THE POPULATION PROBLEM
=A Study in=
HUMAN EVOLUTION
BY
A. M. CARR-SAUNDERS
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1922
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen New York Toronto Melbourne
Cape Town Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai
HUMPHREY MILFORD
Publisher to the University
PREFACE
Many different questions connected with population are frequently
discussed at the present day. This book is designed not so much as a
contribution to the study of any one of these questions in particular as
an attempt to trace back to their origin the main problems which now
attract attention and to indicate their relation one to the other—to
view the whole problem in fact from an historical and evolutionary
standpoint. The book is an accident of the war. When war broke out I was
engaged in collecting material which is incorporated in this book with
the object of discussing certain aspects of the population problem. It
had occurred to me that I might write an introduction showing how these
aspects are related to the problem as a whole. Further than that I had
not gone when there followed five years of active service during which
the project of writing an introductory sketch became converted into the
far more ambitious project of treating at some length the population
problem as a whole. Had it thus not been for these years during which it
was possible only to elaborate schemes for future work, I should never
have embarked on so ambitious a task. The task is not an easy one,
involving as it does both difficulties of proportion and difficulties
arising from the necessity of touching upon biological, anthropological
and economic problems, with regard to all of which no one man can
pretend to have extensive knowledge. Nevertheless, quite apart from the
question as to whether this book does in any measure achieve its
purpose, those best acquainted with modern population literature will
probably agree that there is room for an attempt to view the whole
population problem in historical perspective. If therefore this book
does no more than draw the attention of those interested in particular
aspects of the matter to the necessity of so doing, it will not
altogether have failed of its purpose.
I wish to express my very great obligations to Professor L. T. Hobhouse,
who read through the whole book in manuscript and furnished me with
numerous most valuable suggestions and criticisms. To Mr. Julian Huxley,
who read the chapters which deal most directly with biological problems,
I am also indebted for valuable help. The calculations which appear in
the last section of the fifth chapter I owe to Mr. H. T. Tizard.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
HISTORICAL 17
(1) Problems of population fall under two headings—quantitative
and qualitative; the former have long attracted attention; the
latter have, until recently, only sporadically aroused interest.
(2) Numbers were discussed in a restricted sense in Greece and
Rome, but it was not until the sixteenth century (3) that
quantitative problems were considered from a modern point of
view when (4) a dense population was generally held to be
advantageous. (5) This view was not everywhere accepted, and (6)
the relation between numbers and the food-supply was from time
to time discussed, and the position of Malthus more or less
anticipated. (7) In 1798 Malthus published his book, which (8)
was favourably received. (9) Neomalthusian propaganda, though
not approved by Malthus, began early. (10) Darwin and Wallace
were influenced by Malthus in founding the hypothesis of natural
selection, and from 1858 onwards qualitative problems have come
to assume an equally important place.