THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS (1766-1834)
Malthus has been described by his principal biographer as 'the best-abused man of the age.’2 Certainly he was in the thick of controversy for the better part of his days.
Born to an upper-middle class English family with aristocratic pretensions, Malthus entered Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1784 where he studied mathematics and compiled a distinguished academic record.
As he himself reported, he was more noted as an undergraduate 'for talking of what actually exists in nature or may be put to real practical use’3 than for an interest in abstract reasoning for its own sake. After a period of hesitation - apparently because of concern about a speech defect - he took Holy Orders. Though the label 'parson' was permanently attached to him, he was a practising clergy man for only a brief period. For most of his life he pursued an academic career, first in Cambridge and later as Professor of Modern History and Political Economy at a college newly established to train officials of the East India Company. This appointment, for which there was no precedent, entitles him to be regarded as the world's first professional economist.Malthus first gained fame with the Essay on the Principle of Population. The first edition, published in 1798, appeared anonymously, presumably because its author feared that some readers might be disturbed to discover an ordained churchman discoursing on such delicate matters. The author's identity, however, was only thinly veiled. William Godwin, whose views were a major target of criticism in the essay, is known to have corresponded with Malthus about its contents in the year of publication.4
The lively reception of the essay led Malthus to prepare six further editions, the final one in 1826. The theme he dealt with was directly pertinent to current debates. Shortly before the publication of the first edition, the younger Pitt proposed legislation designed to reorganize relief for the poor by the award of special compensation and encouragement to large families on the grounds that 'those who, after having enriched their country with a number of children, have a claim upon its assistance for their support'.5 Interest in the subject was intensified by the census of 1801 (the first comprehensive enumeration of the population of Great Britain). These tabulations appeared to indicate that population had grown substantially in the latter part of the eighteenth century.
Previously, an important body of opinion had believed - along with Gregory King, the pioneer national income statistician, who had predicted in 1696 that the population of England would be unlikely to double in less than six hundred years - that the pace of population growth was slow.Malthus's interest in population questions served as a point of departure into more general analyses of economic and social problems. He addressed himself to broader themes in a series of pamphlets and articles on topics of the day and in his major theoretical work, The Principles of Political Economy Considered with a View to Their Practical Application. He found his teaching duties satisfying and regarded his subject a suitable study for young men who 'could not only understand it, but they did not even think it dull'.6
Contrary to many popular impressions - both in his day and since - he was by
temperament a warm, generous, and gentle man. Of his many friendships the one of most significance to the history of ideas was his association with David Ricardo, an intellectual adversary on many occasions but an ally in the pursuit of truth. On his feelings toward Ricardo he once observed: 'I never loved anybody out of my own family so much.'7
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