The Relationship Between Population, the Social Division of Labour and Food Supply

Abstract

In the works of the four political economists reviewed in the preceding chapter, the balance between food production capability and population is formulated in various ways. Malthus sees ‘food production capability’ (fpc) as an independent variable with a fixed upper limit. This is because he equates fpc with land availability. Population is posited as the dependent variable. Ricardo, Preobrazhensky and Lewis offer different interpretations of fpc. None of them accepts a fixed upper limit Ricardo reformulates fpc as food supply resulting from land availability and food import capability. National development of technology and the social division of labour determine food import capability. Preobrazhensky constructs fpc as a combination of advances in technology and the social division of labour, notably the development of state marketing of peasant produce and eventual large-scale state production of food. Lewis sees fpc in the same light as Ricardo, emphasising technology and the development of the social division of labour rather than land availability. In contrast to Preobrazhensky, both Ricardo and Lewis see the market as primary in encouraging the development of the social division of labour.