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Plato and Aristotle advocated a pessimistic view of population. The same view was articulated in Italy by Giovanni Botero (1544-1617) in 1589. Botero anticipated Thomas Malthus. He put an argument: Population tends to increase to the fecundity but the means of subsistence, with their limited possibilities of increase, impose a restraint on it; the resistant asserts itself through want, war and pestilence⁵.
The theory remained in the main stream of economic thought for a century and a half, and came on the surface in France in the middle of the eighteenth century. France fought losing battles with England over a large part of the century and began to accept defeat by 1760. Prospect of national expansion overseas was dim. Scope for economic development at home was restricted. A pessimistic view of population growth found ready acceptance in France. Botero's idea found expression among others, in the works of Mirabeau (1756) and Chastellux (1772). It traveled from France to England and America. It was embodied in the works of Robert Wallace (1753), James Stevart (1767) and Joseph Townsend (1786) in England and Benjamin Franklin (1751) in America. Robert Wallace's work was criticized by William Godwin (1793). Malthus (1766-1834) developed his essay on population in criticism of Godwin. Michail Sadler⁶ and Karl Marx⁷, in their deep criticism against Malthus, charged the latter for mixing ideas for quoting extensive passages from Townsend without acknowledgement.

The trend of British population in the second half of the eighteenth century should have been no cause of alarm. Discoveries and inventions of the period opened new frontiers of economy, which could well accommodate the growing population. Statistics were not available, however. The first census was taken in 1801. Rising tides of unemployment in the wake of industrial revolution impressed on British thinkers of the day a vastly exaggerated picture of the problems.

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5 Ibid. pp. 254-55.
6 The law of population Vol. 1 pp X, 43-45; Vol. II, p. 308.
7 Capital pp. 514n, 629n.

* Contributed by: -
Dr. R. P. Verma,
Ex. H.O.D. & Dean, Commerce and Business Management Dept.,
Arabinda Bhandari,
Strategic Management Researcher,
Ranchi University, Ranchi.