POPULATION-POLICY.
DENSE POPULATION.—OVER-POPULATION.
The nation's economy attains its full development wherever the greatest number of human beings simultaneously find the fullest satisfaction of their wants.
A dense population is not only a symptom of the existence of great productive forces carried to a high point of utilization;[253-1] but is itself a productive force,[253-2] and of the utmost importance as a spur and as an auxiliary to the utilization of all other forces. The new is always attractive, by reason of its newness; but at the same time, we hold to the old too precisely because of its age: and the force of inertia would always turn the scales in favor of the latter. This inertia, both physical and mental is so general, that perhaps the majority of mankind would continue forever satisfied with their traditional field of occupation and with their traditional circle of food, were it not that an impulse as powerful and universal as the sexual and that of the love of children compelled them to extend the limits of both. That man might subdue the whole earth it was necessary that the Creator should make the tendency of man to multiply his kind more powerful than the original production-tendency of his earliest[TN 103] home. The unknown far-away deters as much as it attracts.[253-3] It is easy to see how the division and combination of labor become uniformly easier as population increases in density. Think only of large cities as compared with the country.[253-4] "Under-populated"[253-5] countries, which might easily support a large number of human beings, and which, notwithstanding have for a long period of time had only few inhabitants, are on this account abodes of poverty, regions where education and progress are unknown. While, therefore, it cannot be questioned that a nation under otherwise equal circumstances is more powerful and flourishing in proportion as its population embraces a large number of vigorous, well-to-do, educated and happy human beings, the last mentioned attributes should not be left out of consideration.
The possibility of over-population is contested by a great many theorizers (§ 243); and, indeed, the complaints on this score are in most cases only a baseless pretext of the inertia which feels the pressure of the population without being helped and spurred thereby to an increase of the means of subsistence. This inertia itself, especially when it governs a whole nation, is a fact which cannot be ignored. Over-population, as I use the term, exists whenever the disproportion between the population and the means of subsistence operates in such away that the average portion of the latter which falls to the share of each is oppressively small, whether the effect produced thereby manifests[TN 104] itself in a surprisingly large mortality, or in the limitation of marriages and of the procreation of children carried to the point of hardship. Over-population of this kind is, as a rule, curable by extending the limits of the field of food, either as a result of the advance of civilization at home, or by emigration.
That the whole earth should be incurably over-peopled is an exceedingly remote contingency.[253-6] But where, within a smaller circle, by reason of the great stupidity or weakness of mankind, or by the too great power of circumstances, over-population cannot act as a spur to new activity, it is indeed one of the most serious and most dangerous political diseases.[253-7] The immoderate competition of workmen involves the majority of the nation in misery, not only materially but also morally; one of the most dangerous temptations, for the rich to a contempt for human kind, for the poor to envy, dishonesty and prostitution. In every suffocating crowd, the animal part of man is wont to obtain the victory over the intellectual. Precisely the simplest, most universal and most necessary relations are most radically and disastrously affected by the difficulty or impossibility of contracting marriage, and the sore solicitude for the future of one's children.[253-8]
[253-1] A map of Europe, which would show the density of population by the intensity of shade, would be darkest in the vicinity of the lines between Sicily and Scotland, between Paris and Saxony, and grow lighter in proportion to the distance from their point of intersection. Italy is the country with the earliest highly developed national economy of modern times, and England that which possesses the most highly cultivated national economy; as the Rhine is, from the standpoint of civilization, the most important river in Europe. It is remarkable, in this connection, how slowly population increased in all European countries during the 18th century, and how rapidly after the beginning of the 19th, and especially since 1825. According to Dieterici (Berliner Akademie,[TN 105] 16 Mai, 1850), the population increased annually per geographical square mile:
| In | 1700-1800. | 1800-1825. | 1824-1846. |
| by | by | by | |
| France, | 1 41 | 16 | 132 |
| Naples, | 15 | 18 | 1 49| |
| Piedmont, | 16 | 18 | 150 |
| Lombardy, | 19 | 40 | 1 80| |
| England and Wales, | 16 | 42 | 136 |
| Scotland, | 13 | 16 | 134 |
| Ireland, | 17 | 80 | 1 77| |
| Holland, | 13 | 14 | 1 95| |
| Belgium, | 15 | 44 | 136 |
| Prussia, | 17 | 17 | 168 |
| Hanover, | 16 | 12 | 132 |
| Württemberg, | 17 | 12 | 156 |
| Bohemia, | 16 | 27 | 1 73| |
[253-2] "The useful rearing of children the most productive of all outlay." (Roesler.)