The reaction which attained its height in the Malthusians proper, set in with the Physiocrates and Steuart: Quesnay, Maximes générales, No. 26; Mirabeau, Phil. rurale, ch. 8, and Ami des Hommes (1762), VIII, 84. Similarly, J. J. Reinhard, who calls Baden over peopled "for its present system of agriculture." (Vermischte Schriften, 1760, I, 1 ff.; II, Varr.) Möser Patr. Phant., I, 33, 42; II, 1; IV, 15; V, 26. Also Minister v. Stein: Leben von Pertz, V, 72; VI, 539, 887, 1184. Compare supra, § 242. Of certain modern economists, it may be said that they deplore and condemn the birth of every child for whose support there has not been established a life long annuity in advance. A remarkable but unsuccessful attempt is made by Ch. Périn, De la Richesse dans les Sociétés Chrêtiennes, at the end of the first volume, to reconcile the opposing views. Périn reproaches the Malthusians, and especially Dunoyer and J. S. Mill, with the advocacy of l'onanisme conjugal, and thus desiring to restore the old heathen situation. Only the Church holds the proper mean between defect and excess, inasmuch as it permits complete continency or the procreation of children regardless of circumstances to its members; while, on the other hand, it, by celibacy and by the inculcation of industry, frugality, etc., guards against over-population. (How well the Roman Church has succeeded in this is best proved by the Roman Compagna!)
In Greece, too, in its first economic periods, especially at the time that the first colonies were sent out, great fears were expressed of over-population. Hesiod weighs the advantages and disadvantages of the married state against one another with great thoroughness. (Theog., 600 ff.) In the Cypria, even the Trojan war was explained by a divine decree, emitted with the intention of removing over-population.
[254-3] A. Young, Political Arithmetik, 160 ff. In the United States, in ten years, the increase of wealth to that of population, was as 61:33. (Tucker, Progress of the United States, 202 ff.) As a good measure for the well-being of the masses, J. J. Neumann recommends the relative number attending higher schools, also that of shoemakers, tailors, etc., because the magnitude of the consumption of wool, leather, etc., can scarcely be directly ascertained. (Hildebrand's Jahrbb., 1872, I, 283, 294.)
[254-4] Statist. Journ., 1861, 251. In Liverpool, between 1831 and 1841, the population increased 40 per cent., and the number of houses 24 per cent., on account of the large immigration of Irish proletarians. (Edinb. Rev. LXXX, 80.) According to Fregier, les Classes dangereuses, the number of good buildings continually increased under Louis Philippe,[TN 108] and that of the worst lodging houses continually diminished. In Prussia, between 1819 and 1858, the population increased 60.8 per cent., the number of houses, 30.1 per cent.; but the insurance-value of the houses seems to have increased in a still greater proportion, (v. Viebahn, Zollverein's Statist., II, 291, ff., 299.) According to Horn, Bevölk. Studien, I, 62, ff., there are to every 100 persons in France, 20 dwelling houses; in Belgium, 19; in Great Britain, 18; in Holland, 16; in Austria, 14; in Prussia, 12. Too much should not be inferred from this mere table, as, for instance, in English cities, a house is, on an average, smaller than in the Prussian. A French house has, on an average, only 5½ windows and doors; a Belgian house, on the other hand, 3½ rooms. And so, in villages, it is found that there are uniformly fewer persons to a house than in cities, especially large ones. In Belgium, for instance, the cities have to every 100 inhabitants, 66 rooms, the country only 62. In the largest parishes of France (over 5,000 inhabitants), the number of doors and windows is on the average almost six times as great as in the smallest (under 5,000 inhabitants); but only 4 times as many persons live in them. (Horn, loc. cit. I, 76 ff.)
[254-5] It was very well remarked, even of the Servian census: ut omnia patrimonii, dignitatis, ætatis, artium officiorumque discrimina in tabulas referrentur, ac sic maxima civitas minimæ domus diligentia contineretur ... ut ipsa se nosset respublica. (Florus, I, 6, 8.)
MEANS OF PROMOTING POPULATION.
The following are the principal means which have been used to artificially promote the increase of population:
A. Making marriage and the procreation of children obligatory by direct command. Among almost all medieval nations so strong is the family feeling, that it seems to men to be a sacred duty to keep their family from becoming extinct. Where a person is not in a condition physically to fulfill this duty, the law supplies a means of accomplishing it by juridical substitution[255-1] at least. Most national religions[255-2] operate in the same direction, as well as the influence of political law-givers, who fully share in the contempt for willful old bachelors and sterile women, which runs through the national feeling of all medieval times.[255-3] In addition to this, there are the positive rewards offered for large families of children.[255-4] Even Colbert, in 1666, decreed that whoever married before his 20th year should be exempt from taxation until his 25th; that anyone who had 10 legitimate children living, not priests, should be exempt from taxation for all time;[255-5] that a nobleman having 10 children living should receive a pension of 1,000 livres, and one having 12, 2,000 livres. Persons not belonging to the nobility were to receive one-half of this, and to be released from all municipal burthens.[255-6] ] Such premiums are, indeed, entirely superfluous. No nobleman would desire 12 children simply to obtain a pension of 2,000 livres! Colbert himself abandoned this system of premiums shortly before his death.[255-7] [255-8]
In the case of morally degenerated nations, in which an aversion to the married state had gained ground, efforts have sometimes been made to work against it by means of new premiums. Thus, especially in Rome, since the times of Cæsar and Augustus, although with poor success. It little becomes one who is himself a great adulterer to preach the sixth commandment.[255-9] ]