Chapter 348: The Academic Circle is also a Circle

Chapter 345 The Academic Circle is also a Circle

Thomas Robert Malthus, a name not unfamiliar to 19th century England, and even more so to modern 21st century people.

However, it is interesting to note that no matter whether it is the 21st century or the 19th century, whenever this name appears, it is always inevitably accompanied by a great deal of controversy and disagreement.

It is just that no one who dislikes Malthus can deny his importance in the world of British economics.

As a priest, Malthus had a family background that corresponded to his social status.

As early as Cromwell’s time, the Malthusian family began to engage in the profession of a priest.

As for the Malthusian family’s first contact with economics, it began with the case of the South Sea Company, which triggered an earthquake in the London Stock Exchange, and Mr. Thomas Malthus’s grandfather, Sydenham Malthus, was one of the board members of the South Sea Company.

Since his grandfather was able to fool figures like Isaac Newton in the stock market, the intelligence of the Malthusian descendants is naturally not far behind.

The wealth accumulated in the stock market has also given them the financial resources to invest in the education of their offspring and expand their social circle.

David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, representatives of the English and French Enlightenment in the 18th century, maintained longstanding friendships with the Malthusians.

On Rousseau’s deathbed, he even gave his will to Daniel Malthus of Malthus and hoped that he would help carry out his last wishes.

And the Malthusian family’s long association with the Enlightenment’s representatives further influenced their views on education and faith.

Though still sent to Christ’s College, Cambridge, for a degree, as was the family custom, young Malthus clearly had a different understanding of God than the average Anglican priest.

He remained a Christian, but was increasingly leaning toward the monotheistic wing of Christianity in his thinking, rejecting the Trinity and denying that God consists of three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

In Malthus Jr.’s view, God is God and the Bible alone is the only basis for faith. Those who want to patch up the Bible or engage in lexical interpretation are harboring evil intentions for their own profit, and these impure minds are the greatest cause of the decline of the Church.

Centuries ago, even at the time of the Reformation, Malthus the Younger would have been strangled by both Catholics and Protestants for these statements alone.

For the Catholics had recognized ‘monotheism’ as a heresy of the Church as early as the Council of Nicaea in the 4th century A.D., and the main initiators of the Reformation, Martin Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, were equally opposed to such arguments.

Thus, there were many cases of arrest, imprisonment and execution for supporting Unitarianism.

But the good thing is that in the 18th century, when Malthus the Younger was growing up, freedom of belief was still not achieved in England on a political level, but at least it had been reached on a social level.

Besides, it was the organized Catholics who, in the opinion of parliamentarians, were the real heartbreakers. Unitarianism and Scottish Presbyterianism and other minor branches of Protestantism, despite their words, were at the very least willing to pledge allegiance to the King, and as long as there was nothing wrong with that, everything else was a minor problem.

And since the Malthusians were an authentic English family who had practiced the principle of ‘Loyalty to Parliament’ since the time of Cromwell, Cambridge turned a blind eye to his deviation.

After all, during the Renaissance, there were quite a lot of guys like little Malthus on Cambridge’s campus.

Next door to Oxford was Jeremy Bianchin, Cambridge Malthus is not much of a problem.

After all, compared to Malthus, his Cambridge schoolmate Lord Byron and Shelley, who was expelled from Oxford for publishing “On the Necessity of Atheism,” were the real heavyweights.

At the very least, fellow Malthusians still recognized God, didn’t they?
Pretty much got it.

But just because the Cambridge University Council had no problem with Malthus doesn’t mean his classmates didn’t. Even if that opinion is not one of faith, but of personal views as well as personal grudges.

All in all, although Malthus was generally a soft, modest, and calm British gentleman, perhaps it was because of this character and his slightly radical views that he didn’t get along very well with a certain Cambridge schoolmate with a blunt and bright personality.

To make matters worse, this schoolboy was no one else but the future representative of the British Lakeside School of Poetry and social critic – Samuel Coleridge.

And this feud between the two has continued from their university days to the present day.

When Malthus’s Principle of Population was published, Coleridge was the first to launch a diatribe in his turf, Blackwood’s.

“Look at this mighty kingdom! Its rulers and wise men take William Paley and Thomas Malthus at their word! It is very sad. Could it be that this quarto book is teaching us that poverty will bring great misery and sin. In those places where there are more mouths than bread, and more heads than brains, poverty must be extreme?”

