Corn and crisis: Malthus on the high price of provisions.

In 1799 Malthus spent six months in Scandinavia. There he witnessed the extreme deprivation, misery, and mortality that were once the common accompaniments of a bad harvest. On his return to England he found that the topic of the day was the exceptionally high price of bread, which threatened both political turmoil and human suffering. In the event, suffering even among the very poor was far less than in Sweden, though the increase in the price of the chief bread grain was greater. In spite of his principled opposition to the poor laws, Malthus conceded that their effectiveness in transferring purchasing power to those most in need was a major reason for the limited impact of the dearth. (from author's abstract)