MALTHUS Thomas Robert (February 17, 1766 - December 23, 1834) - English economist. Born in Rookery near Dorking in Surrey, the son of a landowner.

The scientist's father Daniel Malthus was a follower of David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (he knew both of them personally). In 1784, M. entered Jesus College at the University of Cambridge, where he successfully studied mathematics, rhetoric, Latin and Greek, and graduated in 1788. In the same year he was ordained to the clergy of the Anglican Church. In 1793 he received a theological degree and began entrepreneurial activity. From 1797 to 1803 he was vicar of Albury in Surrey. In 1804, Malthus married, and three children were born in this marriage. In 1805-34 - professor of modern history and political economy at the East India Company College in Haileyber (Hertfordshire), where he also served as a priest.

In 1798, M. published the book “An Essay on the Law of Population” (the full title is “An Essay on the Law of Population and its Influence on the Future Improvement of Society, with Comments on the Reflections of Mr. Godwin, Monsieur Condorcet and Other Writers” (An Essay on the Principle of Population as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers))¾¾, which immediately made its author famous. This work grew out of discussions with my father regarding the ideas of the authors listed in the title of the book, as well as on the basis of studying a number of works not listed in the book. Because of this, K. Marx calls M. a plagiarist in the 4th volume of Capital. Over the course of a number of years, this book was supplemented by the author and published more than once. The three main theses of the "Experience...": 1) due to man's biological ability to procreate, his physical abilities are used to increase his food resources; 2) the population is strictly limited by means of subsistence; 3) population growth can be stopped only by counter causes, which boil down to moral abstinence, or misfortunes (wars, epidemics, famine).

M. also comes to the conclusion that the population is growing in geometric progression, and means of subsistence - in arithmetic progression.

From a modern point of view, the following provisions have been criticized: 1) M. used incorrect migration statistics (does not take into account emigrants); 2) the law of diminishing soil fertility. Malthus believed that neither capital accumulation nor scientific and technological progress compensate for the limited nature of natural resources.

In his works An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent, and the Principles by which it is Regulated, 1815 and Grounds of an Opinion of the Policy of Restricting the Importation of Foreign Corn, 1815) M. tried to reveal the nature of land rent and the mechanism of its formation.

The beginning of his friendship with D. Ricardo dates back to 1811. In 1819 M. was elected a member of the Royal Society, and in 1833 - a member of the French Academy. In 1831 he founded the Political Economy Club, and in 1834 he contributed to the creation of the London (later Royal) Statistical Society.

M.’s treatise “An Experience on the Law of Population” is the subject of discussion at the present time. The range of assessments in these discussions is extremely wide: from “brilliant foresight” to “anti-scientific nonsense.” M. was not the first to write about demographic problems, but, perhaps, he was the first to try to propose a theory describing the patterns of population change. As for his system of evidence and statistical illustrations, a lot of claims were made against them already at that time. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. M.'s theory became known mainly due to the fact that its author was the first to propose a refutation of the widespread thesis that human society can be improved through social reform.

For economic science, M.'s treatise is valuable for its analytical conclusions, which were subsequently used by other theorists of the classical and some other schools. For example, A. Smith proceeded from the fact that the material wealth of a society is the ratio between the volume of consumer goods and the population. The founder of the classical school paid the main attention to the study of the patterns and conditions of growth in production volume, but he practically did not consider issues related to the patterns of population changes.

M took on this task. From his point of view, there is a contradiction between the “instinct of procreation” and the limited land suitable for agricultural production. Instincts force humanity to reproduce at a very high speed, “in geometric progression.” In turn, agriculture, and only it produces the food products necessary for people, is capable of producing these products at a much lower speed, “in arithmetic progression.”

Consequently, any increase in food production will sooner or later be absorbed by the increase in population.

Thus, the cause of poverty is the relationship between the rate of population growth and the rate of increase in living goods. Any attempt to improve living conditions through social reform is thereby negated by the growing mass of people.

