ABSTRACT
The ancient Chinese writers paid some attention to a topic which has occupied much space in subsequent literature on population theory-namely, the checks to population growth. The high rates of mortality which were found throughout the world, and the constant threat of sudden depopulation through famines, epidemics and wars predisposed ancient and medieval writers alike to favour maintenance of a high birth rate. Some medieval defenders of ecclesiastical celibacy resorted to economic arguments of a vaguely proto-Malthusian character, noting the extent to which the population of the world had grown, attributing observed poverty and want to this cause, and citing pestilence, famine, and war as nature's means of pruning excess population. The mercantilists paid special attention to the relation between population and foreign trade. Malthus asserted "the absolute impossibility from the fixed laws of our nature, that the pressure of want can ever be completely removed from the lower classes of society.
