In his 1798 bookAn Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus observed that an increase in a nation's food production improved the well-being of the population, but the improvement was temporary because it led to population growth, which in turn restored the originalper capita production level. In other words, humans had a propensity to use abundance for population growth rather than for maintaining a highstandard of living, a view and stance that has become known as the "Malthusian trap" or the "Malthusian spectre". Populations had a tendency to grow until the lower class suffered hardship, want, and greater susceptibility to war,famine, anddisease, a pessimistic view that is sometimes referred to as aMalthusian catastrophe. Malthus wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible.[3]
Malthus consideredpopulation growth as inevitable whenever conditions improved, thereby precluding real progress towards autopian society: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man."[4] As an Anglican cleric, he saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behavior.[5] Malthus wrote that "the increase of population is necessarily limited by subsistence", "population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase", and "the superior power of population repress by moral restraint, vice, and misery."[6]
Malthus criticised thePoor Laws for leading to inflation rather than improving the well-being of the poor.[7] He supported taxes on grain imports (theCorn Laws).[8] His views became influential and controversial across economic, political, social and scientific thought. Pioneers ofevolutionary biology read him, notablyCharles Darwin andAlfred Russel Wallace.[9][10] PresidentsThomas Jefferson andJames Madison read Malthus.[11] Malthus's failure to predict theIndustrial Revolution was a frequent criticism of his theories.[12] Malthus laid the "theoretical foundation of the conventional wisdom that has dominated the debate, both scientifically and ideologically,[13] on global hunger and famines for almost two centuries."[14]
Thomas Robert Malthus was the sixth of seven children[15] of Daniel Malthus and Henrietta Catherine, daughter ofDaniel Graham,apothecary to kingsGeorge II andGeorge III, and granddaughter ofThomas Graham, apothecary to kingsGeorge I andGeorge II. Henrietta was depicted alongside her siblings inWilliam Hogarth's painting,The Graham Children (1742).[16] Malthus was born at The Rookery, a "small elegant mansion" atWestcott, nearDorking inSurrey, which his father had bought—at that time called Chertgate Farm—and converted into "a gentleman's seat"; the family sold it in 1768 and moved to "a less extensive establishment atAlbury, not far fromGuildford". Malthus had acleft lip and palate which affected his speech; such birth defects had occurred in previous generations of his family. His friend, the social theoristHarriet Martineau, who was hard of hearing, nevertheless stated that due to his sonorous voice he was the only person she could hear well without herear trumpet.[17][18][15][19]William Petersen andJohn Maynard Keynes describe Daniel Malthus as "a gentleman of good family and independent means [...] [and] a friend ofDavid Hume andJean-Jacques Rousseau". Daniel Malthus was son of Sydenham Malthus, who was a clerk ofChancery and director of theSouth Sea Company; he was also "proprietor of several landed properties in theHome Counties andCambridgeshire". Sydenham Malthus's father, Daniel, had been apothecary to King William and later toQueen Anne; Daniel's father, Rev. Robert Malthus, was appointedvicar ofNortholt,Middlesex (nowWest London) under the regicideCromwell, but "evicted at theRestoration"; he was described as "an ancient divine, a man of strong reason, and mighty in the Scriptures, of great eloquence and fervour, though defective in elocution", due to "a very great impediment in his utterance" which has been concluded to be likely to have been a cleft palate.[20][21][22] The young Malthus received his education at theWarrington Academy from 1782, where he was taught byGilbert Wakefield. Warrington was adissenting academy, which closed in 1783. Malthus continued for a period to be tutored by Wakefield at the latter's home inBramcote,Nottinghamshire.[23][24]
Malthus came to prominence for his 1798 publication,An Essay on the Principle of Population. He wrote the original text in reaction to the optimism of his father and his father's associates (notablyJean-Jacques Rousseau) regarding the future improvement of society. He also constructed his case as a specific response to writings ofWilliam Godwin and of the Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794).[28] His assertions evoked questions and criticism, and between 1798 and 1826 he published six more versions ofAn Essay on the Principle of Population, updating each edition to incorporate new material, to address criticism, and to convey changes in his own perspectives on the subject.