M. associates the relatively low growth rate of food products with the action of the so-called law of diminishing soil fertility. The meaning of this law is that the amount of land suitable for agricultural production is limited. The volume of production can grow only due to extensive factors, and each subsequent plot of land is included in economic circulation with an increasing number of costs: the natural fertility of each subsequent land plot lower than the previous one, and therefore the overall level of fertility of the entire land fund as a whole tends to decrease. In other words, each additional investment of capital and labor in land produces a smaller effect compared to the previous investment, and after a certain limit, any additional effect becomes impossible.

Progress in the field of agricultural production technology is generally very slow and is not able to compensate for the decline in fertility.

Thus, by endowing people with the ability for limitless reproduction, nature, through economic processes, imposes restrictions on the human race that regulate population growth. Among these limiters, M. identifies moral limiters and poor health, which lead to a decrease in the birth rate, as well as vicious life and poverty, which lead to an increase in mortality. The decline in the birth rate and the increase in mortality are ultimately determined by the limited means of subsistence. From this formulation of the problem, in principle, completely different conclusions can be drawn. Some commentators and interpreters of M. saw in his theory a misanthropic doctrine that justifies poverty and calls for wars as a method of eliminating the surplus population. Others believe that M. laid the theoretical foundations of the “family planning” policy, which has been widely used over the past 30 years in many countries around the world. M. himself only emphasized one thing in every possible way - it is necessary for every person to take care of himself and be fully responsible for his own hindsight.

Thus, the main provisions of the theory of population are as follows: a) the ability of a person to reproduce in terms of growth rates significantly exceeds the ability to grow food resources because the population grows in a geometric progression, and resource reserves - in an arithmetic one; b) population growth is strictly limited by means of subsistence.

In nature, according to M., the correspondence between the population size and the amount of means of subsistence is achieved through epidemics, famine, wars, and backbreaking labor that exterminate huge masses of people.

M. solved the problem of excessive population growth through changes wages. Population growth causes wages to fall and limits future population growth.

In other words, the low standard of living of workers is determined by biological laws, and not by social problems.

M. opposed state support beggars, since he saw this as encouraging the unreasonable by collecting taxes from hardworking citizens. The author of “Experience...” was also critical of the idea of ​​income equalization. The division into rich and poor is useful, because the possibility of improving one's condition and the fear of demotion are the drivers for improving the well-being of society.

M. saw the problem of limited resources as follows: the resources of the earth are limited; Due to the involvement of inferior lands into circulation, the return on invested labor and capital will decrease.

M. in his economic views represented the interests of the large landed aristocracy (landlords). M.'s theory of profit repeats the views of D. Ricardo. Profit is defined as the difference between the cost of a product and the costs of labor and capital in production.

Thomas Robert Malthus (English) Thomas Robert Malthus, he usually omitted his middle name; 1766-1834) - English priest and scientist, demographer and economist, author of the theory according to which uncontrolled population growth should lead to famine on Earth.

Thomas Malthus was born on February 13, 1766 on the Rookery estate, Dorking (English county of Surrey), near the city of Guildford, into a wealthy noble family. The scientist's father, Daniel Malthus, was a follower of David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (he knew both of them personally). In 1784, Thomas entered Jesus College, Oxford University, where he successfully studied mathematics, rhetoric, Latin and Greek. After graduating from college, he was a council member and adjunct professor for some time. In 1788, he was ordained into the clergy of the Anglican Church, which in those days did not even require formal belief in God. In 1796, he became a priest in the town of Albury (Surrey), in England at that time this meant only a government position with a modest salary and not particularly burdensome responsibilities. In 1804, Malthus married and three children were born in this marriage. Malthus died on December 23, 1834 and was buried in Bath Abbey. Throughout his life, Malthus lived very modestly, not to say poorly, but consistently and on principle refused both high government positions that the government offered him and a church career, considering scientific work to be the main work of his life. He was elected both a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the French Academy (an honor given to few scientists), became the founder of the Political Economy Club and one of the founders of the London Statistical Society.

