Malthus discusses the economical significance of rent in An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent. Malthus establishes rent as the price paid for land on which produce is cultivated and explores the reasons for fluctuations in the cost of rent. He enriches the work by engaging with the arguments of his contemporaries, such as Jean-Baptiste Say and Adam Smith.
THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS (1766-1834) was an English classical economist, educated at Jesus College in Cambridge. In 1798, he took orders as a curate at Albury in Surrey, and became a Professor of History and Political Economy at the East India Company College (now known as Haileybury) in 1805. His most notable work is An Essay on the Principle of Population, with six editions published between 1798 to 1826.