not be deterred from going to the alehouse from the consideration that on his death or sickness he should leave his wife and family upon the parish might yet hesitate in thus dissipating his earnings if he were assured that in either of these cases his family must starve or be left to the support of casual bounty in China where the real as well as nominal price of labour is very low sons are yet obliged by law to support their aged and helpless parents whether such a law would be advisable in this country I will not pretend to determine but it seems at any rate highly improper by positive institutions which render dependent poverty so general to weaken that disgrace which for the best and most humane reasons ought to attach to it the massive happiness among the common people cannot but be diminished when one of the strongest checks to idleness and dissipation is thus removed and women are thus allured to marry with little or no prospect of being able to maintain a family in independence every obstacle in the way of marriage must undoubtedly be considered as a species of unhappiness but as from the laws of our nature some checked population must exist and said that it should be checked from a foresight of the difficulties attending a family and the fear of dependent poverty then that it should be encouraged only to be repressed afterwards by want and sickness it should be remembered always that there is an essential difference between food and those raw commodities the raw materials of which are in great plenty a demand for these last will not fail to create them in as great a quantity as they are wanted the demand for food has by no means in a country where all the fertile spots have been seized high offers are necessary to encourage the farmer to lay his dressing on a land from which he cannot expect a profitable return for some years and before the prospect of advantage is sufficiently great to encourage this sort of agricultural enterprise and while the new produce is rising great distresses may be suffered from the want of it the demand for increased quantity of subsistence is with few exceptions constant everywhere that we see how slowly it is answered in all those countries that have been long occupied the poor laws of England were undoubtedly instituted for the most benevolent purpose but there is great reason to think that they have not succeeded in their intention they certainly mitigate some cases of very severe distress which might otherwise occur yet the state of the poor who are supported by parishes considered in all its circumstances is very far from being free from misery but one of the principal objections to them is that for this assistance which some of the poor receive in itself almost a doubtful blessing the whole class of the common people of England is subjected to a set of grading inconvenient and tyrannical laws totally inconsistent with the genuine spirit of the constitution the whole business of settlements even in its present amended state is utterly contradictory to all ideas of freedom the parish persecution of men whose families are likely to become chargeable and of poor women who are near lying in is a most disgraceful and disgusting tyranny and the obstructions continually occasioned in the market of labor by these laws have a constant tendency to add to the difficulties of those who are struggling to support themselves without assistance these evils attendant on the poor laws are in some degree irremediable if assistance be to be distributed to a certain class of people a power must be given somewhere of discriminating the proper objects and of managing the concerns of the institutions that are necessary but any great interference with the affairs of other people is a species of tyranny and in the common course of things the exercise of this power may be expected to become grading to those who are driven to ask for support the tyranny of justices church wardens and overseers is a common complaint among the poor but the fault does not lie so much in these persons who probably before they were in power were not worse than other people but in the nature of all such institutions the evil is perhaps gone too far to be remedied but I feel little doubt in my own mind that if the poor laws had never existed though there might have been a few more instances of very severe distress yet that the aggregate mass of happiness among the common people would have been much greater than it is at present Mr. Pitts poor bill has the appearance of being framed with benevolent intentions and the clamor raised against it was in many respects ill directed and unreasonable but it must be assessed that it possesses in a high degree the great and radical defect of all systems of the kind that of tending to increase population without increasing the means for its support and thus to depress the condition of those that are not supported by parishes and consequently to create more poor to remove the wants of the lower classes of society is indeed an arduous task the truth is that the pressure of distress on this part of a community is an evil so deeply seated that no human ingenuity can reach it were I to propose a palliative and palliatives are all that the nature of the case will admit it should be in the first place the total abolition of all the present parish laws this would at any rate give liberty and freedom of action to the peasantry of England which they can hardly be said to possess at present they would then be able to settle without interruption wherever there was a prospect of a greater plenty of work and a higher price for labor the market of labor would then be free and those obstacles would be removed which as things are now often for a considerable time prevent the price from rising according to the demand secondly premiums might be given for turning up fresh land