Scientific achievements

• Because of man's biological ability to reproduce, his physical abilities are used to increase his food supply.
• The population is strictly limited by means of subsistence.
• Population growth can only be stopped by counter causes, which boil down to moral abstinence or misfortunes (wars, epidemics, famine).

Malthus also comes to the conclusion that population grows in geometric progression, and means of subsistence - in arithmetic progression.

Disadvantages of the theory from a modern point of view:

• Malthus used incorrect migration statistics (does not take into account emigrants).
• Malthus does not take into account the mechanisms of self-regulation of the human population, leading to the demographic transition. However, in Malthus's time this phenomenon was observed only in large cities where a minority of the population lived, whereas today it has spread to entire continents (including all developed countries without exception).
• Law of diminishing soil fertility. Malthus believed that neither capital accumulation nor scientific and technological progress compensate for the limited nature of natural resources.

At the same time, Malthus's theory quite correctly describes the patterns of economic and demographic dynamics of pre-industrial societies.

Malthus's ideas had a powerful positive impact on the development of biology, firstly, through their influence on Darwin, and, secondly, through the development on their basis of mathematical models of population biology, starting with the Verhulst logistic model.

Applied to human society, Malthus's view that a decrease in population leads to an increase in average per capita income led to the formation in the 1920s of the theory of optimal population size, at which per capita income is maximized. However, at present, the theory is of little use in solving real socio-economic problems, but it is good in analytics, as it allows one to judge under- or overpopulation.

Modern followers of Malthus, neo-Malthusians, say this about modern underdeveloped countries: “The birth rate in them is high, as in agricultural countries, and the mortality rate is low, as in industrial countries, due to the medical care of more developed countries.” They believe that before helping them, the problem of birth control must be solved.

Overall, Malthus's theory has demonstrated its high explanatory power in relation to pre-industrial societies, although no one questions the fact that in order to effectively use it to explain the dynamics modern society(even in Third World countries), it needs the most serious modifications; however, on the other hand, Malthus's theory demonstrated the highest ability to adapt to such modifications and integrate into them.

Malthus's ideas were partially used by Karl Haushofer in his work on geopolitics and the theory of "living space".

Scientific works

Thomas Robert Malthus is a major researcher of economic science in England. His works were published in early XIX century, and caused a lot of controversy in scientific circles. However, to some extent, his views have not lost their relevance to this day.

Beginning of Malthus' research

Thomas Robert Malthus was born into a wealthy landowner family near London. His father was a very intelligent and educated man who communicated with many philosophers and economists of his time. Since Thomas was the youngest child in the family, according to tradition he had to embark on the path of a spiritual career. After studying at college at Cambridge University, he took holy orders and became a local priest.

Despite this, Thomas Malthus, who has always been partial to scientific research, begins to simultaneously work as a college teacher. He spends almost all his leisure time in conversations with his father, which are devoted to the relationship between natural conditions and the economy.

What did Malthus study?

Like other past researchers in the field of economics, Malthus saw the mechanisms of increasing wealth and methods of developing material production as the subject of his study. He tries to connect the issues of economics and population growth.

Thomas Malthus's law of population became the basis for the works of such scientists as Charles Darwin and others. The concept itself was later outlined by Malthus in his book. The main idea of ​​his theory is that population size has a direct impact on the welfare of society.

The number of the species Homo Sapiens, says Malthus, began to increase only about 8 thousand years ago, when hunting and gathering gave way to At that time, there were about 10 million people on the entire earth. Then the number begins to grow rapidly. Already in 1820 this figure reached a billion people. By 1959, the number of inhabitants of the Earth was already about three billion. Just 13 years later, the five billionth person was born.

Brief statement of the concept

Thomas Malthus's law states that the instinct that exists in all living beings forces them to multiply rapidly - faster than can be allowed by the amount of food and material goods available to society. His work is devoted to the consequences of this law.

