Thomas Malthus

Life

• Born: February 13, 1766, in Surrey, England
• Education:
• BA (1788) and MA (1791) from Jesus College, Cambridge
• Ordained as Anglican clergyman (1797)
• Career Highlights:
• Professor of History and Political Economy at East India Company College (1805-1834)
• Founding member of Political Economy Club (1821)
• One of the first professional economists
• Death: December 23, 1834, in Bath, England

People Who Influenced Their Thought

• Adam Smith: Classical economics foundation
• David Ricardo: Close colleague and intellectual rival
• William Godwin: Utopian ideas he opposed
• Robert Wallace: Early population theorist

Main Ideas and Publications

• An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798, revised 1803):
• Population grows geometrically vs. food arithmetically
• "Positive checks" (famine, disease) and "preventive checks" (moral restraint)
• Theory of Gluts: Early underconsumption theory
• Wage Fund Theory: Influenced classical wage theories

Controversies

• Pessimism Charge: "Dismal science" nickname origin
• Empirical Accuracy: Agricultural innovations disproved immediate scarcity predictions
• Social Policy: Used to oppose poor relief (Malthusianism)
• Ethical Debates: Birth control and population control controversies

Key People Influenced

• Charles Darwin: Natural selection inspiration
• John Maynard Keynes: Praised his demand-side insights
• Paul Ehrlich: Modern population crisis warnings
• David Ricardo: Incorporated his rent theory

Legacy

Malthus established demography as scientific discipline and formulated enduring debates about population-resource balance, with cyclical relevance.