TheMalthusian controversy to which theEssay gave rise in the decades following its publication tended to focus attention on the birth rate and marriage rates. Theneo-Malthusian controversy, comprising related debates of many years later, has seen a similar central role assigned to the numbers of children born.[29]The goal of Malthusian theory is to explain how population and food production expand, with the latter experiencing arithmetic growth and the former experiencing exponential growth.[30] The controversy, however, concerns the relevance of Malthusian theory in the present world. This hypothesis is inapplicable in a number of ways. First, the hypothesis is rendered irrelevant,[31] due to a disregard for technological advancement. This is because food production has increased as a result of technological advancements such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs).[32] Second, the mathematical model employed to formulate the hypothesis is incorrect since it was constrained to England's specific situation.[33] Other findings, such as food production exceeding population increase, may be borne out if the modeling could employ wide locations like Australia.[34] The Malthusian hypothesis is also limited by social change about family size,[35] as individuals tend to prefer a manageable family owing to economic restrictions.Food production can also outpace population expansion, due to the industrial revolution.[36] Another limitation of this theory is the belief that overall income is a key factor of population health,[37] implying that wealthy countries will have various solutions for their rapidly rising populations.[38] An expanding population can be considered as an increase of available human capacity for increasing food production.[39] The static aspect of the Malthusian hypothesis, which is based on the rule of decreasing returns,[40] limits its applicability. Finally, Malthusian Theory's failure to determine whether birth rates match death rates hampered its application,[41] because it was possible that the population was not rising as fast as food production due to the presence of deaths.[citation needed]
In 1799, Malthus made a European tour withWilliam Otter, a close college friend, travelling part of the way withEdward Daniel Clarke andJohn Marten Cripps, visiting Germany, Scandinavia and Russia. Malthus used the tour to gather population data. Otter later wrote aMemoir of Malthus for the second (1836) edition of hisPrinciples of Political Economy.[42][43] During thePeace of Amiens of 1802 he travelled to France and Switzerland, in a party that included his relation and future wife Harriet.[44]
In 1805, Malthus became Professor of History and Political Economy at theEast India Company College inHertfordshire.[45] His students affectionately referred to him as "Pop", "Population", or "web-toe" Malthus.
Near the end of 1817, the proposed appointment ofGraves Champney Haughton to the college was made a pretext by Randle Jackson andJoseph Hume to launch an attempt to close it down. Malthus wrote a pamphlet defending the college, which was reprieved by the East India Company within the same year, 1817.[46]
In 1818, Malthus became a Fellow of theRoyal Society.
During the 1820s, a setpiece intellectual discussion took place among the exponents ofpolitical economy, often called the Malthus–Ricardo debate after its leading figures, Malthus and theorist offree tradeDavid Ricardo, both of whom had written books with the titlePrinciples of Political Economy. Under examination were the nature and methods of political economy itself, while it was simultaneously under attack from others.[47] The roots of the debate were in the previous decade. InThe Nature of Rent (1815), Malthus had dealt witheconomic rent, a major concept in classical economics. Ricardo defined a theory of rent in hisPrinciples of Political Economy and Taxation (1817): he regarded rent as value in excess of real production—something caused by ownership rather than by free trade. Rent therefore represented a kind of negative money that landlords could pull out of the production of the land, by means of its scarcity.[48] Contrary to this concept, Malthus proposed rent to be a kind ofeconomic surplus.[49]
Ricardo corresponded with Malthus from 1817 about hisPrinciples. He was drawn into considering political economy in a less restricted sense, which might be adapted to legislation and its multiple objectives, by the thought of Malthus. InPrinciples of Political Economy (1820) and elsewhere, Malthus addressed the tension, amounting to conflict he saw between a narrow view of political economy and the broader moral and political plane.[52]Leslie Stephen wrote:
If Malthus and Ricardo differed, it was a difference of men who accepted the same first principles. They both professed to interpretAdam Smith as the true prophet, and represented different shades of opinion rather than diverging sects.[53]
It is now considered that the different purposes seen by Malthus and Ricardo for political economy affected their technical discussion, and contributed to the lack of compatible definitions.[50] For example,Jean-Baptiste Say used a definition of production based ongoods and services and so queried the restriction of Malthus to "goods" alone.[54]
