Hamish Riley-Smith

Malthus, Thomas Robert 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. London, J.Johnson 1798

Octavo, early 19th century calf, gilt fillet, rebacked, red morroco label, (1) + vpp + ixpp + (1p) errata + 396pp; printed on blue tinted paper, title page skilfully remargined, light foxing in upper margin of title, discreet old library number stamp on preface leaf in lower blank margin.

Printing and the Mind of Man 251. Kress B3693. Goldsmith 17268.First edition of the work which set out Malthus’s famous principle that the population increases in a geometrical ratio while subsistence only in an arithmetrical ratio, and in which he argues that population is only limited by the ‘checks’ of vice and misery. The Essay grew out of some discussions he had had with his father on the perfectability of society; his father sharing the views of Godwin and Condorcet, while he argued that misery resulted from the tendency of the population to increase faster than the means of subsistence. Malthus’ theories on population and the social policy which he advocated of ‘moral restraint’ drew many critics; the socialists universally opposed hin (Marx and Engels both condemned his theories) and the conservatives never fully accepted his ideas. But both Darwin and Wallace acknowledged Malthus as a source for the idea of ‘the struggle for existence’. In the twentieth century even Keynes traced back to Malthus the idea that a lack of effective demand can cause economic crises.

£55000

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