Chapter 345 The Academic Circle Is Also a Circle
The name Thomas Robert Malthus was not unfamiliar to Britain in the 19th century, especially to modern people in the 21st century.
However, what is interesting is that whether it is the 21st century or the 19th century, as long as this name appears, it is always accompanied by a lot of controversy and criticism.
However, even those who dislike Malthus cannot deny his pivotal position in the British economics community.
As a priest, Malthus had a family background corresponding to his social status.
As early as the Cromwellian period, the Malthus family began to engage in the priesthood.
As for the Malthus family's first contact with economics, it began with the South Sea Company case that triggered an earthquake in the London Stock Exchange. Mr. Thomas Malthus's grandfather, Sydenham Malthus, was one of the board members of the South Sea Company.
Since grandpa can fool people like Isaac Newton in the stock market, the IQ of the descendants of the Malthus family is naturally not much different.
The wealth accumulated in the stock market also gives them stronger financial resources to invest in the education of their children and expand their social circles.
David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, representatives of the Enlightenment in Britain and France in the 18th century, maintained long-term friendship with the Malthus family.
When Rousseau was dying, he even gave his will to Daniel Malthus, hoping that he could help carry out his last wishes.
The Malthus family's long-term association with representatives of the Enlightenment further affected their views on education and faith.
Although according to family tradition, Malthus was still sent to Christ's College, Cambridge University to study for a degree, but in terms of understanding of God, Malthus obviously had a different understanding from ordinary Anglican priests.
He was still a Christian, but his thoughts became more and more inclined to the Unitarianism in Christianity. He refused to recognize the Trinity and denied that God consists of three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
In Malthus' view, God is God, and only the Bible is the only basis for faith. Those who want to patch the Bible or explain the meaning of words are harboring evil intentions and seeking personal gain. These impure thoughts are the biggest reason for the decline of the church.
A few centuries ago, or even during the Reformation, Malthus would have been strangled by Catholics and Protestants just for making the above remarks.
Because Catholicism had confirmed "Monotheism" as a church heresy as early as the Council of Nicaea in the 4th century AD, and the main initiators of the Reformation, Martin Luther, Calvin and Zwingli, also opposed such arguments. .
Therefore, it was not uncommon for people to be arrested, imprisoned and executed for supporting ‘Unitarianism’.
But fortunately, in the 18th century when Malthus grew up, although freedom of belief had not yet been achieved in Britain at the political level, it had at least achieved this at the social level.
Moreover, in the view of the legislators, organized Catholics were the real nuisance. Although the small branches of Protestantism such as Unitarianism and Scottish Presbyterianism may not sound good, they are at least willing to swear allegiance to the king. As long as there is no problem with this aspect, other aspects are minor problems.
In addition, the Malthus family is an authentic English family that has implemented the principle of "loyalty to Parliament" since the Cromwell period, so Cambridge University turned a blind eye to his deviance.
After all, during the Renaissance, there were quite a few guys like Malthus on the Cambridge campus.
There was Jeremy Bentham in Oxford next door, and Malthus in Cambridge was not a big problem.
After all, compared to Malthus, his Cambridge disciple Lord Byron, and Shelley who was expelled from Oxford for publishing "On the Necessity of Atheism" and other talents are the real heavyweights.
At least Malthus recognized God, didn’t he?
Almost done.
But the Cambridge University Board of Trustees has no objections to Malthus, which does not mean that his classmates have no objections. Even if this opinion is not based on belief, but on personal opinions and personal grievances.
All in all, although Malthus was generally a gentle, humble, and calm British gentleman, perhaps it was precisely because of his character and slightly extreme views that he did not get along well with a certain Cambridge student who had a straightforward and cheerful personality. .
What's worse is that this apprentice is none other than Samuel Coleridge, the future representative of the British Lake Poetry School and social critic.
The feud between the two has continued since college.
When Malthus's "Principle of Population" was published, Coleridge immediately launched an attack on his turf of "Blackwood".
