高关税( tariffs)，并主张全面废止该法(argued for the total repeal of the corn laws)。
2.知识背景 intellectual setting
受到威廉·戈德温和孔多塞思想的影响；
1）威廉·戈德温
William Godwin，1756－1836； 牧师、小说家、政治哲学家；minister , novelist ,
18岁（1784年）进入剑桥大学耶稣学院
(Jesus college , Cambridge)。毕业后一度 在家闲居，继又到剑桥大学继续研究。 1798年加入英国教会的僧籍，在英国萨里 郡的奥尔伯里教区任牧师(minister)。
1798年，匿名发表《论影响社会改良前途
的人口原理，以及对戈德温先生、孔多塞 先生和其他作家推测的评论》即《人口原 理》（An Essay on the Principle of Population）， 阐述自己反对社会改革的理由。
地主阶层(landlords)拥护—获得高昂的国内谷物价格
和地租价格；
但是，1801年的一项调查(census)表明，不断增长的
人口(growing population)正在给英国的食物供给带来 压力(placing press on England’s food supply)；
商人阶层、产业资本家等商业集团反对对谷物征收
一是，食物是人类所必需；food is necessary for
the humanity
二是，两性间的情欲是必然的，而且会保持现
状； Passion between the sexes is inevitable, and will maintain the status quo;
2）人口增长趋势 trend of population growth
2）“谷物法”存废的论战 “谷物法”(corn laws)—对进口谷物征收关税，设
定最低价格(placed tariffs on imported grain and effectively placed a minimum price on grain imported to England from abroad)；
humanity
his theme was the idea of social progress based on three fundamental principles: (1) equality
among nations, (2) equality of individuals within nations, and (3) the perfectibility of humanity. Ultimately the equality of nations, he wrote, would abolish war “as the greatest of plagues and as the greatest of crimes.” A permanent league of nations would maintain peace and the independence of every nation. The equality of individuals would be won when differences in wealth, inheritance, and education were eliminated. Condorcet favored the wide distribution of property, social security, and universally free education for women and men. He believed that the natural order tends toward economic equality but that existing laws and institutions encourage inequalities. Equality would overcome the social evils of the day and lead to perfection. The only inequalities that should be permitted, he thought, are those that derive from natural abilities. Population would increase as a result of these beneficent reforms, but the food supply would increase even more rapidly. If the problem of subsistence could eventually no longer be solved this way, Condorcet favored birth control to limit the population.
基本观点：
男女全体均拥有选举权；universal suffrage
for men and women
国家之间相互平等；equality among nations 一国内部人与人平等；equality of individuals
within nations
人性的可完善性。The perfectibility of
基本观点： basic concept 反对政府所有的强迫行为，反对公民集会；
Opposed all coercive action by the state and collective action by the citizenry.
最终理性规则引导个人的自愿亲善和正义感；
The ultimate rule of reason guided the voluntary goodwill
and sense of justice of the individual.
完美的社会将创造完美的人类； A perfect society will produce perfect people.
私人产权、经济与政治上的不平等、强制性的政
府等是社会进步过程中的主要障碍；
The major obstacles to progress are private property ,
人口增长不加约束和限制(constrained and unchecked)； 人口将以几何级数增长(increases in a geometrical
progression)；
而农产品的产量只能以算术级数增长；agriculture
produce would be an arithmetical progression.
1803年出版了该书的第2版，基本观点并无
变动，只是在抑制人口增长上加上了道德
抑制，从原先通过增加死亡率(mortality)改
变为降低人口出生率（birth rate）来抑制人
口增长。
1805年马尔萨斯受聘任东印度大学历史和
政治经济学教授。
1819年，当选为皇家学会(Royal Society)会员。
3）对马尔萨斯的影响 困扰社会(plague society)的罪恶和苦难(vices and misery)不
应归咎于罪恶的人类制度(evil human institutions)；
应归咎于人类极强的生育能力(the prolific fertility of the
human race)；
孔多塞废除战争将减少消除人口过剩的一个基本措施； the abolition of war for which Condorcet dreamed would merely remove one of the essential remedies of over-population 福利计划将减少饥饿—第二个限制人口的因素。
economic and political inequality , and the coercive state.
人口增长不是问题—人口达到极限后，将不会再
进一步自我繁衍。 Population growth would not be a problem. When the population limit is reached, humanity will refuse to propagate itself further.
2）孔多塞
marquis de Condorcet，1743－1794；
18世纪法国启蒙运动时期最杰出的
代表之一； 数学家和哲学家 ( mathematician and philosopher )；
参加了1789年爆发的法国大革命
(the French revolution)； 有影响的著作《人类知识进步纲要》 (sketch of the intellectual progress of mankind)。
Welfare programs would only counter a second factor limiting population –hunger.
3.马尔萨斯的人口理论 Malthus’s population theory
1）两个公理 two axioms 人口理论的前提设定；
political philosopher 提倡无政府主义和无神论； Anarchist and atheist 1793年出版《关于政治公正及 其对美德和幸福的影响的研究》 An enquiry concerning political justice and its influence on general virtue and happiness.