Carrying Capacity

The carry capacity of a location is strongly effected by its physiographic features, what land can be used for food production, seasons, etc. One other important factor is the year-to-year fluctuations in the temperature and the amount of rainfall.

Carrying capacity is also affected by the existing technology and how the technology is used. While there are ways to increase the carry capacity of locations by for example clearing forests or draining swamps this can only be done so often.

Effects of Population Increases

As the population growths they result in higher rents, land prices, migration to cities, an increase in cheap labor. Cities in return produce more cheap goods that in turn help in increasing trades. The elites get richer and want to promote domestic and international trade.

Over population usually means that not enough food reserve exist because they only have enough to sustain the current population. That in turn results in famine and diseases if food production falls unexpected.

As people get hungry and more poor, popular uprisings can happen. Should the elites be strong enough and united such uprisings are being simple suppressed and have little impact.

Some elites must support such uprising so they actually have any effect.

The Stable Equilibrium

Should a population reach its carrying capacity at a location it would mathematical reach an equilibrium where a population can only be sustained at value x. In reality other factors shake things up so that equilibrium is seldom reached. We often see this in population charts where a peak is reached and instead of sustaining the population it falls and rises above the peak again in cycles.