Thomas Malthus

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), British economist, born near Guildford, Surrey, England, and educated at Jesus College, the University of Cambridge. Malthus became curate of the parish of Albury in Surrey in 1798 and held this post for a short time. From 1805 until his death, he was professor of political economy and modern history at the college of the East India Company at Haileybury.

Malthus's main contribution to economics was his theory of population, published in An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). According to Malthus, population tends to increase faster than the supply of food available for its needs. Whenever a relative gain occurs in food production over population growth, a higher rate of population increase is stimulated; on the other hand, if population grows too much faster than food production, the growth is checked by famine, disease, and war. Malthus's theory contradicted the optimistic belief prevailing in the early 19th century, that a society's fertility would lead to economic progress. Malthus's theory won supporters and was often used as an argument against efforts to better the condition of the poor.

The writings of Malthus encouraged the first systematic demographic studies. They also influenced subsequent economists, particularly David Ricardo, whose “iron law of wages” and theory of distribution of wealth contain some elements of Malthus's theory. Malthus's other works include An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent (1815) and Principles of Political Economy (1820).