SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—F. 331 
This gap in economic theory has since been filled up. The volume of production is 
said to depend on A, the estimate made of the satisfaction to be derived from the 
. marginal product, and B, the estimate made of the inconvenience of contributing the 
marginal productive services. Fluctuation in the volume of production may, in accord- 
ance with this, occur in two ways. 1. The productivity of the services (P) may fluctuate 
(harvest theory of the cycle). 2. The estimates (A and B) may fluctuate into error on 
either side of accuracy (the psychological theory). These two theories manifestly 
relate the trade cycle to the fundamental principle of maximum satisfaction. 
It is the purpose of this paper to show how the so-called monetary theory is related 
to that fundamental principle. To show that if A, B and P (above) are stationary, but 
there is fluctuation in the system of distribution of the product among the factors of 
production, the volume of production will probably fluctuate. To illustrate this from 
the wages bargain. 
Monetary fluctuations affect distribution. Fluctuations in distribution—whether 
of monetary origin or not, may (and on certain assumptions are likely to) cause 
fluctuation in’ trade. ; 
Monday, August 31. 
5. Mr. P. Sarcanr FLorence.—Over-population and the Statisticians ; 
and the Moral. 
Recent differences between economists and statisticians on the question of popu- 
lation. Malthus was both an economist and a statistician, and his Essay is worth 
reconsideration for its fusion of the two methods of social investigation. 
The exact terms of the propositions that Malthus attempted to prove by a review 
of the facts have been overlooked by some statisticians. Recent facts still appear to 
demonstrate the (positive and preventive) checking of a tendency to over-population. 
A new preventive check has appeared and—some statistics notwithstanding—ha s 
probably exercised a major influence. 
Certain necessary connecting links between Malthus’ propositions were not empiri- 
cally demonstrated and still need statistical verification ; the law, for instance, of 
diminishing returns. But the form in which Malthus presented his thesis, the relation 
of population to means of subsistence, is of greater practical significance than the 
statisticians’ formula of growthof population. The curve of growth remains conditional 
on the efficiency with which the means of subsistence can be provided. It is not a 
self-regulating process in the popular sense of the phrase. 
Malthus’ argument may be presented in the form of a genealogical tree. Most of 
the relationships can be established by statistical means and certainly do not involve 
the assumption of a rational, calculating, economic man. The importance of question- 
ing psychological assumptions is constantly urged, but the conception, according to the 
new social psychology, of man as a creature of instincts is no more certain a basis for 
deduction than the old utilitarianism. 
The possible development of Malthus’ method in other branches of economics : 
view of economic laws as working hypotheses subject to statistical verification ; the 
formulation of economic theories in statistically verifiable terms. View of statistics 
of prices, cyclical fluctuation, wages, unemployment, &c., as material for economic 
analysis; the method of cycle-analysis not of psycho-analysis. Hopes for a more 
fruitful statistico-economic liaison. 
6. Miss I. F. Granr.—The Enclosure of Arable Land in Northern 
Scotland. 
The enclosure of arable land in Northern Scotland (unlike the development of sheep- 
farming and the ‘ Clearances,’ which have caused quite as much division of opinion 
as the English Enclosure Movement) came about so gradually and naturally that in 
the case of individual properties it is generally difficult to trace when it actually 
took place. 
In this paper it is proposed to describe the previous system and the method by which 
enclosure took place, and to trace its effects in a definite district by comparing the 
“Statistical Accounts’ of the parishes within it, which happen to have been made 
when the movement was beginning, and when it was almost completed. 
Eiffects.—(a) Very definite increase in the area under cultivation, in the rents yielded 
and in the standard of living of the cultivators. 
