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An Essay on the Principle of Population examines the tendency of human numbers to outstrip their resources. Written in 1798 as a polite attack on post-French revolutionary speculations on the theme of social and human perfectibility, Malthus' book argues that checks in the form of poverty, disease, and starvation are necessary to keep societies from moving beyond their means of subsistence. Malthus's arguments were controversial in his time, and are no less so today. In 1957 the world population was just under 2.9 billion. It is now over 6 billion, and projected to reach 9.3 billion by 2050. Even if we assume the environmentalists exaggerate our circumstances, even the most scientifically illiterate can clearly see that the capacity of the earth to support life is limited. In the face of such issues, Malthus's incontrovertible truths are as relevant now as on the day they were written. Because it dumps cold water on humanitarian hopes and can be used in support of abortion rights or restrictions on family size, many have hated Malthus's essay. Evidence is clear, however, that if we do not put a check on population, as Malthus puts it, necessity will check it via misery and vice. The writings of Malthus encouraged the first studies in demography, and are also critical to an understanding of our modern day problems with food production, distribution and innovative techniques to manage a series of continuing crises in the third world countries.

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Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), was a British scholar, influential in political economy and demography. Malthus popularized the economic theory of rent. Malthus has become widely known for his analysis according to which societal improvements result in population growth. The six editions of his Principles of Population, published from 1798 to 1826, predict that sooner or later population gets checked by famine, disease, and widespread mortality. He wrote in the context of the popular view, in 18th century Europe, that saw society as improving, and in principle as perfectible. William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet, for example, believed in the possibility of almost limitless improvement of society. So, in a more complex way, did Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose notions centered on the goodness of man and the liberty of citizens bound only by the social contract, a form of popular sovereignty. Malthus thought that the dangers of population growth would preclude endless progress towards a utopian society: The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man. As an Anglican clergyman, Malthus saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behavior. Believing that one could not change human nature, and that egalitarian societies were prone to over-population], Malthus wrote in dramatic terms: epidemics, pestilence and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and ten thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow, levels the population with the food of the world. Malthus placed the longer-term stability of the economy above short-term expediency. He criticized the Poor Laws, and (alone among important contemporary economists) supported the Corn Laws, which introduced a system of taxes on British imports of wheat. He thought these measures would encourage domestic production, and so promote long-terms of benefit. Malthus became hugely influential, and controversial, in economic, political, social and scientific thought. Many of those whom subsequent centuries sometimes term evolutionary biologists also read him, notably Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, for each of whom Malthusianism became an intellectual stepping-stone to the idea of natural selection. Malthus remains a writer of great significance, and debate continues as to whether his direst expectations will come about.

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