Chapter CXVI: Section CCLIV: The Ideal of Population

Hence it was not an erroneous policy that most governments have sought to promote the increase of population in undeveloped nations. So far as the influence of the acts of government can reach, such a course must tend to the earlier maturity of a people's economy. Much more questionable are positive provisions by government intended to hinder the further increase of population in a country already supposed to be fully peopled; if for no other reason, because even the deepest, most varied and extensive knowledge can scarcely ever predict with certainty that no further extension of the field of food is possible under the spur of momentary over-population; and also because questions of population reach so far into the life and tenderest feelings of the individual that a government which has regard for the personal freedom of its subjects, instead of promoting or hindering marriage, emigration etc. by police regulations, cannot but limit itself to a statistical knowledge and legislative regulation of these relations.[254-1] [254-2]

Whether the population of a country increase in a well-to-do or proletarian manner; whether, therefore, the state should rejoice or lament over such increase, may generally be inferred with some certainty from the other conditions of the country's economy, especially from the height of the rate of wages and from the consumption of the nation (§ 230). Thus, for instance, the population of England, between 1815 and 1847, increased 47 per cent.; but during the same period the value of its exports increased 63 per cent.; the tonnage of its merchant marine, 55 per cent.; the amount yielded by the tax on legacies, and therefore moveable property, by 93 per cent.; the value of immoveable property by 78 per cent. Wherever in agriculture the ancient system of triennial rotation (_Dreifelder-system_ = _three-field system_) has been exchanged for the so-called English system, not only is a greater number of men supported, but, as a rule, each is more abundantly provided for.[254-3] The construction of new houses is an especially good symptom, because a habitation is a want which governs many others, and which, at the same time, may be much curtailed in case of need. Only, there should be no thoughtless building speculations, the existence or absence of which may readily be inferred from the ratio between the rent of houses and the rate of interest usual in the country. In England and Wales there was, in 1801, one house to every 5.7 inhabitants; in 1821, to every 5.8; in 1841, to every 5.4; in 1861, to every 5.39; in 1871, to every 5.35.[254-4]

The taking of the census at regular intervals in accordance with the principles of modern science, and with the apparatus of modern art, is one of the chief means to enable us to form a correct judgment of the health of the national life and of the goodness of the state.[254-5]

[Footnote 254-1: Compare _R. Mohl_, Polizeiwissenschaft, I,
§ 15.]

[Footnote 254-2: There may be observed a regular ebb and
flow in the opinions of theorizers on this subject. During
the latter, great enthusiasm is manifested over the increase
of population, which is considered an unqualified benefit;
later, over-population gives rise to uneasiness. Not many
had as much insight as Henry IV.: _la force et la richesse
des rois consistent dans le nombre et dans l'opulence des
sujets_. (Edict., in _Wolowski_ in the Mémoires de l'Acad.
des Sciences morales et politiques, 1855.) Thus, for
instance, _Luther_, in his sermons on the married state,
advises all young men to marry at 20, and all young women at
from 15 to 18 years of age. The person who fails to marry
because he cannot support a family has no real confidence in
God. God will not allow those who obey his command to want
the necessaries of life. Werke by _Irmischer_, XX, 77 ff. In
England, great dread of depopulation under the first two
Tudors: 4 Henry VII., c. 19; 3 Henry VIII., c. 8. _J.
Bodinus_, De Rep., VI, is charmed with the Lex Julia et
Papia Poppæa. Its repeal was immediately followed by the
greatest looseness of morals and by depopulation.

On the other hand, a great dread of over-population
prevailed among English political economists at the end of
the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century.
They recommended their colonial projects by saying that they
desired to avert this danger. Thus, for instance, _Raleigh_,
History of the World, I, ch. 4; _Bacon_, Sermones fid., 15,
33, and his essay, De Colonies in Hiberniam deducendis.
Compare _Roscher_, Zur Geschichte der englischen
Volkswirthschaftslehre, 24, 26, 31, 34, 42. Similarly, at
the end of the fifteenth century, in highly developed Italy,
which had become stationary. According to _F. Patricius_ (De
Inst. Republ., VI, 4; VII, 12): _incolarum multitudo
periculosa est in omni populo_. Since _Colbert's_ time, the
opposite opinion has become the prevailing one. The densest
population had been observed in the wealthiest and
relatively the most powerful countries, and people thought
they had here sufficient data for a wide generalization. The
thought of military conscription by degrees obtained weight
in this connection. Thus, _Saavedra Faxardo_, Idea Principis
christiano-politici (1649), Symb. 66; _De la Court_,
Aanwysing (1699), I, 9. _Sir W. Temple_, says that the
fundamental cause of all commerce and wealth lies in a dense
population, which compels men to the practice of industry
and frugality. (Works, I, 162 ff., 171, III, 2.) _Imperii
potentia ex civium numero astimanda est._ (_Spinoza_, Tract,
politicus, VII, 18.)

