Mercantilist and Physiocratic Views of Population

Mercantilist Views of Population

The Mercantilists, whose opinion on economic matters were widely accepted in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries , agree with the military statesmen that increases of population was an unqualified blessing.

Mercantilism was the dominant school of these periods. Population increase was encouraged through large families, early marriage and immigration. It was not a scientific theory of population. This school has two tents;

1) Increase in national wealth by production and export of goods

2) Rivalry among nations

A sizeable population was required for welfare. Inflation and human exploitation were its two natural consequences. Thus, merchantilism was a policy for obtaining economic and political gains. Because of the overemphasis on population increase, some people foresaw a scarcity of the means of subsistence, and therefore suggested some checks on population growth.

Physiocratic Views of Population

The Physiocratic school of thought, evolved in the middle of the eighteenth century, may be considered as the reactions against the populationist tents of the merchantilists. The Physiocratic didn't favour population increase at the cost of standards of living. They approved of such increase only if it was possible to extand agricultural production. Quesney, the founder of the physiocratic school, maintained that a large population was desirable only if it could be made comfortable.