David Reisman - Thomas Robert Malthus

Thomas Robert Malthus is usually remembered today for his thoughts on over-population. Since the publication of the first edition of his infamous An Essay on the Principle of Population he has been attacked, usually from the political left, for his views.

However Malthus' thoughts weren't just about population. Indeed his economic theories were important contributions to bourgeois thought about how economic systems work, and what can be done to bring the best benefits to the population. While Karl Marx rightly attacked Malthus' thoughts on population he also often used his ideas on economics as a foil to put across his own views in works like the Grundrisse or Capital. So for those trying to better understand Malthus its welcome that this new biographical work has appeared, though unfortunately its ridiculously high price will put it out of reach of those who do not have library access or are lucky enough to find it in an online sale.

Reisman begins, of course, with Malthus' work on population. Few people today read his Essay (in all its variations). So it's good that the author has taken time to do this. The Essay has often been the target of vicious polemic (not always, however uninformed). William Taylor Coleridge (who had read it) argued that Malthus took "350 pages to prove an axiom" and "a pop-gun would batter down the impregnable Fortress". Marx, wrote that it was "schoolboyish, superficial plagiary".

Reisman is, perhaps by contrast, keen to show that Malthus had a consistent method. He quotes Malthus, writing to his friend the economist Ricardo, "The science of political economy is essentially practical". A few pages later he explains how Malthus introduces statistics to the "British Association" and quotes Malthus as "establishing systems upon facts". This may indeed be what Malthus wanted to be remembered as doing, but I'm skeptical. For instance, the key theoretical argument about population at the heart of the Essays is the idea that population rises geometrically whereas food rises aritchmetcally. This will inevitably lead to starvation. But there is no empircal evidence today, or when Malthus was writing, that this is actually true. A later quoted comment from Malthus to Ricardo is more telling, "My object was to elucidate principles... To do this I magined strong cases that I might shew the operation of those principles."

That said, Malthus was a child of his time and class. He can be criticised for having views that today might be seen as right-wing and based on inaccuracies. But Malthus was trying, in his own way, to explain the world and understand it in the interests of the general betterment of society. Like most other bourgeois economists Malthus thought that improvements for the wealthy would lead to improvements for the poorest. A general rising of boats. Though he was also contemptuous of the poor for the laziness. As Reisman summarises:

Political economy makes the civics clear. The deprived should seek out well-paid employment, limit the number of their dependents and practise self-denial through frugality. They should learn that they alone are the captains of their fate: 'nothing perhaps would tend so strongly to excit e a spirit of industry and economy among the poor, as a through knowledge that their happiness must always depend principally upon themselves'.

Reisman continues, "Charity begins at home. It is the lesson of 'nature and reason' that ordinary people, not the capitalists, the landowners or the politicians are 'themselves the cause of their poverty".

Those with a deep interest in 18th and 19th century economics will find Reisman's study of Malthus' economics useful. But unfortunately I was very disappointed by the book. I found the style, as perhaps the quotes above show, inaccessible. Reisman frequently summarises Malthus' views supplemented by quotes from many different sources in a way that obscures whose voice is being told. At times it reads like Reisman is trying to be Malthus personified in articulating his points of view. But I found it frequently obscured understanding Malthus' arguments. Take the following sentences introducing chapter 10, "Society and State":

Economics is about passion. Every undergraduate knows that. There is the passion for spending: 'An adequate passion for consumption that may fully keep up the proper proportion between supply and demand, whatever may be the powers of production'. There s the passion for not spending: 'A passion for accumulation must inevitably lead to a supply of commodities beyond what the structure and habits of such a society will permit to be consumed'. The passion for the immediate plus the passion for the deferred add up to the national income. Every statistician knows that.

The quotes are from Malthus. The rest is Reisman, but it's not clear whether the author believes this, or that he is paraphrasing Malthus. Either way, "every undergraduate" and "every statistician" may well not agree with the propositions.

As such I was deeply disappointed by this book which I think will be of most interest to academics studying Malthus.

Related Reviews

Kallis - Limits: Why Malthus Was Wrong and Why Environmentalists Should Care
Malthus - An Essay on the Principle of Population
Meek (ed) - Marx and Engels on the Population Bomb
Ehrlich - The Population Bomb

Dorling - Population 10 Billion