Life and Writings of Thomas R. Malthus

by Charles R. Drysdale

It cannot be said in China, as it often is said in Europe, that the poor are idle, and might gain a subsistence if they would work. The labours and efforts of these poor people are beyond conception. “A Chinese will pass whole days in digging the earth, sometimes up to his knees in water, and in the evening is happy to eat a little spoonful of rice, and to drink the insipid water in which it is boiled.” This is the remark of a Jesuit: and although it is evidently an exaggeration, since modern researches on diet show that such food could not maintain animal existence, it shows what miseries are caused by the peopling down to such a low standard of comfort.

“The procreative power,” says Malthus, “would, with as much facility, double in twenty-five years the population of China, as that of any of the States of America.” We can readily sympathise, then, with the alarm felt by our fellow-countrymen in Australasia and California, at the possible invasion of the untold millions which China could, with the greatest facility, pour into them. It is, for this reason, that the Legislature of New South Wales has quite recently, by a large majority, passed a Bill to stem the current of Chinese immigration. It will be for the ultimate advantage of the human race that nations with such a low standard of comfort as the Chinese, should learn that they must imitate the more prosperous nations in prudential restraint before they can become entitled to claim to become citizens of such countries.

We have lately understood the magnitude of a Chinese famine, where millions of unfortunate people are reduced to misery and death at once, from the failure of the crops. Mr. Malthus notices that, in such times of dearth, China can obtain no assistance from her neighbours: and must perforce draw the whole of her resources from her own provinces. When such failures of the crops occur, the government of China pretend to be very assiduous in providing schemes for the miseries of the people; but, in the meanwhile, hosts of unfortunates are starved to death, since there is not enough food forthcoming, so little margin is left, on account of the very scanty share falling to the lot of each, even in times of plenty.

In this chapter upon China and Japan Malthus makes an acute remark on the question, which is sometimes discussed in this country, whether the consumption of grain in the manufacture of spirits is ever a cause of famine. The whole tendency of such a manufacture is, he asserts, to the contrary. “The consumption of corn, in any other way but that of necessary food, checks the population before it arrives at the utmost limits of subsistence, and, as the grain may be withdrawn from this particular use in the time of a scarcity, a public granary is thus opened richer probably than could have been formed by any other means. When such a consumption has been once established, and has become permanent, its effect is exactly as if a piece of land, with all the people upon it, were removed from the country. The rest of the people would certainly be precisely in the same state as they were before, neither better nor worse, in years of average plenty; but, in a time of dearth, the produce of this land would be returned to them, without the mouths to help them to eat it.”

This fact should be borne in mind by Mr. Hoyle and other writers on abstinence from alcohol, since the advocacy of a good cause is often impeded by incorrect reasoning. “China, without her distilleries, would certainly be more populous,” says Malthus, “but on a failure of the seasons would have still less resource than she has at present, and as far as the magnitude of the cause would operate, would, in consequence, be more subject to famines, and those famines would be severe.” Temperance advocates, then, should, if possible, try to substitute a less injurious luxury in the place of alcohol, which causes so much disease; and not forget that the poverty of over-population is one of the great causes of drunkenness.

The principal cause of the great populousness of Japan is doubtless the persevering industry of the inhabitants. The checks to population in Japan have been famines, as in China and Hindostan; but the Japanese are also more warlike than the Chinese, and there is much less encouragement given to marriage in Japan than there is in China. Hence the superior enlightenment of the Japanese, and the intelligence which has recently made them so alive to the benefits conferred on mankind by European civilization.

The all-important nature of the discovery of Malthus may be better seen by comparing the condition of China with that of the United States of America, than by any other example. So far advanced have the Chinese been, for perhaps some thousands of years, in the knowledge of the art of agriculture, that it is now probable that the four hundred millions at present occupying the Empire could not possibly double in any given number of years. Whereas, the population of the United States has for the last century continued to double, aided by immigration, in periods of less than twenty-five years. He must, indeed, be gifted with a poor capacity for reason, who does not, on comparing these two rates, at once see, that the grand problem for our race is to prevent the instinct of reproduction from causing the terrible evils of early death, and chronic poverty. To introduce the new Malthusian views into China and Hindostan is the only way to cope with the famines, infanticides, and life-long starvation of these terribly over-peopled countries.

CHAPTER III.
OF THE CHECKS TO POPULATION AMONG THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS.

The more equal division of landed property among the Greeks and Romans in the earlier period of their history, must have tended greatly to encourage population, since agriculture, Mr. Malthus says, is the only kind of industry which permits of multitudes existing. When, as often occurred, the number of free citizens did not exceed ten or twenty thousand, every individual would naturally feel the value of his own exertions, and know that, if he left his lands idle, he would be wanting in his duty as a citizen. Hence, a great attention was paid to agriculture in Greece. Population rapidly increased, and colonization was common, so that the legislators of Greece had their attention frequently called to the question of over-population. Mr. Malthus had already shown that the practice of infanticide, as existing in China, tended rather to increase population, by tempting people into early marriage. Solon permitted the exposition of infants, Mr. Malthus is inclined to think, partly for the purpose of tempting the citizens into early marriage, and thus increasing the population.