Malthus notes that, despite instinctive impulses, a person also has a voice of reason. After all, he may not be able to feed all his children. If a person listens to this rational grain, then this, as Thomas Malthus puts it, will happen “to the detriment of virtue.” If he listens to the voice of instinct and produces offspring, the population will increase faster than is allowed by the available means, and, therefore, will begin to decrease. The scientist notes that the lack of food should regulate the number of people.

The first book that Thomas Malthus published was anonymous. It was published in 1798, and caused a lot of criticism and attacks. In order to improve his creation, Malthus goes on a trip to the cities of Europe. After five years, he again publishes this publication - but under his own name. In total, during Malthus’s lifetime, his book was published five times, and each time the circulation was larger.

The simplicity of Malthusianism

His concepts received great resonance for the very reason that they were simple and did not require the processing of complex facts or the comparison of theories. All that Malthus did was observe the realities of life. His conclusions seemed obvious: isn’t it true that a person can reproduce only insofar as he is able to feed his offspring? Thomas Malthus noted that population growth is usually expressed in terms of growth, while increases in economic wealth are usually expressed in arithmetic terms.

Malthus identified resources for subsistence with food. According to the logic of his era, it was not possible to rapidly increase production capacity. After all, the improvement of technology was still happening at a too slow pace, and natural resources are always limited.

Disadvantages of the theory

At the same time, Malthus was sure that even capital gains could not, under any circumstances, compensate for the ever-decreasing coefficient of soil fertility. Fear of hunger is the only condition that restrains a person from uncontrolled reproduction, says Thomas Malthus. At the same time, the population theory had many shortcomings and mutually exclusive points. For example, the researcher considered contraceptives “immoral” and called their use “inadmissible under any circumstances.” Many scientists believe that the statistical calculations of his theory did not withstand any clash with the empirical indicators of those times.

Nowadays

It is believed that the concept of Thomas Malthus can be useful for general development. However, unfortunately, it is practically useless for solving pressing social issues. As modern researchers believe, the problem of overpopulation today is not to eliminate the gap between the actual and optimal population size. Necessary steps in social policy must address the regulation of the fertility trajectory. In addition, modern research shows that population growth is a necessary condition for the growth of material wealth.

One of the prominent representatives of classical political economy is the English pastor and economist Thomas Robert Malthus(1766–1834). In 1798 he published a book "An Essay on the Law of Population." In it, he first used the term “struggle for existence,” which was later used by Charles Darwin in the theory of the evolution of species.

Population theory. According to Malthus, “nature has scattered the germs of life with a generous hand... but she is thrifty when it comes to space and food.” Therefore, T. R. Malthus believed, “man is subordinated along with other living beings.” According to his calculations, the world's population doubles every 25 years exponentially. Food can grow in arithmetic progression. From here he came to the conclusion that it is precisely this gap in the rate of population growth and the necessary means of subsistence that is the cause of poverty, that poverty is directly proportional to population size, and poverty (pauperism) is an eternal law of nature.

This statement was directed against socialist theories, which argued that the main cause of poverty large groups population is the unfair distribution of national income. If wealth were distributed evenly across all segments of the population, there would be enough for everyone. Considering the law of population as a law of nature, T. R. Malthus argued that mass poverty can only be prevented by methods of limiting population growth.

Analyzing the factors hindering population growth, he identified, first of all, the lack of food. The remaining factors, T. R. Malthus believed, consist of “all the abuses and all the suffering that can be caused by insufficient means of subsistence.” Obstacles to reproduction constantly operate with greater or lesser force and maintain the population at the subsistence level. Believing that the theory he put forward represents a law of nature, which should certainly be obeyed, T. R. Malthus considered the only subjective factors prudence And prudence. Mass poverty can only be prevented moral education population. You should get married only if you are confident in the future and are able to support your children. Everyone should rely only on themselves and bear responsibility for their frivolity. Moreover, any charity, and especially government subsidies, only weaken the natural restrictions on population growth.

