ABSTRACT
In one of the earliest books on the history of economic and demographic thought devoted to the connections between economic and population theories, Strangeland points out that the contribution of James Steuart in An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Œconomy (1767) is ‘on that subject one of the best among the English authors of his generation’ (Strangeland [1904] 1966:287). Since then, further studies on the question have borne out this judgement.1 However, a crucial aspect of Steuart’s work has been played down if not omitted. It concerns the population in the lexicographic order of problems forming the object of political economy. Steuart gives this question top priority.2 To him, population is not a mere matter of means and resources necessary for the production of wealth or power; it rather constitutes an end in itself, an objective for society to attain, and is the essential aim of economy as a moral and political science. The size and welfare of the population are the measure of the performance of economic activity and the gauge of the ‘statesman’s’3 competence. If the results regarding this objective are mediocre or inadequate, the statesman is responsible for them, since they show his inability to establish the conditions for an economy that is beneficial to the population. The ultimate aim of political economy is full employment for a population able to work and multiply. The unemployed population is not only a non-population, since it does not have the means to exist and is therefore liable to disappear, but it is also an anti-population because, having nothing to offer in exchange for its subsistence, it hinders the growth of the viable population. Involuntary unemployment4 is the greatest risk for the population in general.