Thus _Petty_ says that 1,000 acres which can support 1,000
men are better than 10,000 which do the same thing. He would
give Scotland and Ireland up entirely, and have the
inhabitants settle in England. In this way all combination
for common purposes would be facilitated. (Several Essays,
107 seq., 147 ff.) Peter the Great is said to have
entertained a similar view: Oeuvres de Frédéric le Grand,
II, 23. More moderate is _Child_, Discourse of Trade, 298,
and still more so in 368 ff.; _Locke_, Works, I, 73 ff.; II,
3, 6, 191. In Germany, _v. Seckendorff_ advises that great
establishments for children should be erected, in which
orphans and even the children of poor parents should be
brought up at the expense of the state, simply with the
object of increasing the number of healthy men. (Teutscher
Fürstenstaat, ed. 1678, 203, Add. 179.) _Becher_, Polit.
Discours, 21, would have murderers punished because they
detract from population, although he elsewhere in his
definition of a city, "a nourishing populous community," is
no blind enthusiast over-population. According to _v.
Horneck_; Oesterreich über Alles, 1684, 29 ff., the third
fundamental rule of public economy is the greatest possible
increase and employment of men. _Vera regni potestas in
hominem numero consistit; ubi enim sunt homines, ibi
substantiæ et vires._ (_Leibnitz_, ed., Dutens, IV, 2, 502.)
According to _Vauban_, Dîme royale, 150, Daire, no child can
be born of a subject by which the king is not a gainer.
Compare 46,145. Numbers of People the greatest riches.
(_Law_, Trade and Money, 209.) Similarly, Law's disciple
_Mélon_, Essai politique sur le Commerce, ch. I, 3. The
number of people is both means and motive to industry
(_Berkeley_, Works, II, 187) and hence the public are
interested in nothing so much as in the production of
competent citizens. (Querist, Nr., 206.) _Süssmilch_, Göttl.
Ordnung, I, Kap. 10; Oeuvres de Frédéric M. IV, 4; VI, 82.

About the middle of the 18th century, we find a whole school
of political thinkers who decide every question from the
standpoint of the influence of the solution on the increase
of population. (Excellently refuted by _Schlözer,_
Anfangsgründe, II, 15 ff.) Thus especially _Tucker_,
Important Questions, IV, 11; V, 5; VII, 4; VIII, 5. Four
Tracts, 70. _Forbonnais_, Finances de France, I, 351, who
considered it one of the principal objects of a good
industrial policy to employ the greatest possible number of
men. _Necker_, Sur le Commerce et la Législation des Grains,
1776. _v. Sonnenfels_, Grundsätze der Polizei, Handlung und
Finanz (1765), in which the principle of population is
called the highest principle of all four sciences of the
state (I, § 25 ff.). These writers understand the "balance
of trade" in such a way, that a nation always operates most
advantageously which gives employment to the largest number
of men with its export articles, (_v. Sonnenfels_, II, § 210
ff., 354 ff.) _v. Justi_, Staatswissenschaft, I, 160 ff.,
says plainly that a country can never have too many men.
According to _Darjes_, Erste Gründe, 379, "even the increase
of beggars brings something into the treasury by means of
the excise tax which they pay." Compare, also, _J. J.
Rousseau_, Contrat Social, III, 9; _Galiani_, Della Moneta,
II, 4; _Verri_, Opuscoli, 325; _Filangieri_, Leggi Politiche
ed Economiche, II, 2; _Paley_, Moral and Political
Philosophy, III, ch. 11. On similar grounds, _A. Young_
laments that the increase of proletarians is greatly
hindered by the English poor laws. (In later writings it is
somewhat different: compare Travels in France, I, ch. 12.)
How deeply such ideas had penetrated public opinion is
apparent from the opening words of the Vicar of Wakefield,
as well as from the declaration of _Pitt_ in parliament in
1796, that a man who had enriched his country with a number
of children had a claim upon its assistance to educate them.
Much more correctly, _Voltaire_, Dict. Philosophique, art.
Population, sect. 2.

