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An Essay on the Principle of
Population
An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it
Affects the Future Improvement of Society
with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin,
M. Condorcet, and Other Writers.

Thomas Malthus

London
Printed for J. Johnson, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard
1798.

© 1998, Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project

http://www.esp.org
This electronic editionis made freely available for scholarly or
educational purposes, provided that this copyright notice is
included. The manuscript may not be reprinted or redistributed for
commercial purposes without permission.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ......................................................................................... VII
CHAPTER 1........................................................................................1
Question stated - Little prospect of a determination of it, from the
enmity of the opposing parties - The principal argument against the
perfectibility of man and of society has never been fairly answered Nature of the difficulty arising from population - Outline of the
principal argument of the Essay

CHAPTER 2........................................................................................6
The different ratio in which population and food increase - The
necessary effects of these different ratios of increase - Oscillation
produced by them in the condition of the lower classes of society Reasons why this oscillation has not been so much observed as might
be expected - Three propositions on which the general argument of
the Essaydepends - The different states in which mankind have been
known to exist proposed to be examined with reference to these three
propositions.

CHAPTER 3 ......................................................................................12
The savage or hunter state shortly reviewed - The shepherd state, or
the tribes of barbarians that overran the Roman Empire - The
superiority of thepower of population to the means of subsistence the cause of the great tide of Northern Emigration.

CHAPTER 4 ......................................................................................17
State of civilized nations - Probability that Europe is much more
populous now than in the time of Julius Caesar - Best criterion of
population - Probable error of Hume in one the criterions that heproposes as assisting in an estimate of population - Slow increase of
population at present in most of the states of Europe - The two
principal checks to population - The first, or preventive check
examined with regard to England.

CHAPTER 5 ......................................................................................23
The second, or positive check to population examined, inEngland The true cause why the immense sum collected in England for the
poor does not better their condition - The powerful tendency of the
poor laws to defeat their own purpose - Palliative of the distresses of
the poor proposed - The absolute impossibility, from the fixed laws of
our nature, that the pressure of want can ever be completely removed

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from the lower classes of society -All the checks to population may
be resolved into misery or vice.

CHAPTER 6 ......................................................................................32
New colonies - Reasons for their rapid increase - North American
Colonies - Extraordinary instance of increase in the back settlements
- Rapidity with which even old states recover the ravages of war,
pestilence, famine, or theconvulsions of nature.

CHAPTER 7 ......................................................................................36
A probable cause of epidemics - Extracts from Mr Suessmilch’s
tables - Periodical returns of sickly seasons to be expected in certain
cases - Proportion of births to burials for short periods in any
country an inadequate criterion of the real average increase of...