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Adam Smith's Theory of Demo-Economic Development Population growth, the settlement process and economic progress : Adam Smith’s theory of demo-economic development Jérôme Lange To cite this version: Jérôme Lange. Population growth, the settlement process and economic progress : Adam Smith’s theory of demo-economic development. Economics and Finance. Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, 2017. English. NNT : 2017PA01E039. tel-02275782 HAL Id: tel-02275782 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02275782 Submitted on 2 Sep 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. École d’Économie de la Sorbonne / Sorbonne School of Economics Laboratoire de rattachement : PHARE THÈSE pour l’obtention du titre de Docteur en Économie présentée et soutenue publiquement le 13 décembre 2017 par Jérôme Lange Population Growth, the Settlement Process and Economic Progress Adam Smith's Theory of Demo-Economic Development Sous la direction de Monsieur le Professeur André Lapidus, Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne Membres du Jury Monsieur le Professeur Daniel Diatkine, Université d'Évry-Val-d’Essonne Monsieur le Professeur Spencer Pack, Connecticut College, États-Unis Madame la Professeure Nathalie Sigot, Université Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne Madame Christine Théré, Directrice de recherche à l’Institut National d’Études Démographiques Monsieur le Professeur Richard Van den Berg, Kingston University, Royaume-Uni L’Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne n'entend donner aucune approbation ni improbation aux opinions émises dans cette thèse ; ces opinions doivent être considérées comme propres à leur auteur. 1 2 Ce travail est dédié à ma maman Denise, avec amour. 3 Table of contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... 7 Abbreviations .................................................................................................................................... 13 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 15 Outline of the work ......................................................................................................................... 51 A Note on Notation ......................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 1 Population and Conjectural History ........................................................ 69 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 69 2. Social evolution as universalist theory of progress: historical and cross- cultural context ................................................................................................................................ 78 3. Conjectural History throughout Smith’s Œuvre........................................................ 87 4. The dichotomy view of Smith and the neglect of the historical dimension of the Wealth of Nations ..................................................................................................................... 95 5. Smith’s conjectural history of population and development ............................ 105 6. Population and development in the wider four stages theory ......................... 118 7. Malthus and his critics ........................................................................................................ 135 8. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 159 Chapter 2 Population and the Market ...................................................................... 169 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 169 2. The extent of the market as power of exchanging, and some sociological implications ..................................................................................................................................... 177 3. Demand, the economy, and the power of exchanging: the inaccuracy of Young’s Sayian reading of Smith ............................................................................................ 183 4. The critical geographic and demographic dimension of the power of exchanging ....................................................................................................................................... 190 5. Population growth and the market in the early stages of society ................... 198 6. Population, distance and the stages of society ......................................................... 203 7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 211 Chapter 3 Positive Feedback in Adam Smith’s theory of demo-economic development ...................................................................................................................... 217 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 217 2. The division of labour and “primitive” accumulation ........................................... 223 3. Sequence and Circularity in Smith’s “Natural progress of opulence” ........... 241 4. Limits to growth? .................................................................................................................. 249 5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 254 Annex: Links from Linnaeus via Smith to modern biology ................................... 256 4 Chapter 4 Smith and Marx versus Malthus and the Beckerians on the Demographic Transition and the Industrial Revolution .................................... 261 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 261 2. Smithian Ambiguities .......................................................................................................... 264 3. Malthusian Explanations of the demographic transition — fertility decline as the cause of income rise ............................................................................................................. 267 4. Marxian explanations of the demographic transition — income rise as the cause of fertility decline ............................................................................................................. 272 5. The critical role of mortality ............................................................................................ 275 6. Endogeneity of income growth, and a Smithian-Marxian theory of the demographic transition and the industrial revolution ................................................. 279 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 283 1. Population, stages and states of society ...................................................................... 285 2. Circular causation and equilibrium .............................................................................. 287 3. Population and the extent of the market .................................................................... 291 4. Migration and Urbanisation ............................................................................................. 294 5. Smith, the demographic transition and the stages of society ............................ 297 6. Final thoughts ......................................................................................................................... 300 Traduction française d’une partie de l’introduction .......................................... 303 References .......................................................................................................................... 330 Thematic Bibliography ................................................................................................... 356 5 6 Acknowledgements This dissertation, and my PhD experience as a whole, has benefited from the help and counsel of many wonderful people, who I would like to thank for their support. It is not to follow etiquette, but out of the most sincere and profound gratitude, that I want to start by thanking my PhD supervisor, André Lapidus. André’s help has been invaluable, for the fine suggestions and advice he gave me, his great availability, the long hours he devoted to our discussions without ever any sign of having other (more) important things to do (which he undoubtedly had), his remarkable kindness and gentleness, his good humour, and not least the encouragement and reassurance he gave me that what I was doing was not all that bad after all, which I most direly needed. I seriously doubt that any other would have been able to find this exact balance between pressure and
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