36 Social Environment 



mercialism. And it is his book, The Principles 

 of Population, antedating by a few years the 

 work of Ricardo, that serves as the connecting 

 link between the economics of commercialism 

 and the more speculative philosophy culminat- 

 ing in the evolutionary theory. Ricardo, look- 

 ing back to Malthus, pictured the natural law 

 of the market; a generation later, Darwin, 

 also taking his cue from Malthus, discovered 

 a like natural law in the competitions of the 

 lower orders of life. 



The central idea elaborated by Malthus can 

 be briefly stated. His objective is the cause 

 of the poverty then existing in England. 

 Labor, he assumed, is a commodity that finds 

 its true valuation in the market. Therefore, if 

 labor brings less than a living wage, the remedy 

 lies in diminishing the supply by restricting the 

 birth rate. The workers were rearing too large 

 families, and should apply prudential restraints. 

 Going farther afield, Malthus pointed out the 

 geometrical rate of increase of population in 

 the face of limited food supply, with the re- 

 sulting keen competition and elimination of 

 surplus numbers, and in so doing gave to 

 Darwin the suggestion of the broader idea of 

 the survival of the fittest. The reception that 



