The Works of Thomas Robert Malthus

Unlike his work on population, many of Malthus’s most important ideas in the realm of political economy were first outlined in pamphlets or occasional pieces. A series of reviews and articles about prices and the controversy over bullion during the wars with France made Malthus’s name as a political economist; the publication in 1815 of his essay on rent (in the same year as Sir Edward West’s work on the same subject) laid the foundations for David Ricardo’s better-known and more finely-honed discussion of the subject; and various aspects of the long-gestating revisions to his Principles of political economy were discussed or prefigured in articles and lectures.

The definitions in the Definitions in political economy occupy very few of the book’s pages. It is difficult perhaps to gauge the readership for which Malthus intended the work: the definitions themselves might have been intended for the boys in his classes at Haileybury, setting out basic concepts in a clear and precise manner, but most of the work is taken up with a discussion of the use and more particularly the misuse of various of those basic terms by other writers in political economy – the French economists, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James Mill and J. R. McCulloch. Much would have been familiar from arguments in his earlier works on political economy, although with a number of these he was taking on adversaries who had published more recently.

The first, and anonymous, publication in 1798 of a Surrey curate was a book that can fairly be described as having shaken the world. The Reverend Mr Malthus’s views on population and the implications of its growth had considerable and immediate impact: for Malthus and his polemic were very much of the moment.

For the vast majority of Englishmen, any sympathy for the revolution in France had long since evaporated. England and France were at war; the dangers of severe food shortage and high prices were apparent, and were to be fully realized within the next few years; the costs of maintaining the poor, and their visibility, were high. Within intellectual society, there was keen discussion of evidence for and against England having a rising population, and controversy over the views of those who believed that society could be perfected. Malthus was not on the side of those who thought that numbers were rising rapidly, but was on the side of those who argued against William Godwin and others. Within political society, there were difficulties: Malthus was a Whig, and the mid-1790s were hardly an auspicious period for Whig politics. Yet his Essay on the principle of population as it affects the future improvement of society enjoyed immediate and controversial success.

A comparison of the volume of writing, or the number and breadth of authorities cited, between the first edition of Malthus’s Essay and the second, shows just how much he achieved in the five years between 1798 and 1803. Essentially, Malthus wrote a new work. In 1798 he had argued against speculations on the ‘future improvement of society’; in 1803 the Essay was a view of population’s ‘past and present effects on human happiness, with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions’.

A comparison of the volume of writing, or the number and breadth of authorities cited, between the first edition of Malthus’s Essay and the second, shows just how much he achieved in the five years between 1798 and 1803. Essentially, Malthus wrote a new work. In 1798 he had argued against speculations on the ‘future improvement of society’; in 1803 the Essay was a view of population’s ‘past and present effects on human happiness, with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions’.

The papers reprinted in this volume and in volume 7 represent a range of shorter writing forms used by Malthus: pamphlets rushed out to join a debate of the moment, anonymous review articles (published principally in the Whig Edinburgh Review until the break in 1815 over Malthus’s views on the corn laws), and more considered short works published separately or as part of a larger collection. The occasional pieces have been divided between writings on political economy, collected in volume 7, and those on population, the poor laws and the East India College, which appear in this volume.

Malthus published his Principles of political economy in 1820; and in 1836, after his death, Pickering published a second edition, which incorporated many changes to the text, both major and minor. Through the 1820s, Malthus had tinkered with his text, the alterations being often of minor wording, sometimes of considerable substance, which his anonymous posthumous editor (usually identified as his younger friend John Cazenove) incorporated. It is the text of 1836 which is set here, with the substantial volume of variations between that and the 1820 version set as footnotes or, in the case of longer sections, in sequence at the end of volume 6. (Some editorial interventions were made by Cazenove, amplifying or occasionally qualifying Malthus’s text. These are set as ordinary textual footnotes, followed by – Ed., 1836.) The concordance of chapter and section titles which follows demonstrates the degree of reordering and renaming of parts which helped transform the first version of the Principles into the second.

Malthus published his Principles of political economy in 1820; and in 1836, after his death, Pickering published a second edition, which incorporated many changes to the text, both major and minor. Through the 1820s, Malthus had tinkered with his text, the alterations being often of minor wording, sometimes of considerable substance, which his anonymous posthumous editor (usually identified as his younger friend John Cazenove) incorporated. It is the text of 1836 which is set here, with the substantial volume of variations between that and the 1820 version set as footnotes or, in the case of longer sections, in sequence at the end of volume 6. (Some editorial interventions were made by Cazenove, amplifying or occasionally qualifying Malthus’s text. These are set as ordinary textual footnotes, followed by – Ed., 1836.) The concordance of chapter and section titles which follows demonstrates the degree of reordering and renaming of parts which helped transform the first version of the Principles into the second.