Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) was an English demographer and political economist best known for his pessimistic but highly influential views on population growth. For most of his life he was professor of modern history and political economy at the East India Company College, Hailey bury. There Malthus developed a theory of demand supply mismatches which he called gluts. Considered ridiculous at the time, his theory was a precursor to later theories about the Great Depression, and to the works of admirer and economist John Maynard Keynes. Malthus is widely regarded as the founder of modern demography.