1. IntroductionThis essay deals with Thomas Malthus and the first two chapters of his “Essay on the Principle of Population”. First, I will provide a short biographical note on Malthus and also mention his main achievements. Then follows a summary of Malthus' main ideas from the first two chapters of the mentioned work. Then the essay ends with a personal note.2. A short biographyThomas Robert Malthus was born in 1766 (textbook, nd) in Surrey, England, as the sixth son of a wealthy intellectual family and died in 1834 (Weikard, nd). He was primarily interested in population growth and poverty in English society of his time. It was a response to the precarious human situation of the time. Malthus identified that the rate of growth of population differs from the rate of growth of food supply. He also explained two types of population controls: preventive and positive controls (course manual, nd). Malthus' main achievement is his theory of population. In 1798, he published his most important work, namely “Essay on the Principle of Population”. Another revised edition on the subject was launched in 1803 (course manual, nd). He was also concerned with the notion of rent (course manual, nd). Ricardo's growth theory is largely based on Malthus's population theory (Weikard, nd).3. Summary of “The Essay on the Principle of Population” In his text, Malthus provides an explanation of the demographic growth of human societies. It explains why population growth occurs, what behavior distinguishes human beings from animals, and what remedies exist for population growth. Malthus begins his argument by mentioning that all living creatures, whatever they may be, strive to "...increase..... . middle of document ......ve to decrease before an increase in living standards is possible, but today's society shows that a higher number of human beings and an increase in supply food per capita are not necessarily mutually exclusive (Maddison, 2003). This development is mainly due to technological progress to which Malthus also briefly refers in his text. At the time he lived, these developments were not yet observable as clearly as they are today. It therefore remains to be said that his text constitutes an exceptional contribution to the knowledge of his time, but a readjustment to the current context is necessary. Statistics, Paris, OECDMalthus, TR (1798) Essay on the principle of population, chapters 1 and 2, pp. 1-13Weikard, H.-P. (nd) Lecture notes III: Malthus and Ricardo