and if possible encouragements held out to agriculture above manufacturers and to tillage above grazing every endeavor should be used to weaken and destroy all those institutions relating to corporations apprenticeships etc which cause the laborers of agriculture to be worse than the laborers of trade and manufacturers for a country can never produce its proper quantity of food while these distinctions remain in favor of artisans such encouragements to agriculture would tend to furnish the market with an increasing quantity of healthy work and at the same time by augmenting the produce of the country would raise the comparative price of labor and ameliorate the condition of the laborer being now in present circumstances and seeing no prospect of parish assistance he would be more able as well as more inclined to enter into associations for providing against the sickness of himself or family lastly for cases of extreme distress county work houses might be established supported by rates upon the whole kingdom and free for persons of all counties and indeed of all nations the fair should be hard and those that were able obliged to work it would be desirable that they should not be considered as comfortable asylums in all difficulties but merely as places where severe distress might find some alleviation a part of these houses might be separated or others built for a most beneficial purpose which has not been infrequently taken notice of that of providing a place where any person whether native or foreigner might do a day's work at all times and receive the market price for it many cases would undoubtedly be left for the exertion of individual benevolence a plan of this kind the preliminary of which should be an abolition of all the present parish laws seems to be the best calculated to increase the mass of happiness among the common people of England to prevent the recurrence of misery is alas beyond the power of man in the vein endeavour to attain what in the nature of things is impossible we now sacrifice not only possible but certain benefits we tell the common people that if they will submit to a code of tyrannical regulations they shall never be in want they do submit to these regulations they perform their part in the contract but we do not they cannot perform ours and thus the poor sacrifice the valuable blessing of liberty and receive nothing that can be called an equivalent in return notwithstanding then the institution of the poor laws in England I think it will be allowed that considering the state of the lower classes altogether both in the towns and in the country the distresses which they suffer from the want of proper and sufficient food from hard labour and unwholesome habitations must operate as a constant check of the recipient population to these two great checks to population in all long occupied countries which I have called the preventative and positive checks may be added vicious customs with respect to women great cities unwholesome manufacturers luxury pestilence and war all these checks may be fairly resolved into misery and vice and that these are the true causes of the slow increase of population in all the states of modern Europe will appear evident from the comparatively rapid increase that has invariably taken place whenever these causes have been in any considerable degree removed end of chapter 5 recording by Jeffrey Edwards chapter 6 of an essay on the principle of population this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jeffrey Edwards an essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus chapter 6 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 it has been universally remarked that all new colonies settled in healthy countries where there was plenty of room and food have constantly increased with astonishing rapidity in their population some of the colonies from ancient Greece in no very long period more than equal to their parent states in numbers and strengths and not to dwell on remote instances the European settlements in the new world bear ample testimony to the truth of a remark which indeed has never than I know of been doubted a plenty of rich land to be had for little or nothing is so powerfully cause of population as to overcome all other obstacles no settlements could well have been worse managed than those of Spain in Mexico, Peru and Quito the tyranny superstition and vices of the mother country were introduced in ample quantities among her children exorbitant taxes were exacted by the crown the most arbitrary restrictions were imposed on their trade and the governors were not behind hand in rapacity and extortion for themselves as well as their master yet under all these difficulties the colonies made a quick progress in population the city of Lima founded since the conquest is represented by Illoa as containing 50,000 inhabitants near 50 years ago Quito which had been but a hamlet of Indians is represented by the same author as in his time equally populace Mexico is said to contain 100,000 inhabitants which not withstanding the exaggerations of the Spanish writers is supposed to be 5 times greater than what it contained at the time of Montezuma in the Portuguese colony of Brazil governed with almost equal tyranny they were supposed to be 30 years since 600,000 inhabitants of European extraction the Dutch and French colonies though under the government of exclusive companies of merchants which as Dr. Adam Smith says very justly is the worst of all possible governments still persisted in thriving under every disadvantage but the English North American colonies now the powerful people of the United States of America made by far the most rapid progress to the plenty of good land which they possessed in common with the Spanish and Portuguese settlements they added a greater degree of liberty and equality the not without