A Storied History — Bath Abbey — Part 1
The Economy at Bath: Take an Economics 101 class, and you will learn that Adam Smith is the ‘father’ of modern economics. If Smith’s the father, then Thomas Malthus, with his theory on food production and population growth, is surely the ‘son’ of. I’m muddling around a bit here, but what I mean to say is that both Smith and Malthus were hugely influential in their economic philosophies.
I write fiction now, but I do have three degrees in economics, and when I heard that Thomas Malthus was buried at Bath Abbey, I had to go pay my respects at his memorial. Malthus’ theory of population explosion is simple and reasonable enough. If food production grows, then it doesn’t necessarily, over time, lead to a better standard of living, because the population growth will eventually eat up all the food surplus.
The Romans are coming! Long before Malthus (or Adam Smith), in the 1st Century CE, the Romans invaded England in waves. Around 50 CE they built the beginnings of the Roman Baths in Bath, using the natural mineral hot springs, (my Roman Baths blog posts-Part 1 here, Part 2 here). Today, the…
