Volume 1

The economic writings of Sir William Petty together with the Observations upon the bills of mortality, more probably by Captain John Graunt / edited by Charles Henry Hull.

  • Petty, William, Sir, 1623-1687.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The economic writings of Sir William Petty together with the Observations upon the bills of mortality, more probably by Captain John Graunt / edited by Charles Henry Hull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    349/418 (page 251)
    Flax, Turneps, Clover-grass, Madder, &c. will easily yield 10 /. per Acre ; so as the Territories of Holland and Zealand, should by his account yield at least 1 en Millions per annum, yet I do not believe the same to be so much, nor France so little as abovesaid, but rather, that one bears to the other as about 7, or 8 to I. The People of Amsterdam, are one third of those in Pans or London, which two Cities differ not in People a twentieth part from each other, as hath appeared by the Bills of Burials and Christnings for each1. But the value of the Buildings in Amsterdam, may well be half that of Paris, by reason of the Foundations, Grafts, and Bridges, which || in Amsterdam are more numerous and chargeable than at Paris. Moreover the Habitations of the poorest People in Holland and Zealand are twice or thrice as good as those of France; but the People of the one to the People of the other, being but as thirteen to one, the value of the housing must be as about five to one. The value of the Shipping of Europe, being about two Millions of Tuns, I suppose the English have Five Hundred Thousand, the Dutch Nine Hundred Thousand, the French an Hundred Thousand, the Hamburgers, and the Subjects of Denmark, Sweden, and the Town of Dansick two Hundred and Fifty Thousand, and Spain, Portugal, Italy, &c. two Hundred and Fifty Thousand ; so as the Shipping in our case of France to that of Holland and Zealand, is about one to nine, which reckoned as great and small, new and old, one with another at 82 /. per Tun, makes the worth to be as Eight Hundred Thousand Pounds, to Seven Millions, and Two Hundred Thousand Pounds. The Hollanders Capital in the The Build- ings of A msler- dam are a- bout half in value to those at Paris. [5] The Hous- ing in France a- bove five times the value of those in Holland and Zea- land. The Ship- ping of Holland 9 times that of France. The Com- parison of Id oil. and France in left by a Gentleman to his Sons for the Improvement of barren and heathy Land, 1670, are much involved. They appear to be all substantially the same book. ^ia s‘ Cf. A biographical Memoir of Hartlib with bibliographical Notices of Works published by him. By H. Dircks (1865), p. 62—87. 1 The Paris bills began in 1670 (see note on the subject near the end of Graunt’s Observations,post) and from that time to 1676 the births in the two cities always differed more than a twentieth, and the burials differed by more than a twentieth each year save in 1672. 2 S, ‘ 9,’ altered to ‘ 8 ’ by Petty; R, ‘ 8.’