Thomas Robert Malthus

Abstract

Malthus (who regarded the service sector as non-productive) explored the interaction between agriculture and industry. He saw farming as essential not just for national self-sufficiency in food but because it created a home market for manufactures and released manpower for the towns. The emphasis he places on agrarian activity, especially in his early years, recalls the Physiocrats like Quesnay in France, Spence in England, who traced all value-added back to the land. The primary sector should continue to generate at least half of the national product. An artificially high price of grain might be justified if the outcome were a flourishing agricultural sector.