In terms of public policy, Malthus was a supporter of theprotectionistCorn Laws from the end of theNapoleonic Wars. He emerged as the only economist of note to support duties on imported grain.[55] By encouraging domestic production, Malthus argued, the Corn Laws would guarantee Britishself-sufficiency in food.[56]
Malthus was a founding member in 1821 of thePolitical Economy Club, whereJohn Cazenove tended to be his ally against Ricardo and Mill.[57] He was elected in the beginning of 1824 as one of the ten royal associates of theRoyal Society of Literature. He was also one of the first fellows of theStatistical Society, founded in March 1834. In 1827 he gave evidence to a committee of the House of Commons on emigration.[58]
In 1827, he publishedDefinitions in Political Economy[59] The first chapter put forth "Rules for the Definition and Application of Terms in Political Economy". In chapter 10, the penultimate chapter, he presented 60 numbered paragraphs putting forth terms and their definitions that he proposed should be used in discussing political economy following those rules. This collection of terms and definitions is remarkable for two reasons: first, Malthus was the first economist to explicitly organize, define, and publish his terms as a coherent glossary of defined terms; and second, his definitions were for the most part well-formed definitional statements. Between these chapters, he criticised several contemporary economists—Jean-Baptiste Say,David Ricardo,James Mill,John Ramsay McCulloch, andSamuel Bailey—for sloppiness in choosing, attaching meaning to, and using their technical terms.[60]
McCulloch was the editor ofThe Scotsman of Edinburgh and replied cuttingly in a review printed on the front page of his newspaper in March 1827.[61] He implied that Malthus wanted to dictate terms and theories to other economists. McCulloch clearly took personal offence and his review ofDefinitions is largely a bitter defence of his ownPrinciples of Political Economy,[62] and his counter-attack "does little credit to his reputation", being largely "personal derogation" of Malthus.[63] The purpose of Malthus'sDefinitions was terminological clarity, and Malthus discussed appropriate terms, their definitions, and their use by himself and his contemporaries. This motivation of Malthus's work was disregarded by McCulloch, who responded that there was nothing to be gained "by carping at definitions, and quibbling about the meaning to be attached to" words. Given that statement, it is not surprising that McCulloch's review failed to address the rules of chapter 1 and did not discuss the definitions of chapter 10; he also barely mentioned Malthus's critiques of other writers.[60]
In spite of this and in the wake of McCulloch's scathing review, the reputation of Malthus as economist dropped away for the rest of his life.[64] On the other hand, Malthus did have supporters, includingThomas Chalmers, some of theOriel Noetics,Richard Jones andWilliam Whewell from Cambridge.[65]
Malthus died suddenly ofheart disease on 29 December 1834 at his father-in-law's house. He was buried inBath Abbey.[58] His portrait,[66] and descriptions by contemporaries, present him as tall and good-looking, but with acleft lip and palate.[67]
On 13 March 1804, Thomas Malthus married Harriet Eckersall, the eldest daughter of his first cousins John and Catherine Eckersall, who lived near Bath. Harriet became well-known at Haileybury College for hosting gatherings of notable scientists; eleven years younger than Thomas, she survived him by thirty years, remarrying after his death.[68]
The couple had a son, Henry, and two daughters, Emily and Lucille. Henry, the eldest, became vicar ofEffingham, Surrey in 1835 and ofDonnington, Sussex in 1837; he married Sofia Otter, daughter of BishopWilliam Otter and died in August 1882, aged 76. Emily, the middle child, died in 1885, outliving her parents and siblings. Lucille, the youngest, died unmarried and childless in 1825, at age 17.[58][69]
Malthus argued in hisEssay (1798) that population growth generally expanded in times and in regions of plenty until the size of the population relative to the primary resources caused distress:
Yet in all societies, even those that are most vicious, the tendency to a virtuous attachment [i.e., marriage] 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.
— Malthus, T. R. 1798.An Essay on the Principle of Population. Chapter II, p. 18 inOxford World's Classics reprint.
Malthus argued that two types of checks hold population within resource limits:positive checks, which raise the death rate; andpreventive ones, which lower the birth rate. The positive checks include hunger, disease and war; the preventive checks:birth control, postponement of marriage andcelibacy.[70]
The rapid increase in the global population of the past century exemplifies Malthus's predicted population patterns; it also appears to describe socio-demographic dynamics of complexpre-industrial societies. These findings are the basis for neo-Malthusian modern mathematical models oflong-term historical dynamics.[71]
Malthus wrote that in a period of resource abundance, a population could double in 25 years. However, the margin of abundance could not be sustained as population grew, leading to checks on population growth:
If the subsistence for man that the earth affords was to be increased every twenty-five 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 can conceive that any possible exertions of mankind could make it ... 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.
