Note 45 — I HISTORICAL
Reading edition
In the eighteenth century it was commonly supposed that the population of England was decreasing. Arthur Young was one of the few who did not share this view. (Mirabeau indeed thought that the population of the whole of Europe was increasing.) All kinds of reasons were brought forward to explain the supposed decrease. Price thought that it was due to the enclosures; Horace Walpole suggested excessive drinking as the cause.