And Coleridge was not alone in his attack on The Principle of Population; it is accurate to say that in literary circles in Britain those who do not attack Malthus are in turn in the minority.

And even Coleridge’s scolding was far from being the most stinging of them all; another representative of the Lakeside School of Poetry, Robert Saussure, even went so far as to say bluntly that “Malthus is the favorite object of British critics to rail against in the same way that other outlets of filth have a preference for him.”

These poets who loved the moral code and the idyllic life even invented the term ‘Malthusianism’ to specifically humiliate those who exalted the materialistic life and had an unparalleled lack of the spiritual world.

Though being given humiliating nicknames by Souset is not considered unusual, after all, Mr. Souset, the master of name-calling, had also once called Byron ‘the head of the Satanist poets’ and lumped Shelley and others together under the category of ‘Satanists’ in ‘Visions of Judgment’.

But Byron and the others at least had the support of a bunch of hot-blooded young people, whereas when it came to Malthus’s side, all that was left was the cussing of Britain’s entire nation.

However, it is not difficult to understand why he is so cursed, because from any period of time several of the arguments of the Principle of Population are very difficult to be accepted by the self-esteem of human beings.

In Malthus’s view, there is no difference between human beings and animals, they will continue to fall into the trap of killing each other, until both sides no longer have the strength to continue to fight.

Unemployment and poverty are the inevitable results of the natural laws of population, and mankind cannot avoid this fate, and all measures for the relief of the poor and the promotion of social equality are futile.

The best way to solve this problem is to lead human morality to indifference and even cruelty, to destroy all existing moral systems, to control population growth, and even to acquiesce in infanticide, birth control, famine, and war to inhibit human reproduction.

Finally, Malthus also argued that private ownership is likewise an inevitable result due to the natural law of population, and that it accompanies mankind and cannot be eliminated or eradicated. Moreover, it is the best method and system for maintaining a balance between population growth and growth in the quality of life of the population. And to support his argument, Malthus also used examples of famine, epidemics in the Far East and killings in the colonization of the Americas.

As soon as Malthus’s remarks were thrown out, of course, the Lakeside faction, which advocated an ancient moral code to promote social justice, could not spare him, and naturally, the revolters such as Byron and Shelley also attacked this bloody doctrine.

The group was almost unanimous that he was supporting the government’s indifference to the poor and undermining the progress of building public welfare.

But contrary to the lopsided attack 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, abandoned the classical economic view that ‘having more children is what makes a nation rich’ because of Malthus, and voluntarily abandoned the new Poor Law, which he had been pushing for greater relief.

The East India Company, on the other hand, opened a separate, brand new subject for Malthus at Haileybury College – political economy – and made him the world’s first professor of political economy.

If only on an academic level, even though Malthus’s theories were not without fallacies, he was still a master of his craft.

But on a social level ……

Even around Arthur, his friends, Dickens, Disraeli, Dumas, and even Mr. Elder Carter, were largely critical of Malthus, whom they regarded as one of the major contributors to the suffering of the poor.

But it is interesting to note that if one looks at it from the point of view of the University of London, it is a different matter. A number of people in the University of London department, whether it was the leading light, Jeremy Beecham, Lord Brougham, or Charlie Austin, who was about to become Attorney General for the London area, or Edwin Chadwick, the Lord Chancellor’s Private Secretary, all embraced the Malthusian point of view to a certain extent.

These utilitarians believed that human sympathy was utterly useless in the face of pessimistic facts, and if Malthus’s views were ultimately verified to be correct, then they did not mind continuing to move on the Poor Law.

Arthur was thinking of this when a knock suddenly sounded at the door.

John Mill, who had been busy for several days soaking in the various documents of the Liverpool Customs Department, pushed the door in with dark circles under his eyes.

“Arthur, is there something urgent for me? The Customs Department sent over a large batch of new documents yesterday afternoon, and I’m afraid we’ll have to work on them for four or five days if we delay a little longer.”

Arthur smiled and spoke, “John, there’s no need to be in a hurry about the tariff. If we can’t, let the Customs Department send someone over to help us sort it out. You and the apprentices from the accounting firm have been busy for so long, it’s time to take a break.”