— Malthus T. R. 1798.An Essay on the Principle of Population. Chapter 2, p. 8[72]
In later editions of his essay, Malthus clarified his view that if society relied on human misery to limit population growth, then sources of misery (e.g., hunger, disease, and war) would inevitably afflict society, as would volatile economic cycles. On the other hand, "preventive checks" to population that limited birthrates, such as later marriages, could ensure a higher standard of living for all, while also increasing economic stability.[73] Regarding possibilities for freeing man from these limits, Malthus argued against a variety of imaginable solutions, such as the notion that agricultural improvements could expand without limit.[74]
Of the relationship between population and economics, Malthus wrote that when the population of laborers grows faster than the production of food, real wages fall because the growing population causes thecost of living (i.e., the cost of food) to go up. Difficulties of raising a family eventually reduce the rate of population growth, until the falling population again leads to higher real wages.
In the second and subsequent editions Malthus put more emphasis onmoral restraint as the best means of easing the poverty of the lower classes."[75]
The first edition of theEssay on the Principle of Population also contained a sophisticated theory of mind which attempted to explain human behaviour. This materialist conception of mind emphasised its corporeal and irrational nature which operated according to an economy of desire. Malthus believed that innate bodily desires, passions, and impulses made demands on the organism to be satiated which in turn gave rise to the mental apparatus. He excised his theory of mind from all future editions of theEssay following accusations of materialism and atheism.[28]
1798:An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it affects the future improvement of society with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers.. Anonymously published.
1803: Second and much enlarged edition:An Essay on the Principle of Population; or, a view of its past and present effects on human happiness; with an enquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions. Authorship acknowledged.
1806, 1807, 1816 and 1826: editions 3–6, with relatively minor changes from the second edition.
1823: Malthus contributed the article onPopulation to the supplement of theEncyclopædia Britannica.
1830: Malthus had a long extract from the 1823 article reprinted asA summary view of the Principle of Population.[76]
In this work, his first published pamphlet, Malthus argues against the notion prevailing in his locale that the greed of intermediaries caused the high price of provisions. Instead, Malthus says that the high price stems from thePoor Laws, which "increase the parish allowances in proportion to the price of corn." Thus, given a limited supply, the Poor Laws force up the price of daily necessities. However, he concludes by saying that in time of scarcity such Poor Laws, by raising the price of corn more evenly, actually produce abeneficial effect.[77]
Although government in Britain had regulated the prices of grain, theCorn Laws originated in 1815. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars that year,Parliament passed legislation banning the importation of foreign corn into Britain until domestic corn cost 80 shillings perquarter.[clarification needed] The high price caused the cost of food to increase and caused distress among the working classes in the towns. It led to serious rioting in London and to thePeterloo Massacre inManchester in 1819.[78][79]
In this pamphlet, printed during the parliamentary discussion, Malthus tentatively supported the free-traders. He argued that given the increasing cost of growing British corn, advantages accrued from supplementing it from cheaper foreign sources.
In 1820 Malthus publishedPrinciples of Political Economy.(A second edition was posthumously published in 1836.) Malthus intended this work to rival Ricardo'sPrinciples (1817).[80] It, and his 1827Definitions in political economy, defendedSismondi's views on "general glut" rather than Say's law, which in effect states "there can be no general glut".[81]
1807.A letter to Samuel Whitbread, Esq. M.P. on his proposed Bill for the Amendment of the Poor Laws. Johnson and Hatchard, London.
1808. Spence on Commerce.Edinburgh Review11, January, 429–448.
1808. Newneham and others on the state of Ireland.Edinburgh Review12, July, 336–355.
1809. Newneham on the state of Ireland,Edinburgh Review14 April, 151–170.
1811. Depreciation of paper currency.Edinburgh Review17, February, 340–372.
1812. Pamphlets on the bullion question. Edinburgh Review18, August, 448–470.
1813.A letter to the Rt. Hon. Lord Grenville. Johnson, London.
1817.Statement respecting the East-India College. Murray, London.
1821. Godwin on Malthus.Edinburgh Review35, July, 362–377.
1823.The Measure of Value, stated and illustrated
1823. Tooke – On high and low prices.Quarterly Review,29 (57), April, 214–239.
1824. Political economy.Quarterly Review30 (60), January, 297–334.
1829. On the measure of the conditions necessary to the supply of commodities.Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom.1, 171–180. John Murray, London.
1829. On the meaning which is most usually and most correctly attached to the termValue of a Commodity.Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom.2, 74–81. John Murray.
