CHAPTER III.. Population-Policy.

POPULATION-POLICY.

SECTION CCLIII.

DENSE POPULATION.--OVER-POPULATION.

The nation's economy attains its full development wherever the greatest number of human beings simultaneously find the fullest satisfaction of their wants.

A dense population is not only a symptom of the existence of great productive forces carried to a high point of utilization;[253-1] but is itself a productive force,[253-2] and of the utmost importance as a spur and as an auxiliary to the utilization of all other forces. The new is always attractive, by reason of its newness; but at the same time, we hold to the old too precisely because of its age: and the force of inertia would always turn the scales in favor of the latter. This inertia, both physical and mental is so general, that perhaps the majority of mankind would continue forever satisfied with their traditional field of occupation and with their traditional circle of food, were it not that an impulse as powerful and universal as the sexual and that of the love of children compelled them to extend the limits of both. That man might subdue the whole earth it was necessary that the Creator should make the tendency of man to multiply his kind more powerful than the original production-tendency of his earliest home. The unknown far-away deters as much as it attracts.[253-3] It is easy to see how the division and combination of labor become uniformly easier as population increases in density. Think only of large cities as compared with the country.[253-4] "Under-populated"[253-5] countries, which might easily support a large number of human beings, and which, notwithstanding have for a long period of time had only few inhabitants, are on this account abodes of poverty, regions where education and progress are unknown. While, therefore, it cannot be questioned that a nation under otherwise equal circumstances is more powerful and flourishing in proportion as its population embraces a large number of vigorous, well-to-do, educated and happy human beings, the last mentioned attributes should not be left out of consideration.

The possibility of over-population is contested by a great many theorizers (§ 243); and, indeed, the complaints on this score are in most cases only a baseless pretext of the inertia which feels the pressure of the population without being helped and spurred thereby to an increase of the means of subsistence. This inertia itself, especially when it governs a whole nation, is a fact which cannot be ignored. Over-population, as I use the term, exists whenever the disproportion between the population and the means of subsistence operates in such away that the average portion of the latter which falls to the share of each is oppressively small, whether the effect produced thereby manifests itself in a surprisingly large mortality, or in the limitation of marriages and of the procreation of children carried to the point of hardship. Over-population of this kind is, as a rule, curable by extending the limits of the field of food, either as a result of the advance of civilization at home, or by emigration.

That the whole earth should be incurably over-peopled is an exceedingly remote contingency.[253-6] But where, within a smaller circle, by reason of the great stupidity or weakness of mankind, or by the too great power of circumstances, over-population cannot act as a spur to new activity, it is indeed one of the most serious and most dangerous political diseases.[253-7] The immoderate competition of workmen involves the majority of the nation in misery, not only materially but also morally; one of the most dangerous temptations, for the rich to a contempt for human kind, for the poor to envy, dishonesty and prostitution. In every suffocating crowd, the animal part of man is wont to obtain the victory over the intellectual. Precisely the simplest, most universal and most necessary relations are most radically and disastrously affected by the difficulty or impossibility of contracting marriage, and the sore solicitude for the future of one's children.[253-8]

=========================================================== In |1700-1800.|1800-1825.|1824-1846. ---------------------+------------+-----------+------------ | BY | BY | BY France | 4 | 16 | 32 Naples, | 15 | 18 | 49 Piedmont, | 6 | 8 | 50 Lombardy, | 19 | 40 | 80 England and Wales, | 16 | 42 | 136 Scotland, | 3 | 16 | 34 Ireland, | 17 | 80 | 77 Holland, | 13 | 14 | 95 Belgium, | 15 | 44 | 136 Prussia, | 7 | 17 | 68 Hanover, | 6 | 12 | 32 Württemberg, | 17 | 12 | 56 Bohemia, | 16 | 27 | 73 ===========================================================]

Column Head Key A: In the seven most densely populated counties. B: In the seven counties of average population. C: In the five most sparsely populated counties.

| A | B | C ----------------------------+-----------+---------+--------- Inhabitants per | | | geographical sq. mile, | 4,904 | 2,229 | 1,061 One man with £60 income | | | in every |34 inhab'ts| 37 | 77 One man with £200 income | | | in every | 193 " | 199 | 472 Aggregate of all incomes | | | over £200 per square mile,| £25,118 | £12,676 | £2,441 ----------------------------+-----------+---------+---------

Compare Rau, Lehrbuch, II, § 13. Something analogous has frequently been observed as to taxation capacity. Thus, for instance, the Hessian provinces paid in direct taxation and taxation on wines, liquors, etc.; and the density of the population was in the ratio--

In Rhenish Hessen, 100 100. In Starkenburg, 65 64. In Upper Hessen, 64 59.

(Rau, Lehrbuch, III, § 280.) In many European countries, the population has for a long period of time, and in a comfortable way, increased most rapidly where it has been densest. Thus, for instance, the kingdom of Saxony was, in 1837, the most densely populated of all the monarchical states of Germany (6,076 inhabitants per square mile), Hanover (2,416) and Mecklenburg-Schwerin (2,004) were among the most sparsely peopled. And yet the annual increase of population between 1837 and 1858 was greatest in Saxony (1.36 per cent.) while Hanover (0.44) and Mecklenburg-Schwerin (0.59) stood very low in this respect. In very thinly populated countries, nature permits even the civilized man to deteriorate: thus the French in Canada, the Spaniard in the valley of the La Plata.]