Caryle, Malthus and Sismondi: The Origins ofCarlyle’s Dismal View of Political Economy

Research Paper Number 965, ISSN 0819-2642, ISBN 0 7340 2623 4While it is correct to say that Carlyle first applied the exact phrase “dismalscience” to political economy in his 1849 article on plantation labour in the West Indies,I argue that Carlyle came to the view that political economy was “dismal” well beforethat time. Indeed, his negative attitude can be seen quite clearly in his earlier publishedreactions to the writings of Malthus (and Sismondi, amongst others) on populationgrowth and its consequences and also to the perceived ‘materialistic’ nature of thesubject matter of political economy