The reaction which attained its height in the Malthusians
proper, set in with the Physiocrates and _Steuart: Quesnay_,
Maximes générales, No. 26; _Mirabeau_, Phil. rurale, ch. 8,
and Ami des Hommes (1762), VIII, 84. Similarly, _J. J.
Reinhard_, who calls Baden over peopled "for its present
system of agriculture." (Vermischte Schriften, 1760, I, 1
ff.; II, Varr.) _Möser_ Patr. Phant., I, 33, 42; II, 1; IV,
15; V, 26. Also Minister _v. Stein_: Leben von Pertz, V, 72;
VI, 539, 887, 1184. Compare _supra_, § 242. Of certain
modern economists, it may be said that they deplore and
condemn the birth of every child for whose support there has
not been established a life long annuity in advance. A
remarkable but unsuccessful attempt is made by _Ch. Périn_,
De la Richesse dans les Sociétés Chrêtiennes, at the end of
the first volume, to reconcile the opposing views. Périn
reproaches the Malthusians, and especially _Dunoyer_ and _J.
S. Mill_, with the advocacy of _l'onanisme conjugal_, and
thus desiring to restore the old heathen situation. Only the
Church holds the proper mean between defect and excess,
inasmuch as it permits complete continency or the
procreation of children regardless of circumstances to its
members; while, on the other hand, it, by celibacy and by
the inculcation of industry, frugality, etc., guards against
over-population. (How well the Roman Church has succeeded in
this is best proved by the Roman Compagna!)

In Greece, too, in its first economic periods, especially at
the time that the first colonies were sent out, great fears
were expressed of over-population. _Hesiod_ weighs the
advantages and disadvantages of the married state against
one another with great thoroughness. (Theog., 600 ff.) In
the Cypria, even the Trojan war was explained by a divine
decree, emitted with the intention of removing
over-population.]

[Footnote 254-3: _A. Young_, Political Arithmetik, 160 ff.
In the United States, in ten years, the increase of wealth
to that of population, was as 61:33. (_Tucker_, Progress of
the United States, 202 ff.) As a good measure for the
well-being of the masses, _J. J. Neumann_ recommends the
relative number attending higher schools, also that of
shoemakers, tailors, etc., because the magnitude of the
consumption of wool, leather, etc., can scarcely be directly
ascertained. (_Hildebrand's_ Jahrbb., 1872, I, 283, 294.)]

[Footnote 254-4: Statist. Journ., 1861, 251. In Liverpool,
between 1831 and 1841, the population increased 40 per
cent., and the number of houses 24 per cent., on account of
the large immigration of Irish proletarians. (Edinb. Rev.
LXXX, 80.) According to _Fregier_, les Classes dangereuses,
the number of good buildings continually increased under
Louis Philippe, and that of the worst lodging houses
continually diminished. In Prussia, between 1819 and 1858,
the population increased 60.8 per cent., the number of
houses, 30.1 per cent.; but the insurance-value of the
houses seems to have increased in a still greater
proportion, (_v. Viebahn_, Zollverein's Statist., II, 291,
ff., 299.) According to _Horn_, Bevölk. Studien, I, 62, ff.,
there are to every 100 persons in France, 20 dwelling
houses; in Belgium, 19; in Great Britain, 18; in Holland,
16; in Austria, 14; in Prussia, 12. Too much should not be
inferred from this mere table, as, for instance, in English
cities, a house is, on an average, smaller than in the
Prussian. A French house has, on an average, only 5-1/2
windows and doors; a Belgian house, on the other hand, 3-1/2
rooms. And so, in villages, it is found that there are
uniformly fewer persons to a house than in cities,
especially large ones. In Belgium, for instance, the cities
have to every 100 inhabitants, 66 rooms, the country only
62. In the largest parishes of France (over 5,000
inhabitants), the number of doors and windows is on the
average almost six times as great as in the smallest (under
5,000 inhabitants); but only 4 times as many persons live in
them. (_Horn_, loc. cit. I, 76 ff.)]

[Footnote 254-5: It was very well remarked, even of the
Servian census: _ut omnia patrimonii, dignitatis, ætatis,
artium officiorumque discrimina in tabulas referrentur, ac
sic maxima civitas minimæ domus diligentia contineretur ...
ut ipsa se nosset respublica_. (_Florus_, I, 6, 8.)]