Malthus, Thomas Robert

Economist 1766-1834

Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist and demographer, proposed a theory suggesting that population growth generally tends to outrun the food supply and that therefore population growth should be curbed. Although most of his work was centered on social conditions and economics, Malthus had a significant impact on the theory of evolution.

Born February 13, 1766, in Surrey, England, Malthus was the sixth child of seven born to Daniel Malthus and Catherine Graham. The young Malthus was educated primarily at home until his admission to Jesus College in Cambridge, England, in 1784. He was graduated with a degree in mathematics, but was well read in French and English history, English literature, and Newtonian physics. A master of arts degree followed in 1791, and in 1797 he was ordained a minister in the Anglican Church. In 1804 the East India Company founded a new college to provide general education to staff members before they went on service overseas. Malthus was asked to join the faculty as professor of history and political science.

The Industrial Revolution encouraged rapid population growth in part to provide an accessible pool of cheap labor for the emerging spinning and textile industries. Public policy during Malthus's time supported the notion that population growth was desirable and that assistance should be given to poor people. Malthus, on the other hand, suggested in An Essay on the Principle of Population, As It Effects the Future Improvement of Society (1798) that overpopulation tends to be a drain on resources and that state welfare should be curtailed so that the population would level off. He argued that if it was not possible to maintain the production of food to satisfy the population, then the population must be kept down to the level of available food. He felt that individuals should marry late and practice "natural restraint" so as to have few or no children.

In addition to its relevance for the social policy of the times, Malthus's work made an important contribution to the development of ideas and theories concerning the evolution of plants, animals, humans, and Earth. In 1859 Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution in a book entitled On the Origin of Species. In this book, he agreed with Malthus's speculation that competition for resources such as food, habitat, and mates would have a cumulative effect on the evolution of different species of plants and animals. This principle became known as natural selection and was considered a primary factor in the evolution of new species. Alfred Russel Wallace, a geologist and contemporary of Darwin, also constructed and published a theory of evolution. He, too, acknowledged thathe was influenced by Malthus's work on population and competition for resources.

Malthus was elected to the Royal Society in 1819, the Political Economy Club in 1821, and the Royal Society of Literature in 1824. He was also admitted to the Statistical Society of London in 1834, the French Academy of Sciences in 1833, and the Royal Academy of Berlin the same year. Malthus died on December 23, 1834.

Biological Evolution; Darwin, Charles; Wallace, Alfred Russel.

Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. New York: Penguin, 1987.

Muir, Hazel, ed. Larousse Dictionary of Scientists. New York: Larousse, 1994.

Winch, Donald. Malthus. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

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