Malthusian Theory of Population

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), an English clergyman, propounded this theory in his famous book entitled “An Essay on the Principles of Population”(1798). He deplored the strange contrast between over-care in breeding animals and carelessness in breeding men. The fundamental propositions of the Malthusian theory are given below:

a) The size of population in a country is dependent on the production of food grains. If food supply is large, the country can support a large population. If food supply is small, the country can support only a small population. In other words, population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence (food).

b) Population tends to grow in geometric progression, viz., 1,2,4,8,16 and so on. In short, population gets doubled every 25 years.

c) Food production tends to grow in arithmetic progression, viz., 1,2,3,4,5 and so on. In short, there will be a constant addition to food supply every 25 years. He thought that there is no limit to fertility of human beings. He said, “ Men multiply like mice in the barn-yard”. But the power of land to produce food is limited.

d) Population increases at a faster rate than food production. Population always increases when the means of subsistence increases, unless prevented by some powerful and obvious checks.

There are two types of checks, which can keep population at a level with the means of subsistence. They are the preventive and positive checks. Preventive checks would reduce the size of population by bringing down the birth rate. They are applied by man himself voluntarily. They include (a) celibacy, (b) late marriage and (c) self control in married life. Positive checks reduce the growth of population by increasing the death rate. If people do not adopt preventive checks, nature will tend to be furious and impose certain checks to arrest the growth rate of population and they are known as positive checks. The positive checks are famines, epidemics, wars, earthquakes, floods, etc. Malthus recommended the use of preventive checks, if mankind was to escape from the nature’s positive checks i.e., misery.

Criticism of Malthusian Theory

In later editions of his book, Malthus dropped the expressions of geometric and arithmetic progressions but still maintained that the increase in population would exceed the growth in food supply. However, in many Western countries, through the use of more capital and technology, food grain production was increased tremendously. In fact, the rate of increase of food production has been much greater than the rate of population growth in these countries.

Malthus said that the population would increase, if the means of subsistence increase. However, when the standard of living of people increases in a country, the size of family gets reduced.

Malthus compared population only with food production. He should have compared the growth of population with total production of all commodities. For example, Great Britain is able to export industrial products to other countries in exchange for food grains.

Along with the expansion of population, it is not only the demand, but also the supply of food grains, which increases with the increase in the labour power of the country. It is argued that a child, on being born, has not only a mouth to be fed, but also has two hands to work.

According to professor Seligman, the problem of population is not merely one of size, but of efficient production and equitable distribution. If with the expansion of population, production also increases and the increased production and national income are equitably distributed, then increase in population may do no harm to the country.