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.

    365/418 (page 267)
    they may have the pay of Soldiers, or some other advantage amounting to maintenance. Having intimated the way by which the Hollanders do increase their People, 1 shall here digress to set down the way of computing the value of every Head || one with another, and that by the instance of People in England, viz. Suppose the People of England be Six Millions in number, that their expence at 7/. per Head be forty two Millions: suppose also that the Rent of the Lands be eight Millions, and the profit1 of all the Personal Estate be Eight Millions more ; it must needs follow, that the Labour of the People must have supplyed the remaining Twenty Six Millions, the which multiplied by Twenty (the Mass of Mankind being worth Twenty Years purchase as well as Land) makes Five Hundred and Twenty Millions, as the value2 of the whole People: which number divided by Six Millions, makes above 80/. Sterling, to be valued of each Head of Man, Woman, and Child, and of adult Persons twice as much ; from whence we may learn to compute the loss we have sustained by the Plague, by the Slaughter of Men in War, and by the sending them abroad into the Service of Foreign Princes. 3The other Trade of which the Hollanders have rid their Hands, is the old Patriarchal Trade of being Cow-keepers, and in a great Measure of that which concerns || Ploughing and Sowing of Corn, having put that Employment upon the Danes and Polanders, from whom they have their Young Cattle and Corn. Now here we may take notice, that as Trades and curious Arts increase; so the Trade of Husbandry will decrease, or else the Wages of Husbandmen must rise, and consequently the Rents of Lands must fall. For proof whereof I dare affirm, that if all the Husband- men of England, who now earn but 8 d. a day or thereabouts, could become Tradesmen and earn 16 d. a day (which is no great Wages 2 s. and 2 s. 6 d. being usually given) that then The Me- thod of computing the value of Men and People. [32] [33] 1 S, 1691, 4yearly profit,’ ‘yearly’ inserted in S by Petty, obscure, R, ‘vf Profit,’ cf. errata. 2 1691, ‘to be the value,’ cf. errata. 3 S, R, ‘ The other 'Trade ’ begins a paragraph.