Malthus developed the theory of demand-supply mismatches that he calledgluts. Discounted at the time, this theory foreshadowed later work by an admirer,John Maynard Keynes.[82]
The vast bulk of continuing commentary on Malthus, however, extends and expands on the "Malthusian controversy" of the early 19th century. In Ireland where (writing toRicardo in 1817) Malthus proposed that "to give full effect to the natural resources of the country a great part of the population should be swept from the soil into large manufacturing and commercial Towns",[83][84] a comparatively early contribution wasObservations on the population and resources of Ireland (1821) by the polymath and physicianWhitely Stokes.[85] Finding fault in Malthus's calculations and juxtapositions – "the possible increase of man in America" measured against "the probable increase in [food] production in Great Britain" – and insisting upon the advantages mankind derives from "improved industry, improved conveyance, improvements in morals, government and religion", Stokes argued that Ireland's difficulty lay not in her "numbers", but in indifferent government.[86]
Ebenezer Scrooge fromA Christmas Carol byCharles Dickens represents the Malthusianism,[87] famously illustrated by his explanation as to why he refuses to donate to the poor and destitute: "If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population". In general, Dickens had some Malthusian concerns (evident inOliver Twist,Hard Times and other novels), and he concentrated his attacks onUtilitarianism and many of its proponents, likeJeremy Bentham, whom he thought of, along with Malthus, as unjust and inhumane.[88]
In the musicalUrinetown, written byGreg Kotis andMark Hollmann, the characters live in a society in which a fee must be paid in order to urinate, for a drought has made water incredibly scarce. A revolution starts with a "pee for free" agenda. At the end of the show, the revolution wins but the characters end up dying because water was not being conserved, unlike when the 'pee fee' was in place. The penultimate line is "Hail Malthus!"
In the filmAvengers: Infinity War, the main villain calledThanos appears to be motivated by Malthusian views about population growth, and commits universal mass genocide known asThe Blip.[90][91]
The epitaph of Malthus in Bath Abbey reads [with commas inserted for clarity]:
Sacred to the memory of the Rev THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS, long known to the lettered world by his admirable writings on the social branches of political economy, particularly by his essay on population.
One of the best men and truest philosophers of any age or country, raised by native dignity of mind above the misrepresentations of the ignorant and the neglect of the great, he lived a serene and happy life devoted to the pursuit and communication of truth, supported by a calm but firm conviction of the usefulness of his labors, content with the approbation of the wise and good.
His writings will be a lasting monument of the extent and correctness of his understanding.
The spotless integrity of his principles, the equity and candour of his nature, his sweetness of temper, urbanity of manners and tenderness of heart, his benevolence and his piety are the still dearer recollections of his family and friends.
National Security Study Memorandum 200 Henry Kissinger's 1974 study of "Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests"
^Several sources give Malthus's date of death as 15 December 1834. SeeMeyers Konversationslexikon (Leipzig, 4th edition, 1885–1892),"Biography" by Nigel Malthus (the memorial transcription reproduced in this article). However, the article in"Malthus, Thomas Robert" .Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 515. gives 23 December 1834.
^Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798.An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. viii in Oxford World's Classics reprint.
^McCoy, Drew R. (1980). "Jefferson and Madison on Malthus: Population Growth in Jeffersonian Political Economy".The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.88 (3):259–276.JSTOR4248405.PMID11636181.
^Daoud, Adel (October 2010). "Robbins and Malthus on Scarcity, Abundance, and Sufficiency: The Missing Sociocultural Element".The American Journal of Economics and Sociology.69 (4):1206–1229.doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.2010.00741.x. Daoud citingHarvey, David (1974). "Population, Resources, and the Ideology of Science".Economic Geography.50 (3):256–277.doi:10.2307/142863.JSTOR142863.
^Daoud, Adel (October 2010). "Robbins and Malthus on Scarcity, Abundance, and Sufficiency: The Missing Sociocultural Element".The American Journal of Economics and Sociology.69 (4):1206–1229.doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.2010.00741.x. Daoud citing Kutzner, Patricia L. (1991). World Hunger: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio.
^Walter, R (2020). "Malthus's principle of population in Britain: restatement and antiquation".Malthus Across Nations. Edward Elgar Publishing.
^Brooks, Jonathan (18 November 2021).Settler Colonialism, Primitive Accumulation, and Biopolitics in Xinjiang, China (MSc). London School of Economics.doi:10.2139/ssrn.3965577.
