The Economic Development of Malthusia

Abstract

May I be allowed to say three things by way of introduction? First, to express my delight at being allowed to contribute to a volume in honour of Hans Singer. I think I can claim to have known him longer than almost any other contributor. In the dark days of 1933–4 I was secretary of a small committee at Cambridge that was appointed to make grants from our Faculty of Economics reserve fund to help two German refugee students. With Pigou, Keynes and Clapham I helped to select Hans Singer from a large number of others and saw much of him when he first arrived in Cambridge. How greatly he has justified our expectations! Second, I must explain that this chapter was by origin a Kingsley Martin Memorial Lecture, delivered in Cambridge in 1974 to a non-specialist audience, chiefly of senior members of the university. It was first published in Modern Asian Studies and is republished here by the kind consent of the editor and publishers of that journal. Third, may I add (as I said in a few words of introduction to the lecture) that, though I took Bangladesh as an example because I was currently steeped in the background of Bangladesh, the problems are the common problems of all the overpopulated countries of Asia — of India, Pakistan, Indonesia and others.