some restrictions on their foreign commerce they were allowed a perfect liberty of managing their own internal affairs the political institutions that prevailed were favorable to the alienation and division of property governments that were not cultivated by the proprietor within a limited time were declared grantable to any other person in Pennsylvania there was no right of primogeniture and in the province of New England the eldest had only a double share there were no tithes in any of the states and scarcely any taxes and on account of the extreme cheapness of good land a capital could not be more advantageously employed than in agriculture which at the same time that it supplies the greatest quantity of healthy work affords much the most valuable produce to the society the consequence of these favorable circumstances united was a rapidity of increase probably without parallel in history throughout all the northern colonies the population was found to double itself in 25 years the original number of persons who had settled in the four provinces of New England in 1643 was 21,200 figures from doctor prices two volumes of observations not having doctor styles pamphlet from which he quotes by me afterwards it is the post that more left them than went to them in the year 1760 they were increased to half a million they had therefore all along doubled their own number in 25 years in New Jersey the period of doubling appeared to be 22 years and in Rhode Island still less settlements where the inhabitants applied themselves solely to agriculture and luxury was not known they were found to double their own number in 15 years a most extraordinary instance of increase along the sea coast which would naturally be first inhabited the period of doubling was about 35 years and in some of the maritime towns the population was absolutely at a stand in instances of this kind the powers of the earth appear to be fully equal to answer it the demands for food that can be made upon it by man but we should be led into an error if we were then to suppose that population and food ever really increase in the same ratio the one is still a geometrical and the other an arithmetical ratio that is one increases by multiplication and the other by addition where there are few people and a great quantity of fertile land the power of the earth to afford the yearly increase of food may be compared to a great reservoir of water supplied by a moderate stream the faster population increases the more help will be got to draw off the water and consequently an increasing quantity will be taken every year but the sooner undoubtedly will the reservoir be exhausted and the streams only remain when acre has been added to acre till all the fertile land is occupied the yearly increase of food will depend upon the amelioration of the land already in possession and even this moderate stream will be gradually diminishing but population, could it be supplied with food, would go on with unexhausted vigor and the increase of one period would furnish the power of a greater increase in the next and this without any limit these facts seem to show that population increases exactly in the proportion that the two great cheques have achieved and that there is not a truer criterion of the happiness and innocence of a people than the rapidity of their increase the unwholesomeness of towns to which some persons are necessarily driven from the nature of their trades must be considered as a species of misery and every the slightest check to marriage from a prospect of the difficulty of maintaining a family may be fairly classed under the same head in short it is difficult to conceive any check to population that does not come under the description of some species of misery or vice the population of the 13 American states before the war was reckoned at about 3 millions nobody imagines that Great Britain is less populous at present for the emigration of the small parent stock that produced these numbers on the contrary a certain degree of emigration is known to be favorable to the population of the mother country it has been particularly remarked that the two Spanish provinces from which the greatest number of people emigrated to America became in consequence more populous whatever was the original number of British emigrants that increased so fast in North American colonies let us ask why does not an equal number produce an equal increase in the same time in Great Britain the great and obvious cause to be assigned is the want of room and food or in other words misery and that this is a much more powerful cause even then vice here sufficiently evident from the rapidity with which even old states recover the desolations of war pestilence or the accidents of nature they are then for a short time placed a little in the situation of new states and the effect is always answerable to what might be expected if the industry of the inhabitants be not destroyed by fear or tyranny subsistence will soon increase beyond the wants of the reduced numbers and the invariable consequence will be that population which before perhaps was nearly stationary will begin immediately to increase the fertile province of Flanders which has been so often the seat of the most destructive wars after a respite of a few years has appeared always as fruitful and as populous as ever even the palatenate lifted up its head again after the execrable ravages of Louis XIV of the dreadful plague in London in 1666 were not perceptible fifteen or twenty years afterwards the traces of the most destructive famines in China and in Dostan are by all accounts very soon obliterated it may even be doubted whether Turkey and Egypt are upon an average much less populous for the plagues that periodically lay them waste if the number of people which they contain be less now than formerly it is probably