^Mokyr, J (2018). "The past and the future of innovation: Some lessons from economic history".Explorations in Economic History.69 (69):13–26.doi:10.1016/j.eeh.2018.03.003.S2CID158447130.
^Smith, K (2013).The Malthusian Controversy. Routledge.
^Robertson, T (2012).The Malthusian moment. Rutgers University Press.
^Malthus, T.R. (1992). Winch, Donald; James, Patricia (eds.).An Essay on the Principle of Population. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0521429726.
^Cremaschi, S (2014).Utilitarianism and Malthus's Virtue Ethics: Respectable, virtuous and happy. Routledge.
^Chiarini, B (2012). Malanima, P; Piga, G (eds.).From Malthus' stagnation to sustained growth: social, demographic and economic factors. Palgrave Macmillan.
^On The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, London: John Murray, Albemarle-Street, by David Ricardo, 1817 (third edition 1821) – Chapter 6, On Profits: paragraph 28, "Thus, taking the former ..." and paragraph 33, "There can, however ..."
^Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798.An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. xx in Oxford World's Classics series. xx
^Cannan E. 1893.A History of the Theories of Production and Distribution in English Political Economy from 1776 to 1848. Kelly, New York.
^Painted byJohn Linnell and seen here in a cropped and scanned monochrome version.
^Hodgson, M.H (2007). "Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766–1834)". In Rutherford, Donald (ed.).Biographical Dictionary of British Economists. London:Bloomsbury Academic.ISBN978-1843711513.
^Knowlton, Charles; Besant, Annie (2002). Chandrasekhar, S (ed.).Reproductive Physiology and Birth Control. New York: Routledge. pp. 4–6.
^Malthus, T (2004). "Letters to Harriet Malthus from her mother, Catherine Eckersall". In Pullen, J.; Parry, T. Hughes (eds.).T. R. Malthus: The Unpublished Papers in the Collection of Kanto Gakuen University. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 242–274.
^Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798.An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint. viii
^Geoffrey Gilbert, introduction to Malthus T.R. 1798.An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint, p. xviii
^dates from Malthus T.R. 1798.An Essay on the Principle of Population. Oxford World's Classics reprint: xxix Chronology.
^1800:The present high price of provisions, paragraph 26
^Hirst, Francis Wrigley (1925).From Adam Smith to Philip Snowden: a History of Free Trade in Great Britain. London, England:T. Fisher Unwin. p. 88.ASINB007T0ONNO.
^Hobsbawm, Eric (1999).Industry and Empire: The Birth of the Industrial Revolution. New York City:The New Press. p. 175.ISBN978-1565845619.The Corn Laws... safeguarded farmers from the consequences of their wartime euphoria, when farms had changed hands at the fanciest prices, loans and mortgages had been accepted on impossible terms
Elwell, Frank W. (2001).A Commentary on Malthus' 1798 Essay on Population as Social Theory. E. Mellen Press.ISBN978-0-7734-7669-1.
Evans, L. T. (1998).Feeding the Ten Billion: Plants and Population Growth. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-64685-7.
Hofmann, Klaus (June 2013). "Beyond the principle of population: Malthus's Essay".The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought.20 (3):399–425.doi:10.1080/09672567.2012.654805.
Hollander, Samuel 1997.The Economics of Thomas Robert Malthus. University of Toronto Press. Dedicated to Malthus by the author.ISBN0521646855.
James, Patricia.Population Malthus: his life and times. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1979.[ISBN missing]
Malthus, Thomas Robert.Definitions in Political Economy. Edited by Alexander K. Bocast. Critical edition. McLean: Berkeley Bridge Press, 2016.ISBN978-1945208010.
Peterson, William 1999.Malthus, founder of modern demography 2nd ed. Transaction.ISBN0765804816.
Rohe, John F.,A Bicentennial Malthusian Essay: conservation, population and the indifference to limits, Rhodes & Easton, Traverse City, MI. 1997
Bashford, Alison, and Joyce E. Chaplin.The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus: Rereading the Principle of Population (Princeton University Press, 2016). vii + 353 pp.excerpt; alsoonline review
Conceptual origins of Malthus's Essay on Population, facsimile reprint of 8 Books in 6 volumes, edited by Yoshinobu Nanagita (ISBN978-4902454147) www.aplink.co.jp/ep/4-902454-14-9.htm