"Look at this mighty country! Its rulers and wise men obeyed William Paley and Thomas Malthus! It is very sad. Is this quarto book teaching us that poverty will bring Great misery and crime. Where there are more mouths than bread, and heads more than brains, poverty must reach its extremes?”
Coleridge's attack on "The Principle of Population" was not an isolated case. To be precise, in the British literary circle, those who did not attack Malthus became a minority.
Even Coleridge's insults were far from the most harsh. Robert Southey, another representative of the Lake School, even said bluntly: "Malthus is the favorite target of British critics, which is the same as the preference of other sewage outlets for him."
These poets who love moral codes and pastoral life even invented the term "Malthusianism" to specifically humiliate those who advocate material life and lack spiritual world.
Although it is not uncommon to be given humiliating nicknames by Southey, after all, the master of naming, Mr. Southey, once called Byron the "head of Satanist poets" in "Visions of Judgment" and classified Shelley and others into the category of "Satanism".
But Byron and others at least have a group of passionate young people to support them, while when it comes to Malthus, there is only the curse of the whole country of Britain.
But it is not difficult to understand why he was so criticized, because from any period of time, several arguments in "Principles of Population" are difficult for self-esteeming humans to accept.
In Malthus's view, humans are no different from animals. They will continue to fall into the trap of killing each other until both sides have no strength to continue fighting.
Unemployment and poverty are the inevitable results of the natural law of population. Human beings cannot avoid this fate. All measures to help the poor and promote social equality are futile.
The best way to solve this problem is to lead human moral concepts to indifference or even cruelty, destroy all existing moral systems, control population growth, and even condone infanticide, birth control, famine, war and other methods to suppress human reproduction.
Finally, Malthus also believed that private ownership is also an inevitable result of the natural law of population. It coexists with humans and cannot be eliminated. Moreover, it is also the best method and system to maintain a balance between population growth and the growth of population quality of life.
In order to support his point of view, Malthus also cited famine, epidemics in the Far East and killings in American colonies as examples.
Once Malthus made this statement, the Lake School, who advocated the use of ancient moral standards to promote social equality, certainly could not let him off, and rebels such as Byron and Shelley naturally criticized this bloody doctrine.
Almost everyone agreed that he was supporting the government's indifference to the poor and undermining the progress of public welfare construction.
However, contrary to the one-sided criticism of public opinion, the British government and the East India Company discovered the value of Malthus almost at the same time.
William Pitt the Younger, the greatest prime minister of the 18th century, gave up the classical economic view that "having more children makes the country rich" because of Malthus, and took the initiative to give up the new "Poor Law" that he had been pushing for to increase relief efforts.
The East India Company opened a brand new subject for Malthus at Haileybury College - political economy, and made him the world's first professor of political economy.
If it is only from an academic perspective, even if Malthus's theory is not without fallacies, he is still a master.
But if it is from a social perspective...
Even if it is from the perspective of Arthur's friends, Dickens, Disraeli, Dumas and even Mr. Elder Carter, have basically made critical remarks about Malthus. They regard Malthus as one of the important driving forces of the suffering of the poor.
But what is interesting is that if you look at the problem from the perspective of the University of London, it is another matter. Many people in the University of London Department, whether it is the leader Jeremy Bentham, Lord Brougham, or Charles Austin, who is about to become the Attorney General of the London District, and Edwin Chadwick, the private secretary of the Lord Chancellor, have accepted Malthus's views to a certain extent.
These utilitarians believe that in the face of pessimistic facts, human sympathy is completely useless. If Malthus's views are finally proven to be correct, then they don't mind continuing to work on the Poor Law.
Arthur was thinking about this when there was a knock on the door.
John Mill, who had been busy with various documents in the Liverpool Customs Office for several days, pushed the door open with dark circles under his eyes and walked in.
"Arthur, is there something urgent that you need to talk to me about? The Customs Office sent a large batch of new documents yesterday afternoon. If we delay for a while, I'm afraid it will take us four or five days to finish it."
Arthur smiled and said, "John, don't worry too much about the tariff. If it doesn't work, let the Customs Office send someone to help us sort it out. You and the apprentices in the accounting firm have been busy for so long, it's time to take a break."
