LOT #47022 |
Sold on Dec 1, 2022 for: Not Sold
Thomas Robert Malthus Autograph Letter Signed. ...
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Description
"There is no person more fully aware of the important effects derived from some personal service, and of the great duration of some of their results than I am; but... I think it infinitely preferable to confine the term wealth as Adam Smith does... and to place personal services in a different category." - English Economist Thomas Robert Malthus
Thomas Robert Malthus Autograph Letter Signed. Four pages of
a bifolium, 7.375 x 9 inches, "G Hall"; March 17, 1828. A
fascinating letter from the famed and controversial economist
addressed to fellow economist and colleague Nassau [William] Senior
concerning their sometimes contradictory philosophies on the nature
of productive labor, energy as a commodity, and how this relates to
wealth. He writes, in part:"I think there is much truth as well as ingenuity in the passage you have sent me; and I quite agree with you in the distinction you make between ΕΝΕΡΝΕΙΑ and ΕΡΝΟΝ; but if you still mean to include ΕΝΕΡΝΕΙΑ in your definition of wealth, I am not sure whether it would be of any use to make the distinction you propose between services and commodities. I am very decidedly of opinion that in an inquiry into the causes of wealth, it is the most consistent and useful application of the term productive labour to make it mean that labour which is directly productive of wealth; If wealth however be not the material ΕΡΝΟΝ which can be brought to market and estimated separate from the producer... it does not seem necessary to distinguish personal services from the labour which produces a material ΕΡΝΟΝ or commodity. Both are equally productive of wealth according to your definition.
You know however that I consider it of the utmost importance that the progress of the science of Political Economy and to its useful practical applications to confine the term wealth to those objects the increase or decrease of which we can form some estimate of. There is no person more fully aware of the important effects derived from some personal service, and of the great duration of some of their results than I am; but how am I to estimate the ΕΝΕΡΝΕΙΑ that is susceptible of exchange, but has not yet been exchanged; or how am I to appreciate the wealth derived from the Legislation of Moses, the laws of Menic, or our Revolution of 1685. Feeling the utter impossibilities of making any approaches to an estimate of such kinds of wealth, I think it infinitely preferable to confine the term wealth as Adam Smith does to the material manageable ΕΡΝΟΝ or commodity, and to place personal services in a different category. In my lectures in the East India College I have very long been in the habit of stating in reference to Adam Smith's terms 'That productive and unproductive labour resemble each other in the end they endeavor to attain namely the gratification of some want or wish of mankind, but they accomplish it by different means..." Signed, "T R Malthus".
In Malthus' best-known work, Essay on the Principle of Population, he posits that food supplies tend to grow arithmetically while population tends to grow geometrically, with famine, war, and poverty being the inevitable conclusion. His theory flew in the face of the more popular opinion prevalent in late-eighteenth-century Europe, born from the Age of Enlightenment, which argued that society was improving significantly and that humanity at large was capable of greatness. As economics became known as the "dismal science" shortly thereafter, his Essay played an important role, being incorporated into the works of the early classical economists Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and David Ricardo.
During his lifetime, however, Malthus was considered quite controversial and was challenged by many noted economists of the era. At this time, Nassau Senior was a Professor of Political Economy at the University of Oxford who subscribed to the more traditional doctrine of political economy. The two men entered into a correspondence in which they exchanged ideas and, at times, entered into charged debates. Although Senior challenged Malthus' pessimistic views, he greatly respected his opinion. When this letter was written, Senior had already been hosting a series of lectures on the same subjects at Oxford in which he referenced Malthus' writings specifically, including similar topics evidenced here. Shortly after, Senior published new editions of several of the lectures, including portions of their correspondence, noting in the advertisement of his 1831 edition,"Mr. Malthus has honoured me with a correspondence... I feel the disadvantageous contrast to which I expose my own compositions by their juxta-position to those of our most eminent living philosophical writer; but I also feel that nothing could justify me in withholding from the public the instruction contained in Mr. Malthus's Letters." While this particular letter was not included in the publication, it expresses the same sentiments and offers a fantastic look into the nuanced discussions between two lions of political economy whose writings helped shape economic theory in the modern era. The letter is housed in a custom portfolio case and is accompanied by a COA from RR Auction.
Condition: Two areas of paper loss and one split fold at second sheet affect several words of text and have been filled in on page [4]. Page [4] slightly soiled from ink spillage, but touches just two letters of text. Two columns of contemporary numerical calculations also to page [4]. Small pencil notation to page [3].
References: Senior, N., Two Lectures on Population, 1831, page [iii].
Provenance: RR Auction, March 11, 2015, lot 199.
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2022 December 1 Historical Platinum Session Signature® Auction #6267 (go to Auction Home page)
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