Thus, T. R. Malthus, in contrast to A. Smith, put forward the position that population growth is not the basis of wealth, but its brake due to the impossibility of providing the entire population with the benefits of life. This theory was shared by many representatives of the classical school, for example, J. S. Mill. But subsequently a number of mistakes by T. R. Malthus were revealed. In particular, he attached great importance to the ratio of marriages to births and did not take into account the reduction in mortality. In addition, as the standard of living of the people increases, the birth rate decreases.

Despite some inaccuracies, the problem posed by T. R. Malthus was not far-fetched. It has not lost its relevance today, especially for the so-called peripheral countries, where, due to the low efficiency of the economy, a low standard of living remains and measures of artificial birth control are not traditionally used.

Value and Realization Theory. T. R. Malthus was engaged in research in the field of value theory. At the same time, he rejected D. Ricardo’s labor theory of value on the grounds that it is not able to explain how capitals with different structures, i.e. with different shares of investment in labor, bring the same rate of profit. In addition, if a worker’s wages are only part of the value created by labor, then the purchase of labor by a capitalist represents an unequal exchange, a violation of the laws of a market, commodity economy.

T. R. Malthus developed a “non-labor” version of Smith’s theory of value. The value of a product, according to his theory, is determined not only by the costs of “living labor”, but also by other production costs, which he included "materialized labor" those. costs associated with the use of means of production, as well as return on invested capital.

The theme of value began to be closely linked to the problem of sales and overproduction. The scientist approached the interpretation of this problem as follows. He designated the costs associated with the use of “living” labor with the symbol X, costs associated with the use of means of production - y, and profit - z. When selling goods X paid by workers at- capitalist. But who will pay z? If z will not be paid, then, naturally, some of the goods will not be purchased, and a crisis of overproduction will arise.

T. R. Malthus believed that z will be paid by so-called “third parties”, i.e. people who only consume without producing anything. He included military personnel, government officials, priests, landowners, etc. among them. He believed that their existence was necessary to maintain a market, capitalist economy.

The “Achilles heel” of T. R. Malthus’ theory of implementation is that he did not explain where “third parties” would get the financial resources to pay z. If, for example, we assume that such funds will come to them in the form of rates, taxes, tithes, etc., then this means nothing more than a deduction from the income of workers and capitalists. But the amount of total demand or the amount of aggregate demand will not change.

The contribution made by T. R. Malthus to economic science is his development of the “theory of population”, in which he linked economic and demographic factors. At the same time, the dependence turns out to be two-way: just as the economy affects changes in the population, so the population affects the economy.

The merit of T. R. Malthus is the production implementation problems And overproduction. He was the first in the history of economic thought to pose this problem.

• Thomas Malthus was born on February 13, 1766 into a noble family. After graduating from college, he was a council member and adjunct professor for some time. In 1796 he became a priest. In England at that time, this simply meant a government position with a modest salary and not particularly onerous responsibilities. Malthus was a member of the Royal Society and a member of the French Academy, founder of the Political Economy Club and one of the founders of the London Statistical Society. Died December 23, 1834
• Malthus T.R. Experience on the law of population // Anthology of economic classics: in 2 volumes. M.: EKONOV, 1993. T. 2. P. 10.

An outstanding representative of classical political economy in England was Thomas Malthus (1766-1834). He was born into a noble family, but as the youngest son he could not count on an inheritance and therefore he was destined for a spiritual career. After graduating from college at Cambridge University, he worked as a village priest, and from 1793, after receiving a theological degree, he was also a teacher at this college. There his interest in philosophy and political economy manifested itself.

The work of this extraordinary researcher dates back to the first quarter of the 19th century, but the results of His scientific research are also valuable for modern economic science.

