Malthus: His poor law position, and misunderstandings of his work

This thesis examines Malthus' criticisms of the poor laws in early nineteenth century England. Many economists wrongly attribute Malthus' criticisms of the poor laws to a simplified ratios argument, which is inconsistent with his actual position. Malthus had a fully developed theory allowing for growth in standards of living and income. Specifically, this thesis details this fully developed theory and then studies Malthus' public pronouncements about the poor laws. The goal of this thesis is to determine if Malthus' opposition of the poor laws is consistent with his fully developed theory.; This dissertation contains several unique contributions to the literature. A demonstration of Malthus' use of a reductio ad absurdum argument as he applied it to the ratios argument is one unique contribution. We demonstrate this in chapter three. In chapter four we demonstrate Malthus' description of poor old states, wealthy old states, and new states and the relative strength of the positive and the preventive checks in each of these states. We demonstrate that Malthus believed that a higher subsistence income could be learned in chapter five. Malthus did not believe that all people were doomed to live at a base subsistence level. This is a common misinterpretation of Malthus that we attempt to correct in chapters five and six. In chapter six, we examine Malthus' four necessary conditions for growth inherent in his fully developed theory. This has never been explicitly defined in the existing literature. In chapter seven we determine that Malthus' opposition to the poor laws is consistent with his fully developed growth theory. Therefore, his opposition to the poor laws cannot be the cause of the misinterpretations of Malthus' theory, which are so prevalent in the literature. We discover that if Malthus had subscribed to a simple Malthusian trap theory then he would have believed the world was doomed to live at a base subsistence income regardless of government policy and he would have no reason to oppose the poor laws. All of these theories advanced in chapter seven are unique contributions to the existing literature on Malthus.