Thomas Malthus - An Essay on the Principle of Population

An Essay on the Principle of Population

An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Societywith Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers.

Thomas Malthus

London

Printed for J. Johnson, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard1798.

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VII

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

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2 ........................................................................................6

The different ratio in which population and food increase - Thenecessary 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 beenknown to exist proposed to be examined with reference to these three propositions.

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

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4 ......................................................................................17

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

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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 distresses of the poor proposed - The absolute impossibility, from the fixed laws of our nature, that the pressure of want can ever be completely removed