First job Malthus - "An Essay on the Law of Population in Connection with the Future Improvement of Society" (1798), where he outlined some of his views on the patterns and interdependence of economic and demographic processes, was published by him anonymously. It caused a stormy, mostly negative reaction, and was attacked by many scientists, politicians, and public figures. In particular, Malthus' contemporary writer Thomas Carlyle. After reading it, he called economics a “dismal science.” To improve his work, Malthus toured European countries in 1799-1802, and after some time (in 1803) he prepared a second, revised edition of his book, this time under his own name. During his life, several more reprints of this sling were made, which from a small pamphlet turned into a considerable treatise, and turned its author into an odious person.

In addition to the "Essay", which made its author famous and even famous, T. Malthus wrote several more significant works, among which it is necessary to highlight "A Study on Nature and the Rise of Land Rent" (1815), "Theoretical foundations of the policy of restricting the import of foreign grain" (1815), "The Concept of Political Economy" (1827). However, the main work of the scientist was "Principles of Political Economy Considered in Relation to Their Application" (1820). Malthus was considered by his contemporaries to be an outstanding economist for his studies of many fundamental problems of economic theory. However, he entered the history of economic thought primarily as the author of the theory of population.

The work “An Essay on the Law of Population in Connection with the Future Improvement of Society” was devoted to criticism of the utopian theories of the socialist Godwin and one of the ideologists of the French bourgeois revolution, Condorcet, which proved the possibility of building a society of ideal equality, subject to state intervention in the distribution of public income.

Malthus views social development in the interaction and interdependence of economic and natural factors. He also includes population as natural factors, the influence of which on the stability of social development is considered in his work. Population theory refuted the idea of ​​​​the possibility of improving society with the help of social legislation and regulatory intervention of the state, and also created the prerequisites for the development of a number of economic and social doctrines. The founders of classical economic theory (Petty, Smith) saw the growth of the working-age population as a prerequisite for the country's wealth. Malthus does not deny that a large population is one of the conditions for wealth, but at the same time he sees the downside of population growth.

He proceeded from the following basic principles:

1) society is in an equilibrium state when it produces a sufficient amount of food for the consumption of the corresponding population;

2) in the event of a violation of this balance in society, forces arise that return it to an equilibrium state;

3) prices of all goods are determined by the relationship between supply and demand;

4) there is a law of population, according to which both population and food grow indefinitely in the absence of obstacles, but the rate of population growth is higher than the rate of growth of food products.

In particular, under favorable circumstances, the population will grow in geometric progression (1, 2,4,8,16, 32,64, etc.), and food production - in arithmetic progression (1,2,3,4, 5, 6, 7,8, etc.). It follows from this that if the population doubles every 20-25 years, then food production during the same period increases by only 20-25%. As a result, after two centuries the number of population will be related to means of subsistence as 256 to 9, after three centuries - as 4096 to N.

It was in overpopulation that the English pastor saw the main reason for the growth of debauchery, disease, poverty, hunger and unemployment and other ills of society. “Because of overpopulation,” wrote Malthus, “poverty may become the miserable and bitter fate of all mankind.” This book is therefore an analysis of how to achieve the desired balance between population and sufficient food production.

Malthus agreed with Smith that the growth of wealth could occur without limit, but emphasized that a brake on this process could be faster population growth. He did not object to population growth, but proposed “to establish a relationship between population and food that would not cause a struggle between them.” That is, he proves that population growth is self-regulated primarily by the limited means of subsistence. As soon as the quantity of these funds increases, the population also increases, unless extraordinary circumstances prevent this increase. He considers extraordinary moral obstacles, vices and misfortunes that do not have an objective economic nature, but which, in turn, can be a consequence of excessive population growth. We are talking about achieving a state of economic equilibrium in society.

It was the methods and means of achieving economic equilibrium that determined the essence of his law of population. It was based on two components:

The biological ability of a person to procreate, which he considered a natural instinct;

Action law of diminishing returns land.

