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The Malthusian and the Anti-Malthusian: the Use of Economic Ideas and Language in the Public Discourse of Nineteenth-Century Britain

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The Malthusian and the Anti-Malthusian: the Use of Economic Ideas and Language in the Public Discourse of Nineteenth-Century Britain The London School of Economics and Political Science The Malthusian and the Anti-Malthusian: The Use of Economic Ideas and Language in the Public Discourse of Nineteenth-Century Britain Maxine Montaigne A thesis submitted to the Department of Economic History of the London School of Economics and Political Science, for the degree of Master of Philosophy, London, September 2017 Page | 2 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, in-fringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 53,187 words. Page | 3 Abstract The nineteenth century saw the birth of economics as a distinct academic discipline in Britain, and with it a new relationship between economic thinkers, policy makers and the wider public, who played an increasingly active role in the sphere of economic discourse. One of the most contentious economic and social debates of this time was the question of population; population growth was seen as both essential to the new industrial economy, but also feared for its association with social unrest and degeneracy. This thesis aims to make sense of the changing content and nature of this debate starting from its intellectual foundation—the Malthusian theory of population—by examining the use of Malthusian theory and rhetoric in the public discourse of population throughout the century. In order to shed light on this changing discourse, this thesis contrasts two key moments in Britain’s population debate; the public reaction to Poor Law reform in the 1830s and 40s, and the controversial question of birth control in the 1870s and 80s. Each of these debates can be seen as an independent, yet connected ‘instance’ of the Malthusian population debate, manifesting as public concern for the private matter of family size. Through an analysis of the discourse surrounding these two debates, notably the use of Malthusian language and rhetoric within the popular press, it is possible to draw some conclusions about the way economic rhetoric was used within the nineteenth-century public sphere. This thesis argues that the purposeful appropriation of Malthusian rhetoric within the public sphere represents a form of public engagement with economics that has until now been poorly understood. Page | 4 "There are few works on political economy," said Malthus to me, "which have been more spoken of and less read than mine." —Quetelet, A Treatise on Man and the Development of his Faculties, 1842 Page | 5 Contents Chapter 1 – Introduction, Background and Sources ........................................................ 9 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Malthus and Malthusian Ideas in the Nineteenth Century ................................ 12 1.1.1 Malthus and the Essay on the Principle of Population ................................. 12 1.1.2 Malthusian Ideas in Nineteenth Century Literature ..................................... 21 1.2 Economics in the Public Sphere - Literature and Theory .................................... 27 1.2.1 The Diffusion of Economic Ideas ..................................................................... 27 1.2.2 Economics and the Public Sphere .................................................................... 33 1.2.3 Public Actors, the Public Sphere and the Press ............................................. 39 1.2.4 The Rhetoric of Economics ............................................................................... 44 1.3 Sources and Methodological Approach ................................................................. 48 Chapter 2 – Malthus and Malthusianism in Public Discourse: A Bibliometric Approach to the History of Economics ............................................................................ 54 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 54 2.1 Malthus and the Population Debate in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Books ................................................................................................................................. 56 2.2 Malthus in Intellectual Discourse; the Periodical Reviews of Nineteenth- Century Britain ................................................................................................................ 66 2.3 Malthus in Popular Discourse; Nineteenth-Century British Newspapers ....... 73 2.4 Malthus in Political Discourse; the Parliamentary Debates of the Nineteenth Century ............................................................................................................................. 79 2.5 Multiple Discourses, Different Malthus’s .............................................................. 83 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 86 Chapter 3 – The Ghost of Malthus: Popular use of Malthusian Rhetoric 1830-50 ..... 87 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 87 3.1 Political Economy, the Parliament and Poor Law Reform .................................. 89 3.2 The Malthusian Framing of the New Poor Law ................................................... 93 3.3 The Malthusian Epithet in Popular Discourse ...................................................... 97 3.4 The Malthusian and the Anti-Malthusian ........................................................... 102 3.5 Malthus, Child Murderer ....................................................................................... 108 3.6 Malthusian Rhetoric in the Popular Sphere 1830-1850 ...................................... 114 Page | 6 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 118 Chapter 4 – Family Limitation, Birth-control and the Malthusian League in Late Nineteenth-Century Public Discourse ........................................................................... 120 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 120 4.1 The Founding of the Malthusian League and the Bradlaugh-Besant Trial of 1877 ................................................................................................................................. 124 4.2 Birth Control – Knowledge, Behaviour, Ideology and Language .................... 127 4.3 Bradlaugh, Besant and Malthusianism ................................................................ 131 4.4 The Rhetorical Appropriation of Malthus by the ‘Neo-Malthusians’ ............. 139 4.5 The Bradlaugh-Besant Trial as Media Strategy .................................................. 145 4.6 The Influence of the Bradlaugh-Besant Trial on Public Discourse of Family Limitation ....................................................................................................................... 150 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 160 Chapter 5 - Conclusions ................................................................................................... 162 5.1 Malthus in the Nineteenth Century Public Sphere ............................................ 162 5.2 Economic Language as Public Engagement ........................................................ 165 Appendices ........................................................................................................................ 168 Appendix A: Summary of newspaper articles mentioning Malthus in the 19th Century British Library Newspapers archive, 10% subsample 1830-50, source: Gale Cengage/British Library ............................................................................................... 168 Appendix B: Summary of newspaper articles referencing Malthusian/Malthusianism in the 19th Century British Library Newspapers archive, full sample 1857-97, source: Gale Cengage/British Library .................................... 170 Archives .............................................................................................................................. 173 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 175 Page | 7 Figures Figure 1: A systemised framework of economic knowledge diffusion, reproduced from Goodwin, 1972, p. 413. .............................................................................................. 28 Figure 3: References to Malthus in British books 1790-2000, source: Google Ngram 57 Figure 4: Malthus in the British and Google Million corpora 1790-2000, source: Google Ngram ..................................................................................................................... 59 Figure 5: 'Malthus' references as proportion of references
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