Today, I am returning to the theme of the past few weeks of sustainability, and in particular the question of what the limits are to scaling in human societies.
Ironically, Malthus was living in one of the most economically dynamic societies in world history, and he did not even realize it.
One additional point on natural limits within an agricultural society is arable land. Not sure if Malthus mentioned it.
It is possible to expand farmland into forests and swamps, but it is a slow process, so there are clear limits on the amount of arable farmland for each generation. This becomes a problem when more than one child inherits the farm.
With three inheriting children for each generation, a 100-acre family dwindles to 33 acres in the next generation, and then 11 acres in the next. At some point, all the plots of land become too small to support a family. So all the families starve or sell their land to become day laborers.
The other alternative is that only the eldest son inherits the family farm, and then all other children are on their own. They have much lower chances of survival and reproduction in the next generation.
There are no good solutions for land inheritance that are fair in the modern sense.
He does discuss the finiteness of arable land, and this implicitly prevents agricultural productivity from being able to grow exponentially like population. Malthus does not dwell on the subject, considering the point too obvious to require much elaboration.
Nice summary of Malthus.
Ironically, Malthus was living in one of the most economically dynamic societies in world history, and he did not even realize it.
One additional point on natural limits within an agricultural society is arable land. Not sure if Malthus mentioned it.
It is possible to expand farmland into forests and swamps, but it is a slow process, so there are clear limits on the amount of arable farmland for each generation. This becomes a problem when more than one child inherits the farm.
With three inheriting children for each generation, a 100-acre family dwindles to 33 acres in the next generation, and then 11 acres in the next. At some point, all the plots of land become too small to support a family. So all the families starve or sell their land to become day laborers.
The other alternative is that only the eldest son inherits the family farm, and then all other children are on their own. They have much lower chances of survival and reproduction in the next generation.
There are no good solutions for land inheritance that are fair in the modern sense.
He does discuss the finiteness of arable land, and this implicitly prevents agricultural productivity from being able to grow exponentially like population. Malthus does not dwell on the subject, considering the point too obvious to require much elaboration.