Malthus noted that the natural passion for rapid reproduction collided with the law of diminishing fertility of the earth and, as a consequence, with limited resources for the production of consumer goods. This explains the poverty and suffering of the people. Therefore, to maintain balance, it is necessary that reproduction be constantly delayed. In primitive societies this was achieved through disease, famine and war, and in a market society through wage regulation and “moral control” of the birth rate. Wage regulation occurs automatically in the sense that excessive population growth reduces wages and thereby limits population growth in the next generation. On the contrary, rising wages lead to population growth and thereby to increased poverty in the next generation. In particular, a rich harvest will lead to the following famine: “abundance, by encouraging marriages, creates a surplus in the population, whose needs can no longer be satisfied with the harvest of an ordinary year.”

Malthus believed that a person who is not able to feed his family should postpone his marriage, and if such readiness never comes, abandon it altogether. He often repeated that attempts to overcome poverty through government subsidies or private charity could only hinder everyone's ability to take care of themselves. None of the able-bodied masses has “the right to food if he cannot feed himself by his own labor.” At the same time, a poor person cannot encroach on the property of the rich, because private property is necessary for increasing the production of consumer goods and thereby improving the situation of the poor.

The British scientist condemned the division of society into the very rich and the very poor, but he understood that social equality of people was impossible. Therefore, he considered the basis for population growth without poverty to be the growth of production and the “middle class,” which should become the basis of society. “It is not the excessive luxuries of a small number of people, but the moderate luxuries of all classes of society,” Malthus emphasized, “that constitute the wealth and well-being of the people.” At the same time, according to Malthus, there should be moderate social inequality in society. “If we take away from a person the hope of advancement and the danger of decline, then there would not be those zeal and zeal that force every person to improve his situation and which are the main engine of social well-being,” the scientist reasonably noted.

To summarize, we note that Malthus’s ideas are, in principle, fair and relevant. The Briton's scientific foresight was subsequently confirmed, although, fortunately, his gloomy predictions did not come true. This is explained by Malthus’s ignorance of scientific and technological progress, which turned out to be capable of significantly increasing labor productivity, in particular in agriculture.

This system of views on population is called in economics Malthusianism. Modern proponents of Malthus' population theory are called neo-Malthusians.

Population theory gave rise to fair accusations of pessimism, but for Malthus it became the basis for a thorough study of various interrelated economic problems.

The theory of wages, which stemmed from his law of population, occupied an important role in T. Malthus’s economic system. He determined the salary minimum cost of existence worker. But the scientist noted that this minimum is different countries significantly different. In England, the workers' diet is based on wheat, while in Ireland it is potatoes, Malthus gives as an example. - Since the market price of wheat is higher than the market price of potatoes, the wages of the English worker are higher than the Irish, the result of which is “Irish hovels and rags.”

Malthus especially distinguishes not the nominal, but real wages which he determined the price of food. Therefore, he believed that poverty could not be overcome with monetary assistance, since the shortage of a certain product would lead to increased prices for it. When there is a shortage of food, compared with the population, it makes absolutely no difference what kind of financial assistance the lower classes will receive - “two shillings or five.”

Malthus opposed the law on relief to the poor, since it leads to equalization of income: “Equality does not create a sufficiently strong motive for work and does not contribute to the victory over natural laziness... Poverty is inevitable, to which any system of equality must very quickly lead... “- the Englishman asserted, not without reason. It follows from this that only the minimum wage level will ensure the optimal proportion between population growth and increased production of consumer goods. That's the point wage law T. Malthus, Therefore, wages in society cannot grow, remaining invariably at a low level.

The most fruitful theoretical legacy of the English pastor was theory of production costs. With Smith's dualistic interpretation of value, Malthus rejects the great Scotsman's thesis that value is created only by labor, and adheres to another thesis of his teacher - the value of a product is determined by the costs of its production. It is on this statement that Malthus’s theory of production costs is built, which was subsequently positively received by most Western economists. Among its supporters was an outstanding British economist of the 20th century. J. M. Keynes.

