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Only Adam Smith (1723-1790), among classical economists, retained the populationist optimism. "The most decisive work of the prosperity of any country", he said, "is the increase of the number of its inhabinants8." He admitted the limit to growth of population imposed by subsistance. No species, he said, can multiply beyond the means of subsistance9.
Rising population extends market, increases division of labour, raises productivity, income, saving, capital accumulation, demand for labour and encourages marriage and multiplication of labourers so as to supply continually increasing demand by a similarly increasing population. Adam Smith was prophet of the new era. He met no spectre, which later worried Malthus. Malthus's essay came eight years after Smith's death. The ghost had, however, haunted Robert Wallace, James Steurat and Joseph Townsend during the period in which Smith's thought crystallized. Malthus's theory of population has been summed up as in the following propositions: Increase in income raises consumption and causes population to grow, food production fails to keep pace with growth of population, limitation of the means of subsistance is a constant check on growth of population; any increase in food production, therefore, causes population to grow to the limits of food available10. The propositions are weak and the theory is misconceived.
Increase in income may raise consumption. It must raise the consumption of the poor. Rich men may not increase the quantity of their food. They may, however, improve its quality. They may raise their nutritional standard. In a poor country like England of the eighteenth century, rise in income is bound to raise consumption. Increase in consumption may raise vitality of the people, reduce death rate and cause growth of population and rise in life expectancy. Malthus11 was reluctant to accept this obvious fact. Instead, he placed reliance on the effect of increased consumption on marriage and multiplication - the birth rate. He said too much emphasis on rise in birth rate, on account of increased consumption, as determinant of growth of population. Reconstruction of statistics of the period show that death rate in England fell from 28 percent per thousand in 1750 to 20 per thousand in 1810 while birth rate remained almost stable at 34 per thousand12.
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8 Adam Smith : Wealth of Nations Vol. I, p. 62.
9 Ibid. p. 71.
10 Lewis : The theory of economic growth p. 34.
11 Essay on the principle of population Vol.II, pp. 179-85, Vol. pp. 251-66.
12 Griffith : Population problems of the Age of Malthus. Trevelyan : English Social History pp. 341-42.
* Contributed by: -
Dr. R. P. Verma,
Ex. H.O.D. & Dean, Commerce and Business Management Dept.,
Arabinda Bhandari,
Strategic Management Researcher,
Ranchi University, Ranchi.
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