THE REGULATION OF NUMBERS 



285 



and justly repaid by gratitude and affection. . . . All moral 

 restraints on the growth of population were removed by the 

 compulsory ignorance into which Protestant ascendancy and the 

 penal laws had plunged the Catholic peasantry and by the abject 

 wretchedness of their lot. . . . The island became utterly over- 

 charged with population.' ^ 



In this period it is not common to find over-population on this 

 scale for so long a time. In all countries there were periods when 

 population was excessive, but as a rule the circumstances were 

 seldom such that the vigour of the people did not before long 

 bring about a return to a higher standard. 



12. In the fourth sub-group there is available a far larger 

 amount of information, and more exact estimates as to the 

 position are rendered possible than could be the case before. We 

 have first to ask whether there is evidence of over-population. 

 Where, as in this period, there has been a rapid increase in numbers 

 the question is more easy to answer than when asked in connexion 

 with periods which, compared with the present conditions, were 

 relatively static. We can form a judgement based upon the 

 relative increase in wealth and in population and upon the average 

 real wages over a number of years. The following figures show 

 that wealth has grown more quickly than population.^ 



Wealth of 

 Great Britain. 



£ 

 1865 . . . 6,113,000,000 



1875 . . . 8,548,000,000 

 1885 . . . 10,037,000,000 



1895 . . . 10,663,000,000 



1905 . . . 13,036,000,000 



1909 . . . 13,986,000,000 



The following figures show that real wages have risen during 

 the period.^ With regard to the drop in real wages in the last 

 years shown in this table it has to be remembered that such minor 

 fluctuations may be due under complex modern conditions to a 

 variety of causes. The condition of credit, the share taken of the 

 total income by capital and many other factors, the action of some 



1 Two Centuries of Irish History, edited by Bryce, p. 21. Sir Horace Plunkett 

 estimates that Ireland can now support about 2,500,000 agriculturalists or 500,000 

 families (Ireland in the New Century, p. 30). Tiie population in 1790 was estimated 

 at over 4,000,000. In the sixteenth century it was probably less than 1,000,000. 



2 Quoted by J. A. Hobson in evidence before the National Birth-Rate Commis- 

 sion, The Declining Birth-rate, p. 285. ^ Bowley, Distribution of National 

 Income, p. 18. 



