The Measure of Value Stated and Illustrated; With an Application of It to the Alterations in the Value of the English Currency Since 1790

by Thomas Robert Malthus

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1823 edition. Excerpt: ... only a part of this number, together with an amount of materials, or other advances consumed in the same time, equal to the labour of the other part, then upon a rise in the corn wages of labour, if the other advances were to fall, or not to be worth so much labour as before, it is obvious that the profits of stock would not fall so much as if the same rise of corn wages had taken place, when all the advances had been in labour; and it might be thought at first that profits not falling in proportion to the rise of labour, the value of labour would not continue the same. But it will be observed, that, in all cases of this kind, there will be a less value of labour, which is equivalent to a less quantity of it employed to obtain the same produce; and a less quantity of labour altogether being consequently necessary to produce the food of the labourer, than if labour alone had been employed, the higher profits, or smaller diminution of the former profits, will only just be such as to maintain labour of a constant valuer Let us suppose, for instance, that 120 quarters of corn are produced by ten men. If each man were paid ten quarters, profits would be 20 per cent.; and if wages were increased to eleven quarters, profits would fall from 20 per cent, to 9.09 per cent. Now supposing, that, instead of ten men being directly employed, five only are so employed, and that the other advances consist of capital which will continue of the same value as the corn; then, while each labourer earns ten quarters, and the other capital advanced is worth the labour of five men so paid, profits will be, as before, 20 per cent. But if the labourer be paid eleven quarters instead of ten, profits will not fall, as before, from 20 per cent, to 9.09 per cent., but...

18 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1988

About the author

The Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus FRS was an English cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography. Malthus himself used only his middle name Robert.

His An Essay on the Principle of Population observed that sooner or later population will be checked by famine and disease, leading to what is known as a Malthusian catastrophe. He wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible. He thought that the dangers of population growth precluded progress towards a utopian society: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man". As an Anglican cleric, Malthus saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behaviour. Malthus wrote:

That the increase of population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence,
That population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase, and,
That the superior power of population is repressed, and the actual population kept equal to the means of subsistence, by misery and vice.

Malthus placed the longer-term stability of the economy above short-term expediency. He criticized the Poor Laws, and (alone among important contemporary economists) supported the Corn Laws, which introduced a system of taxes on British imports of wheat. His views became influential, and controversial, across economic, political, social and scientific thought. Pioneers of evolutionary biology read him, notably Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. He remains a much-debated writer.