rather to be attributed to the tyranny and oppression of the government under which they groan and the consequent discouragements to agriculture then to the loss which they sustain by the plague the most tremendous convulsions of nature such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes if they do not happen so frequently as to drive away the inhabitants or to destroy their spirit of industry have but a trifling effect on the average population of any state Naples and the country under Vesuvius are still very populous notwithstanding the repeated eruptions of that mountain and Lisbon and Lima are now probably nearly in the same state with regard to population as they were before the last earthquakes End of Chapter 6 Recording by Jeffrey Edwards Chapter 7 of an essay on the principle of population This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jeffrey Edwards An essay on the principle of population by Thomas Malthus Chapter 7 A probable cause of epidemics Extracts from Mr. Seuss Milk'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 There's three propositions considered as established By great attention to cleanliness the plague seems at length to be completely expelled from London But it is not improbable that among the secondary causes that produce even sickly seasons and epidemics ought to be ranked a crowded population and unwholesome and insufficient food I have been led to this remark by looking over some of the tables of Mr. Seuss Milk which Dr. Price has extracted in one of his notes to the Postscript on the controversy respecting the population of England and Wales They are considered as very correct and if such tables were general they would throw great light on the different ways by which population is repressed and prevented from increasing beyond the means of subsistence in any country I will extract a part of the tables with Dr. Price's remarks In the Kingdom of Prussia and Dukedom of Lithuania 10 years to 1702 Births 21,963 Burials 14,718 Marriages 5,928 Proportion of births to marriages 37 to 10 Proportion of births to burials 150 to 100 5 years to 1716 Births 21,602 Burials 11,984 Marriages 4968 Proportion of births to marriages 37 to 10 Proportion of births to burials 180 to 100 5 years to 1756 Births 28,392 Burials 19,154 Marriages 5,599 Proportion of births to marriages 50 to 10 Proportion of births to burials 148 to 100 Quotes NB In 1709 and 1710 a pestilence carried off 247,733 of the inhabitants of this country and in 1736 and 1737 epidemics prevailed which again checked its increase End Quotes It may be remarked that the greatest proportion of births to burials was in the 5 years after the great pestilence Duchy of Pomerania Annual average 6 years to 1702 Births 6,540 Burials 4,647 Marriages 1810 Proportion of births to marriages 36 to 10 Proportion of births to burials 140 to 100 Annual average 6 years to 1708 Births 7,455 Burials 4,208 Marriages 1875 Proportion of births to marriages 39 to 10 Proportion of births to burials 177 to 100 Annual average 6 years to 1726 Births 8,432 Burials 5,627 Marriages 2,131 Proportion of births to marriages 39 to 10 Proportion of births to burials 150 to 100 6 years to 1756 Births 12,767 Burials 281 Marriages 2957 Proportion of births to marriages 43 to 10 Proportion of births to burials 137 to 100 Quotes In this instance, the inhabitants appear to have been almost doubled in 56 years. No very bad epidemics having once interrupted the increase. But the three years immediately following the last period were so sickly that the births were sunk to 10,229 and the burials raised to 15,068 End quotes Is it not probable that in this case the number of inhabitants had increased faster than the food and the accommodations necessary to preserve them in health? The mass of the people would, upon this supposition, be obliged to live harder and a great number would be crowded together in one house and it is not surely improbable that these were among the natural causes that produced the three sickly years. These causes may produce such an effect, though the country, absolutely considered, may not be extremely crowded and populous. In a country even thinly inhabited, if an increase of population take place, before more food is raised and more houses are built, the inhabitants must be distressed in some degree for room and subsistence. Were the marriages in England for the next eight or ten years to be more prolific than usual, or even were a greater number of marriages than usual to take place, supposing the number of houses to remain the same, instead of five or six to a cottage, there must be seven or eight. And this, added to the necessity of harder living, would probably have a very unfavorable effect on the health of the common people. New Mark of Brandenburg Annual Average 5 years to 1701 Births 5,433 Burials 3,483 Marriages 1,436 Proportion of Births to Marriages 37 to 10 Proportion of Births to Burials 155 to 100 Annual Average 5 years to 1726 Births 7,012 Burials 5,564 Marriages 1,713 Proportion of Births to Marriages 40 to 10 Proportion of Births to Burials 164 to 100 Annual Average 5 years to 1756 Births 7,978 Burials 5,567 Marriages 1,891 Proportion of Births to Marriages 42 to 10 Proportion of Births to Burials 143 to 100 Quotes Epidemics prevailed for 6 years from 1736 to 1741 which checked the increase end quotes Dukedom of Magdenburg Annual Average 5 years to 1702 Births 6,431 Burials 4,103 1,681 Proportion of Births to Marriages 38 to 10 Proportion of Births to Burials 156 to 100 Annual Average 5 years to 1717 Births 7,590 Burials 5,335 Marriages 2076 Proportion of Births to Marriages 36 to 10 Proportion of Births to Burials 142 to 100 Annual Average 5 years to 1756 Births 8,850 Burials 8,069 Marriages 2,193 Proportion of Births to Marriages 40 to 10 Proportion of Births to Burials 109 to 100 Quotes The