ABSTRACT
Malthus spoke very strongly in support of the principle of laissez-faire and against excessive government intervention in the economy, and his support for the Corn Laws was a remarkable and controversial exception to that principle. However, it was not an isolated exception. He regarded perfect freedom of trade as an unrealisable vision. When the many exceptions to laissez-faire that are scattered throughout his publications are brought together, they present a significant argument in favour of government intervention, perhaps more significant than he was willing to admit and certainly more than his commentators have usually recognised. In particular, he put forward a very strong case for public works as a cure for depression, not dissimilar from the case later put forward by Keynes. The exceptions he attached to the principle of laissez-faire are as significant for his macroeconomic theory of growth as the principle itself.
