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• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the Fifth Edition
• Advertisement to the Sixth Edition.
• Book I: Of the Checks to Population In the Less Civilized Parts of the World and In Past Times.
• Chapter I: Statement of the Subject. Ratios of the Increase of Population and Food.
• Chapter II: Of the General Checks to Population, and the Mode of Their Operation.
• Chapter III: Of the Checks to Population In the Lowest Stage of Human Society.
• Chapter IV: Of the Checks to Population Among the American Indians.
• Chapter V: Of the Checks to Population In the Islands of the South Sea.
• Chapter VI: Of the Checks to Population Among the Ancient Inhabitants of the North of Europe.
• Chapter VII: Of the Checks to Population Among Modern Pastoral Nations.
• Chapter VIII: Of the Checks to Population In Different Parts of Africa.
• Chapter IX: Of the Checks to Population In Siberia, Northern and Southern.
• Chapter X: Of the Checks to Population In the Turkish Dominions and Persia.
• Chapter XI: Of the Checks to Population In Indostan and Tibet.
• Chapter XII: Of the Checks to Population In China and Japan.
• Chapter XIII: Of the Checks to Population Among the Greeks.
• Chapter XIV: Of the Checks to Population Among the Romans.
• Book II: Of the Checks to Population In the Different States of Modern Europe.
• Chapter I: Of the Checks to Population In Norway.
• Chapter II: Of the Checks to Population In Sweden.
• Chapter III: Of the Checks to Population In Russia.
• Chapter IV: Of the Checks to Population In the Middle Parts of Europe.
• Chapter V: Of the Checks to Population In Switzerland.
• Chapter VI: Of the Checks to Population In France.
• Chapter VII: Of the Checks to Population In France (continued).
• Chapter VIII: Of the Checks to Population In England.
• Chapter IX: Of the Checks to Population In England (continued).
• Chapter X: Of the Checks to Population In Scotland and Ireland.
• Chapter XI: On the Fruitfulness of Marriages.
• Chapter XII: Effects of Epidemics On Registers of Births, Deaths, and Marriages.
• Chapter XIII: General Deductions From the Preceding View of Society.

Preface to the Fifth Edition

This Essay was first published at a period of extensive warfare, combined, from peculiar circumstances, with a most prosperous foreign commerce.

It came before the public, therefore, at a time when there would be an extraordinary demand for men, and very little disposition to suppose the possibility of any evil arising from the redundancy of population. Its success, under these disadvantages, was greater than could have been reasonably expected; and it may be presumed that it will not lose its interest, after a period of a different description has succeeded, which has in the most marked manner illustrated its principles, and confirmed its conclusions.

On account, therefore, of the nature of the subject, which, it must be allowed is one of permanent interest, as well as of the attention likely to be directed to it in future, I am bound to correct those errors of my work, of which subsequent experience and information may have convinced me, and to make such additions and alterations as appear calculated to improve it, and promote its utility.

It would have been easy to have added many further historical illustrations of the first part of the subject; but as I was unable to supply the want I once alluded to, of accounts of sufficient accuracy to ascertain what part of the natural power of increase each particular check destroys, it appeared to me that the conclusion which I had before drawn from very ample evidence of the only kind that could be obtained, would hardly receive much additional force by the accumulation of more, precisely of the same description.

In the two first books, therefore, the only additions are a new chapter on France, and one on England, chiefly in reference to facts which have occurred since the publication of the last edition.

In the third book I have given an additional chapter on the Poor-Laws; and as it appeared to me that the chapters on the Agricultural and Commercial Systems, and the Effects of increasing Wealth on the Poor, were not either so well arranged, or so immediately applicable to the main subject, as they ought to be; and as I further wished to make some alterations in the chapter on Bounties upon Exportation, and add something on the subject of Restrictions upon Importation, I have recast and rewritten the chapters which stand the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, in the present edition; and given a new title, and added two or three passages, to the 14th and last chapter of the same book.

In the fourth book I have added a new chapter to the one entitled Effects of the Knowledge of the principal Cause of Poverty on Civil Liberty; and another to the chapter on the Different Plans of improving the Poor; and I have made a considerable addition to the Appendix, in reply to some writers on the Principles of Population, whose works have appeared since the last edition.

These are the principal additions and alterations made in the present edition. They consist, in a considerable degree, of the application of the general principles of the Essay to the present state of things.

For the accommodation of the purchasers of the former editions, these additions and alterations will be published in a separate volume.

• East-India College,

June 7th, 1817.