year 1738, 1740, 1750, and 1751 were particularly sickly End Quotes For further information on this subject I refer the reader to Mr. Seuss Milk's tables The extracts that I have made are sufficient to show the periodical though irregular returns of sickly seasons and it seems highly probable that a scantiness of room and food was one of the principal causes that occasioned them It appears from the tables that these countries were increasing rather fast for old states notwithstanding the occasional seasons that prevailed Cultivation must have been improving and marriages consequently encouraged For the Chext population appeared to have been rather of the positive than of the preventative kind When from a prospect of increasing plenty in any country the weight that represses population is in some degree removed it is highly probable that the motion will be continued beyond the operation of the cause that first impelled it or to be more particular when the increasing produce of a country was increasing demand for labour So far ameliorate the condition of the labourer as greatly to encourage marriage it is probable that the custom of early marriages will continue till the population of the country has gone beyond the increased produce and sickly seasons appear to be the natural and necessary consequence I should expect, therefore that those countries where subsistence was increasing sufficiency at times to encourage population but not to answer all its demands would be more subject to periodical epidemics if the population could more completely accommodate itself to the average produce An observation the converse of this will probably also be found true In those countries that are subject to periodical sicknesses the increase of population or the excess of births above the burials will be greater in the intervals of these periods than is usual Ciderous parabas in the countries not so much subject to such disorders If Turkey and Egypt have been stationary in their average population for the last century in the intervals of their periodical plagues the births must have exceeded the burials in a greater proportion than in such countries as France and England The average proportion of births to burials in any country for a period of 5 to 10 years will hence appear to be a very inadequate criterion by which to judge of its real progress in population This proportion certainly shows the rate of increase during those 5 or 10 years but we can by no means sense infer what had been the increase for the 20 years before or what would be the increase for the 20 years after Doctor Price observes that Sweden, Norway, Russia and the Kingdom of Naples are increasing fast but the extracts from registers that he has given are not for periods of sufficient extent to establish the fact It is highly probable however that Sweden, Norway and Russia are really increasing in the population though not at the rate that the proportion of births to burials for the short periods that Doctor Price takes would seem to show Bracket See Doctor Price's observations Volume 2 Postscript To the controversy on the population of England and Wales Close Bracket For 5 years, ending in 1777 the proportion of births to burials in the Kingdom of Naples was but there is reason to suppose that this proportion would indicate an increase much greater than would be really found to have taken place in the Kingdom during a period of 100 years Doctor Short compared the registers of many villages and market towns in England for two periods the first from Queen Elizabeth to the middle of the last century and the second from different years at the end of the last century to the middle of the present and from a comparison of these extracts in the previous period the births exceeded the burials in the proportion of 124 to 100 but in the latter only in the proportion of 111 to 100 Doctor Price thinks that the registers in the former period are not to be depended upon but probably in this instance they do not give incorrect proportions at least there are many reasons for expecting to find a greater excess of births above the burials in the former period than in the latter the population of any country more good land will be taken into cultivation in the earlier stages of it than in the latter I say sederus paribus because the increase of the produce of any country will always vary greatly depending on the spirit of industry that prevails and the way in which it is directed the knowledge and habits of the people and other temporary causes particularly the degree of civil liberty and equality existing at the time must always have great influence in this spirit and a greater proportional yearly increase of produce will almost invariably be followed by a greater proportional increase of population but besides this great cause which would naturally give the excess of births above burials greater at the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign than in the middle of the present century I cannot help thinking that the occasional ravages of the plague in the former period must have had some tendency to increase this proportion if an average of 10 years had been taken in the intervals of the returns of this dreadful disorder or if the years of plague had been rejected as accidental the registers would certainly give the proportion of births to burials too high for the real average increase of the population for some few years after the great plague in 1666 it is probable that there was a more than usual excess of births above burials particularly if Dr. Price's opinion be founded that England was more populace at the revolution which happened only 22 years afterwards then it is at present Mr. King in 1693 stated the proportion of the births to the burials throughout the kingdom exclusive of London as 115 to 100 Dr. Short makes it in the middle