Head Painting by Amedo Modigalini

Malthus was a great economist, known for his population control theory. He believed that nature maintains an ecological balance between human beings, animals and trees. Nature took steps to control one or the other factor, had there been any imbalance. Suppose, the human population streteches beyond the limits the Earth could hold, nature believes or correlates it to get decimated by wars, pestilence or any of the so called natural disasters so that balance is restored as ever. Not only that, he suggested many useful methods to control the increasing human population. He also propounded theories on “Population Explosion” and “Theory of Diminishing Agriculture Produce”.

Thomas Rober Malthus was born in 1766 at Surrey in England. His father was a friend of David Hume and Rousseau. He was educated at Cambridge and was acquainted with Greek and Latin. He traversed through Europe following his advanced studies in Economics. He became a priest at the age of 31.

His article An essay on the Principle of Population as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society created a stir in the society. Its subsequent portion was published in 1803 under the title Essay on the Principles of Population or View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness. His other works are The Crisis: A View of the Recent Interesting State of Great Britain, Principles of Political Economy, A Series of Short Studies Dealing with Corn Law, On Rent, The Poor Law and Definition in Political Economy.

Malthus propounded that “Economic prosperity and increase in population rise in proportion. The population multiplies in the geometrical progression 1,2,4,8,16 and so on, while food requirement increases in arithmetical proportion”. His theory influenced Charles Darwin’s later theory of biological evolution.