From the crowd of materials which presented themselves, in illustration of the first branch of the subject, I dare not flatter myself that I have selected the best, or arranged them in the most perspicuous method. To those who take an interest in moral and political questions, I hope that the novelty and importance of the subject will compensate the imperfections of its execution.

LONDON, June 8th, 1803.

CONTENTS

OF THE

FIRST VOLUME.

BOOK I.

OF THE CHECKS TO POPULATION IN THE LESS CIVILIZED

PARTS OF THE WORLD AND IN PAST TIMES.

CHAP. I. Statement of the Subject. Ratios of the

Increase of Population and Food,

II. Of the general Checks to Population, and

the Mode of their Operation,

III. Of the Checks to Population in the lowest

Stage of Human Society,

Page

14

29

IV. Of the Checks to Population among the

American Indians,

41

V. Of the Checks to Population in the Islands

of the South Sea,

79

VI. Of the Checks to Population among the

ancient Inhabitants of the North of Eu-

IX. Of the Checks to Population in Siberia,

Northern and Southern,

173

398

Page.

CHAP. X. Of the Checks to Population in the Turkish

Dominions and Persia,

214

XI. Of the Checks to Population in Indostan

and Tibet,

226

XII. Of the Checks to Population in China and

CHAP. I.

II.

III.

Of the Checks to Population in Norway, 307-

Of the Checks to Population in Sweden, 328

Of the Checks to Population in Russia,

IV. Of the Checks to Population in the middle

parts of Europe,

352

376

V. Of the Checks to Population in Switzer-

land,

396

VI. Of the Checks to Population in France,

VII. Of the Checks to Population in England, 453

VIII. Of the Checks to Population in Scotland

426

and Ireland,

486

ESSAY, &c.

BOOK I.

OF THE CHECKS TO POPULATION IN THE LESS
CIVILIZED PARTS OF THE WORLD AND

IN PAST TIMES.

CHAPTER I.

Statement of the Subject. Ratios of the Increase of Population and Food.

IN an inquiry concerning the improvement of society, the mode of conducting the subject which naturally presents itself, is

1. To investigate the causes that have hitherto impeded the progress of mankind towards happi- ! ness; and

2. To examine the probability of the total or partial removal of these causes in future.

To enter fully into this question, and to enumerate all the causes that have hitherto influenced

Statement of the subject. Ratios of

human improvement, would be much beyond the power of an individual. The principal object of the present essay is to examine the effects of one great cause intimately united with the very nature of man, which, though it has been constantly and powerfully operating since the commencement of society, has been little noticed by the writers who have treated this subject. The facts which establish the existence of this cause have, indeed, been repeatedly stated and acknowledged; but its natural and necessary effects have been almost totally overlooked; though probably among these effects may be reckoned a very considerable portion of that vice and misery, and of that unequal distribution of the bounties of nature, which it has been the unceasing object of the enlightened philanthropist in all ages to correct.

The cause to which I allude, is the constant tendency in all animated life to increase beyond the nourishment prepared for it.

It is observed by Dr. Franklin, that there is no bound to the prolific nature of plants or animals, but what is made by their crowding and interfering with each others means of subsistence. Were the face of the earth, he says, vacant of other plants, it might be gradually sowed and overspread