ABSTRACT
A few years ago the attempt was indeed made to interpret the whole trend of the history of penal methods so as to fit into this theory. The discovery of new continents in the fifteenth century in connection with prolonged wars, plagues and famine had resulted in a great decline in the European population, which made a more humane treatment of the criminal classes unavoidable. Fundamental developments in penal methods have no doubt often been due mainly to economic factors. The impact of a penal system upon the economic life of the community has probably never since been so deeply felt as in those days when, especially in the Teutonic world, owing to the wide scope of the penal laws and the enormity of their tariffs, poverty or wealth of whole families were frequent consequences of wrong-doing.