Mil spoke up while pouring tea, “Arthur, you must have been hurt in the brain by that stone, or else how could you say such nonsense? Let the Customs Department investigate themselves, what can they find out?”

Arthur returned, “It’s fine if they can’t find out, the big deal is that I’ll just volunteer my resignation to London and let them get someone else to work in Liverpool. Besides, I’ve got a gash in the corner of my eye, and it would be rude of them not to ‘sympathize’ with the injured.”

Mill poured a mouthful of tea and let out a long breath, “Although the matter of your injury is very unfortunate, but if not for this opening in the corner of your eye, I guess the Liverpool Customs Department would not have sent all the remaining documents to my side. Just the new amount counted out in the past two days alone is another three thousand six hundred pounds.”

Arthur nodded slightly when he heard the figure and said, “It’s not too bad. However, John, although I’ve always thought you were good at your job, it’s still unexpected to be this strong. It’s unimaginable that a guy like you never went to school.”

Mil corrected as he put down his teacup with a sniff, “Arthur, just because I didn’t go to school doesn’t mean I didn’t learn.”

Arthur sniffed, “You sound like the Foreign Office with that statement.”

Mil spoke up, “I didn’t go to school, but that’s because my father thought schooling in Britain sucked, so he always taught me at home himself. From the age of 3, I studied Greek with him, at 8 I began to learn Latin, algebra, geometry and calculus, at 9 I was initiated into history, and at 12 I began to learn about economics, philosophy and logic. By the time I was 16, I was writing a column for the Westminster Review. Isn’t that much better than most college graduates?”

Hearing this, Arthur nodded his head in agreement, “A quality education indeed, and you seem to have missed quite a few items, at least to me, and you speak French and German quite well too. However, I do have one question, with all the time your father spends on you every year, doesn’t he have to earn money to support his family?”

Mil returned, “Of course I have to make money, but my father’s job is relatively easy, so his free time is spent on educating his children.”

Arthur picked up his cup of tea, “What does your father do?”

Mil took a bite of his bagel, “He is one of the council members of the East India Company.”

“Cough cough cough ……”

Arthur took out his handkerchief and wiped the tea that spilled out of the corner of his mouth, “If I remember correctly, it seems that the council is responsible for carrying out inspections of the company’s finances and supervising the work of the board members, right? They also seem to have the power to sue the directors on behalf of the shareholders?”

Mil nodded, “Arthur, your knowledge base has improved again compared to a year ago.”

Arthur put down his teacup and said, “Well, now I finally know how you managed to get into the finance department of the East India Company, and even managed to idle out your depression and feel in a trance all day for the first few years of your career. If I had a father like that, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to me even if I were to lie down on the manager’s desk and sleep.”

Mill blushed and coughed, “Arthur, are you suggesting that with my abilities I am not good enough to work for the East India Company?”

“No, no, no, I don’t mean that at all. Your ability is definitely enough even to work for the Ministry of Finance.”

Arthur spoke, “It’s just that I heard Elder say once upon a time that it wasn’t the ability to work that was looked at to get into the East India Company’s London headquarters. Elder told me that even though the guys don’t say it out in the open, if you just look at the composition of the new hires at the London headquarters, you can see that ninety percent of these people come from Belleau College in Oxford.”

“Well ……,” Mill half-opened his mouth, hesitated, and finally nodded cryptically, “all I can say is that the East India Company does have some cooperation with Belleau.”

Arthur nodded, “So yeah, exceptions like yours are all the more rare.”

Mill held back for half a day, but when he heard this he eventually couldn’t help but retort, “Arthur, you’re insulting my honor. In fact, even an average person who has trained at the company’s Haileybury College has a chance to enter the London headquarters. I was once trained there for more than half a year.”

Hearing him take the initiative to mention Haileybury College, Arthur couldn’t help but show a hint of a smile, “That is indeed a good school, with the East India Company as the backstage and sufficient financial resources, and there are also a lot of renowned professors like Mr. Malthus, for example. By the way, you are so proficient in political economy, you must have gone to his class back then, right?”

“Professor Malthus?” When Mill heard this, his face couldn’t help but become odd: “This is a sensitive topic, what are you doing mentioning him all of a sudden?”

(End of chapter)