Quite controversial, based on the theory of production costs, was Malthus’s interpretation of arrived, which he defined as an excess of value over production losses, which arises not in production, as Smith and Ricardo argued, but in turnover - when goods are sold at prices exceeding production costs. This peculiar and very dubious approach led Malthus to the need to formulate his own implementation theory. after all, it was necessary to explain the problem of the full sale of the produced product, which is not possible with such an interpretation of profit.

The scientist reasoned, What Due to low wages, hired workers are not able to purchase all the goods produced, so other groups of the population must be involved in their sale. The capitalists themselves consume a large amount of products, but the amount of unproductive consumption is limited by the capitalist’s desire to accumulate and expand production. The problem of selling surplus, according to Malthus, is solved by the growth of unproductive consumption of so-called “third parties”, to which he includes consumers who do not participate in the production of goods, but receive income, for example, landowners and their servants, traders, officers, priests and the like . The most unproductive consumption of non-virulent classes in society, in his opinion, is the basis for ensuring demand and stability of economic development.

Only under this condition will the entire product in which the profit is embodied be purchased. This dubious and poorly substantiated thesis unexpectedly led Malthus to a brilliant statement, appreciated much later by Keynes. He argued, again denying Smith, that there is another limit to the growth of capital (the first line, we recall, was considered overpopulation of the country) - insufficient demand for goods. “To capitalize income when there is no sufficient demand for products,” Malthus wrote, “is just as absurd as it is absurd to encourage marriages and reproduction of the population when there is no demand for labor and no fund to feed the new population.”

With this statement, Malthus questioned the seemingly indisputable thesis of his predecessors and contemporaries, the creators of classical political economy, that the source of wealth growth is frugality, and production should always exceed consumption. Generally agreeing with these conclusions, he noted that excessive frugality undermines incentives for production: “If everyone were content with simple food, the most modest clothing and housing, then, obviously, no other types of food, clothing and housing would exist.. ".

In modern economic literature, Malthus is called the scientist who, centuries earlier than Keynes, discovered the law of effective demand, based on the definition of limited resources in society. “If Malthus, and not Ricardo, had been the founder of political economy of the 19th century,” Keynes himself wrote, “how much wiser and richer the world would be today.”

Malthus's contribution to the formation of law of diminishing returns of resources, which refers to the triad of fundamental economic laws, which also includes the law of supply and demand and the law of diminishing returns. Its essence lies in the fact that each additional increase in one of the production resources - capital, labor or land - with a constant amount of others from a certain moment leads to a decrease in the increase in the produced product.

He vividly illustrated the effect of this law by analyzing soil fertility, in particular in his work “A Study on Nature and the Growth of Rent.” This analysis gave grounds to formulate law of decline in soil fertility. Its essence lies in the fact that the basis for the production of consumer products is the availability of land resources, land fertility and labor productivity in agriculture. Since there is a limited number of land plots with a sufficient level of soil fertility, under the pressure of a growing population, lands with a low level of return are included before circulation. The expenditure of capital on cultivating such lands into less productive ones, and subsequent additional expenditures of capital lead to a decrease in their return, that is, there is a relative decrease in their productivity. Consequently, labor productivity in agriculture has not only a physical limit, as a consequence of the potential inherent in the land, but also an economic limit, which leads to an increase in prices for agricultural products.

As a result, a difference in income is formed on lands of unequal fertility, which became the basis of land rent. Malthus pays special attention to the analysis differential rent, which, according to the scientist, arises in connection with the transition to the cultivation of inferior lands, which is a consequence of population growth. Investigating the nature of rent, the scientist understands that it also arises as a result of economic activity, that is, additional capital investments for the purpose of artificially improving soil quality (we are talking about differential rent ). However, the efficiency of using capital in agriculture also has its limit, since according to the law of diminishing returns of resources, each subsequent investment of capital gives less return than the previous one, the increase in soil fertility relative to the increase in investment decreases.

The law of diminishing returns shows that increasing returns of resources, that is, an increase in their beneficial effect, is possible only if they are qualitatively improved and the efficiency of their use increases. However, this conclusion was made by the followers of Malthus much later.