Abstract
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) was a leading figure in the classical school of economics that extended the insights of Adam Smith. Malthus made major contributions to the theory of overpopulation and its checks, diminishing returns to land, trade policy, monetary policy and the deficiency of aggregate demand. This chapter sets his work in the context of his life and the British economy in the industrial and agrarian revolutions. It discusses the impact of Cambridge in the 1780s, Malthus’s ordination in the Church, his professorship at the East India College, Haileybury, his participation in the Political Economy Club and the British Association, his friendly rivalry with Ricardo. It also discusses the reaction to his work of contemporaries like Coleridge and Godwin.
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References
By T. R. Malthus
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Reisman, D. (2018). Introduction. In: Thomas Robert Malthus . Great Thinkers in Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01956-3_1
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