ABSTRACT
The primary purpose of this Introduction is to illustrate the value of working through the various editions of Thomas Robert Malthus’s Essay on Population. My illustrations will be drawn from the following broad topics in Malthusian economics: the theory of economic growth and various applications; the case for ‘prudential’ population control; the intellectual ‘debt’ to the French Physiocrats; empirical estimates of both agricultural productivity and contemporary population growth; the perception of the ‘population problem’ and implications for social reform; and the theological dimension. I close with a discussion of Malthus’s agricultural protectionism and its ultimate abandonment. This limited selection reflects a personal evaluation of what is interesting and important, but there is enough to indicate how close attention to the variora confirms Malthus’s powerful reformist orientation and his optimistic evaluation of actual and prospective productivity and population trends.
