An Essay on the Principle of Population

Thomas Robert Malthus is an English philosopher and political economist infamous for his theory on the growth of population. He graduated with honors from Jesus College at the University of Cambridge in 1791 and excelled in mathematics. He was good friends with economist David Hume—whom he credited for inspiration in his work—and Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

In 1805, two years after publishing the revised edition of his Essay on the Principle of Population, he began work at the East India Company College in Hertfordshire as a professor of history and political economy. Malthus is a founding member of the Political Economy Club created by economist James Mill in 1821. However, a debate with Scottish economist John Ramsay McCulloch cost Malthus his reputation in 1827. Although some still adhered to Malthus’s theories, he had largely lost credibility by the end of his life. Malthus died of heart disease in 1834.

Adam Smith is a Scottish economist widely regarded as the father of Capitalism. His magnum opus, titled An inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (also abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations), was published in 1776 and is a fundamental text in the field of classical economics. It provided the first comprehensive theoretical framework expounding the nature of wealth and demonstrating how nations accumulate them over time.