of the present century 111 to 100 including London the proportion in France for 5 years ending in 1774 was 117 to 100 if these statements are near the truth and if there are no very great variations at particular periods in the proportions it would appear that the population of France and England has accommodated itself very nearly to the average produce of each country the discouragements to marriage the consequent vicious habits war, luxury, the silent though certain depopulation of large towns and the close habitations and insufficient food of many of the poor prevent population from increasing and if I may use an expression which certainly at first appears strange supersede the necessity of a great and ravaging epidemic to repress what is redundant were a wasting plague to sweep off 2 millions in England and 6 millions in France there can be no doubt whatever that after the inhabitants had recovered from the dreadful shock the proportion of births to burials would be much above what it is in either country at present in New Jersey the births to deaths on an average of 7 years ending in 1743 was as 300 to 100 in France and England taking the highest proportion it is as 117 to 100 great and astonishing as this difference is we ought not to be so wonderstruck at it as to attribute it to the miraculous interposition of heaven the causes of it are not remote latent and mysterious but near us, round above us is the investigation of every inquiring mind it accords with the most liberal spirit of philosophy to suppose that not a stone can fall or a plant rise without the immediate agency of divine power but we know from experience that these operations of what we call nature have been conducted almost invariably according to fixed laws and since the world began the causes of population and depopulation have probably been as constant as any of the laws of nature the passion between the sexes has appeared in every age to be so nearly the same that it may always be considered in algebraic language as a given quantity the great law of necessity which prevents population from increasing in any country beyond the food which it can either produce or acquire is a law so open to our view so obvious and evident to our understandings and so completely confirmed by the experience of every age that we cannot for a moment doubt it the different modes which nature takes to prevent or repress a redundant population do not appear indeed to us so certain and regular but though we cannot always predict the mode we may with certainty predict the fact if the proportion of births to deaths for a few years indicate an increase of numbers much beyond the proportional increased or acquired produce of the country we may be perfectly certain that unless an emigration takes place the deaths will shortly exceed the births and the increase that had taken place for a few years cannot be the real average increase of the population of the country where there no other depopulating causes every country would without doubt be subject to periodical pestilences or famine the only true criterion of a real and permanent increase in the population of any country is the increase of the means of subsistence but even this criterion is subject to some slight variations which are however completely open to our view and observations in some countries population appears to have been forced that is the people have been habituated by degrees to live almost upon the smallest possible quantity of food there must have been periods in such countries when population increased permanently without an increase in the means of subsistence China seems to answer to this description if the accounts we have of it are to be trusted the lower classes of people are in the habit of living almost upon the smallest possible quantity of food and are glad to get any putrid ovals that European laborers would rather starve than eat the law in China which permits parents to expose their children has tended principally thus to force the population a nation in this state must necessarily be subject to famines where a country is so populist in proportion to the means of subsistence that the average produce of it is but barely sufficient to support the lives of the inhabitants of indigenous seasons must be fatal it is probable that the very frugal manner in which the gentus are in the habit of living contributes in some degree to the famines of Indostan in America where the reward of labor is at present so liberal the lower classes might retrench very considerably in a year of scarcity without materially distressing themselves a famine therefore seems to be almost impossible it may be expected that in the progress of the population of America the laborers will in time be much less liberally rewarded the numbers will in this case permanently increase without a proportional increase in the means of subsistence in the different states of Europe there must be some variations in the proportion between the number of inhabitants and the quantity of food consumed arising from the different habits of living that prevail in each state the laborers of the south of England are so accustomed to eat fine wheat and bread that they will suffer themselves to be half starved before they will submit to live like the scotch peasants they might perhaps in time by the constant operation of the hard law of necessity be reduced to live even like the lower Chinese and the country would then with the same quantity of food support a greater population but to effect this must always be a most difficult end every friend to humanity will hope an abortive attempt nothing is so common as to hear of encouragements that ought to be given to population if the tendency of mankind to increase be so great as I have represented it to be it may appear strange that this increase does not come when it is thus