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Malthusianism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Malthusianism is a brand of the Manchester School capitalist-type political/economic thought developed during the industrial revolution on the basis of the writings of Thomas Malthus.
It follows Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population which describes how population growth is exponential while the growth of the food supply was expected to be arithmetical, leading to a Malthusian catastrophe.
It drew from this the inference that ideas of charity to the poor typified by Tory paternalism were futile as it would only result in increased numbers of the poor, and was developed into Whig economic ideas exemplified by the The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, described by opponents as "a Malthusian bill designed to force the poor to emigrate, to work for lower wages, to live on a coarser sort of food", which brought the construction of workhouses despite riots and arson.
By that time the ideas were widespread in progressive social circles, one proponent being the novelist Harriet Martineau whose circle of acquaintances included Charles Darwin, and the ideas of Malthus were a significant influence on the inception of Darwin's theory.
- Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin (London: Michael Joseph, the Penguin Group, 1991). ISBN 0-7181-3430-3