Principles of Political Economy Considered With a View to Their Practical Application.

MALTHUS, Thomas R. [T.R.}.

$8,200.00

Item Number: 143844

London: John Murray, 1820.

Rare first edition of Malthus’ classic work. Octavo, bound in full diced morocco, raised bands, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, front and rear panels, marbled endpapers. In near fine condition. An exceptional presentation.

Thomas Malthus was an English economist, known for his work in the fields of political economics and demography. His theory that prosperity and production lead not to utopia, but to population growth and thereby back to social imbalance, known as the "Malthusian trap", was expounded in his Essay on the Principle of Population (1789), one of his most notable and debated works. His Principles of Political Economy was written as a polemic against David Ricardo's On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation and Say's Law, arguing that demand did not grow simultaneously with supply, but that they should be analyzed independent of each other, expounding ideas which became influential on Keynsian economics. Both these works were divisive, incurring backlash and support amongst notable economists. The bleak message of his Principle of Population rendered Malthus a notorious figure: Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, for example, justifies his refusal to give charity as a Malthusian attempt to control the population.