Mill said while pouring tea, "Arthur, you must have been hurt in the brain by that stone, otherwise how could you say such nonsense? Let the Customs Office investigate themselves , what can they find out? "
Arthur replied: "It's okay if they can't find out. At worst, I will resign from London and ask them to replace me with someone else to work in Liverpool. Besides, I have a cut in the corner of my eye. It would be very rude if they don't 'sympathize' with the injured. "
Mill took a sip of tea and let out a long sigh: "Although your injury is very unfortunate, if it weren't for the cut in the corner of your eye, the Customs Department in Liverpool would probably not send all the remaining documents to me. The new amount counted in the past two days alone has increased by another 3,600 pounds. "
When Arthur heard this number, he nodded slightly and said: "It's not bad. However, John, although I have always thought that you have a strong working ability, it is beyond my expectation that you can be so strong. A guy like you, It’s unimaginable that I didn’t go to school.”
Hearing this, Mill put down his tea cup and corrected: "Arthur, just because I haven't gone to school doesn't mean I haven't learned."
Arthur curled his lips when he heard this: "Your speech sounds like that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Mill said: "Although I have never studied in school, that is because my father thinks that school education in Britain is terrible, so he has always taught me at home. Since I was 3 years old, I have studied Greek with him. I started learning Latin, algebra, geometry and calculus at the age of 8, started to receive enlightenment in history at the age of 9, and started studying economics, philosophy and logic at the age of 12. When I was 16, I started studying at Westminster. I wrote a column in the Special Review. Isn’t this much better than most college graduates?”
When Arthur heard this, he nodded in agreement: "It is indeed a high-quality education, and you seem to have missed a lot of projects. At least in my opinion, your French and German are also quite good. But, I have I have a question, your father spends so much time on you every year, doesn’t he need to make money to support the family? "
Mill replied: "Of course I have to make money, but my father's job is relatively easy, so he spends his free time educating his children."
Arthur picked up the teacup: "What does your father do?"
Mill took a bite of the bagel and said, "He is one of the council members of the East India Company."
"Cough cough cough..."
Arthur took out a handkerchief and wiped the tea that spilled from the corner of his mouth: "If I remember correctly, the board of directors seems to be responsible for inspecting the company's finances and supervising the work of board members, right? They seem to have the power to sue directors on behalf of shareholders? "
Mill nodded and said, "Arthur, your knowledge base has improved compared to a year ago."
Arthur put down the tea cup and said: "Okay, now I finally know why you were able to work in the East India Company's financial department, and even managed to escape from depression in the first few years of joining the company, feeling in a trance all day long. If I had a father like this, even if I were to sleep on the manager’s desk, there would be nothing he could do to me.”
Mill blushed and coughed: "Arthur, are you saying that my ability is not enough to work for the East India Company?"
"No, no, no, I don't mean that at all. Your ability is definitely enough to work in the Ministry of Finance."
Arthur said: "It's just that I heard Elder say before that if you want to work in the London headquarters of the East India Company, it's not about your work ability. Elder told me that although everyone didn't say it openly , but if you look at the composition of the new employees at the London headquarters, you can see that 90% of them are from Balliol College, Oxford University.”
"Hmm..." Mill opened his mouth, hesitated for a long time, and finally said vaguely: "I can only say that the East India Company does have some cooperation with Balliol."
Arthur nodded and said: "So, exceptions like you are even more valuable."
Mill endured it for a long time, but finally couldn't help but retorted after hearing this: "Arthur, you are insulting my reputation. In fact, even ordinary people have a chance as long as they have been trained at the company's Haileybury College. I entered the London headquarters. I trained there for more than half a year.”
Arthur couldn't help but smile when he heard him take the initiative to mention Haileybury College: "It is indeed a good school, with the East India Company as the backstage, sufficient financial resources, and there are many famous professors, such as Mr. Malthus." By the way, you are so proficient in political economics, you must have taken his class back then, right?"
"Professor Malthus?" Mill's expression turned strange when he heard this: "This is a sensitive topic. Why did you suddenly mention him?"