Economic and demographic growth in the nineteenth century

Malthus

Demographic of economic phenomina

Studied data
Was an empricist and an essayist, the most famous of which was a study of the idea that starvation will be the result of a growing population, as it will put pressure on the land and there will be a huge demand for food, and yet a struggle to provide it.
He stated that the means of supporting their children will decrease, the more that man and woman would reproduce. However, he was interested in just how people adjust to control famine. Before the Industrial revolution, the son would not marry until he had his own farm (and a means of supporting his family). However, after being forced out of the country and into the town, the young labourer now has no incentive to not reproduce and does so (rapidly), putting more and more pressure onto the land.
According to Malthus, further adjustments to keep from starving, such as the draining of marshes for new land will only lead to a further boom in population, as the "hard times are over", only to lead to further pressure on the land, and the hideous cycle will begin all over again.
Malthus (controversially) was against the poor law, and anything that kept the poor alive and encouraged them to reproduce. This was because this would be a further drain on resources. He argued that "the workhouses create the poor that it maintains", He was in favour of the corn laws, as he wanted food to be expensive so people would not be tempted to reproduce.

Wrong

There was not a mass starvation, and Malthus was proved wrong. This is perhaps because he did not aknowledge the notion that each mouth to feed was in fact an extra pair of hands. Also, the introduction of womens rights and contraception would keep the population steady, as women now wanted to go into the workforce rather than stay at home. The advancement of medicine also led to an improved mortality rate of babies, and families did not feel the need to produce as many young (in the risk that some would die).
Even though he was pretty much proved wrong, Malthusian ideas are returning in the form of The Green Movement. They argue that we simply transported the problem to the 3rd world. They also argue that fossil fuels are a drain on the land and are running out, and mass starvation is coming closer and closer.

David Ricardo

19th Century Economist
Followed Adam Smith, and his book was in fact a commentary of Smith's work. The only criticsm he had however, was Smith's ideologies concerning value.Smith stated that there were two different values, the use/utility, and the exhange.The things with the greatest utility tend to have the smallest exchange value, and according to Smith, this is because there is an over abundance of them. Examples include air and water.
Things with little utility however, such as gold have a greater exchange value.
Labour Theory Of Value
Ricardo argues that exchange value is entirely dependant on labour value. There is practically little to no labout involved in providing water. Gold however, although it has a lower utility, it uses a larger amount of labour power- mining, cost of mining machinery, labour costs, etc etc. Gold also can be used as a currency and is also in demand because it's fairly attractive as jewellery.
He goes onto state that if a loaf of bread takes half the labour power to produce of wine, bread will naturally be half as expensive (pure example). Even if the producer puts up the price of wine, he might sell a few bottles, but he will have to bring prices down to continue to sell. This decrease in cost will lead to a boom in customers, and the producer can now up the prices again. If the bread is produced in a factory, it will become cheaper, as it will need less labour to produce it than a hand made loaf. However, the cost will include the labour involved in building the factory apparatus.

Diminishing Margin of Return

Ricardo argued that new industries will always be more efficient than attempting to recapitalising and revamping old ones. this is because the first investment will always be of most value, and then as you continue to add a consistant amount of value, each one will become less and less efficient. That is until a huge lump of value is added into the company. It is therefore more cost-effecting to begin a new venture.