repeatedly called for the true reason is that the demand for a greater population is made without preparing the funds necessary to support it increase the demand for agricultural labor by promoting cultivation and with it consequently increase the produce of the country and ameliorate the condition of the laborer and no apprehensions whatever need be entertained of the proportional increase of population an attempt to effect this purpose in any other way is vicious cruel and tyrannical and in any state of tolerable freedom cannot therefore succeed it may appear to be the interest of the rulers and the rich of a state to force population and thereby lower the price of labor and consequently the expense of fleets and armies and the cost of manufacturers for foreign sale but every attempt to the kind should be carefully watched and strenuously resisted by the friends of the poor particularly when it comes under the deceitful garb of benevolence and is likely on that account to be cheerfully and cordially received by the common people I entirely acquit Mr. Pitt of any sinister intention in that clause of his poor bill which allows a shilling a week to every laborer for each child he has above three I confess that before the bill was brought into parliament and for some time after I thought that such a regulation would be highly beneficial and beneficial but further reflection on the subject has convinced me that if its object be to better the condition of the poor it is calculated to defeat the very purpose which it has in view it has no tendency that I can discover to increase the produce of the country and if it tend to increase the population without increasing the produce the necessary and inevitable consequence appears to be that the same produce must be divided among a greater number and consequently that a day's labor will purchase a smaller quantity of provisions and the poor therefore in general must be more distressed I've mentioned some cases where population may permanently increase without a proportional increase in the means of subsistence but it is evident that the variation in different states between the food and the number supported by it is restricted to a limit beyond which it cannot pass in every country the population of which is not absolutely decreasing the food must be necessarily sufficient to support and to continue the race of laborers other circumstances being the same it may be affirmed that the countries are populist according to the quantity of human food which they produce and happy according to the liberality with which that food is divided or the quantity which a day's labor will purchase corn countries are more populist than pasture countries and rice countries more populist than corn countries the lands in England are not suited to rice but they would all bear potatoes and Dr. Adam Smith observes that if potatoes were to become the favorite vegetable food of the common people and if the same quantity of land were employed in their culture as is now employed in the culture of corn the country would be able to support a very much greater population and would consequently in a very short time have it the happiness of a country does not depend absolutely upon its poverty or its riches upon its youth or its age upon its being thinly or fully inhabited but upon the rapidity with which it is increasing upon the degree in which the yearly increase of food approaches to the yearly increase of an unrestricted population this approximation is always the nearest in new colonies where the knowledge and industry of an old state operate on the fertile unappropriated land of a new one in other cases the youth or the age of a state is not in this respect of very great importance it is probable that the food of Great Britain is divided in as great plenty to the inhabitants at the present period as it was 2000 3000 or 4000 years ago and there is reason to believe that the poor and thinly inhabited tracts of the Scotch Highlands are as much distressed by an overcharged population as the rich and populous province of Flanders where a country never to be overrun by a people more advanced in arts but left to its own natural progress in civilization from the time that its produce might be considered as a unit to the time that it might be considered as a million during the lapse of many hundred years there would not be a single period when the mass of people could be said to be free from distress either directly or indirectly for want of food in every state in Europe since we have first had accounts of it millions and millions of human existences have been repressed from this simple cause though perhaps in some of these states an absolute famine has never been known famine seems to be the last dreadful resource of nature the power of population is so superior to the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race the vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation they are the precursors in the great army of destruction and often finish the dreadful work themselves but should they fail in this war of extermination sickly seasons, epidemics pestilence and plague advance in terrific array and sweep off their thousands and ten thousands should success be still incomplete gigantic inevitable famine stocks in the rear and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world must it not then be acknowledged by an attentive examiner of the histories of mankind that in every age and in every state in which man has existed that the increase of population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence that population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase and that the superior power of population is repressed and the actual population kept equal to the means of subsistence by misery and vice End of Chapter 7 Recording by Jeffrey Edwards