William Petty

“ Political Arithmetic, presented in MS. to Charles II., but, because it contained matter likely to be offensive to France, kept unpublished till 1691, when it was edited by Petty's son Charles; Quantulumcunque, or a Tract concerning Money (1682) , Observations upon the Dublin Bills of Mortality in 1681 and the State of that City (1683) ; Essay concerning the Multiplication of Mankind (1686) ; Political Anatomy of Ireland (1691) . Several papers appeared in the Philosophical Transactions. See Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, ed. ”

“ They intrusted me to plead their right with the Adventurers at London. Many more favours have they shewn unto me, which I shall rather remember then repeat: For all which I declare my thanks; assuring them, as in the presence of God, that I never studied any thing more affectionately, then to serve them with uprightness; nor that I am to this day conscious of the least voluntary action to the contrary: the which if any man could in an amicable way make appear, I do again promise (as I have often already done) to make them a Zacheus-like restitution, to the utmost farthing of my Talent. ”

“ The collection of statistics naturally led Petty and Graunt to attempt to deduce some general laws from them, and thus the whole field of public economy, or, as Sir William Petty generally termed it, 'political arithmetick,' was opened up to their investigations. [11]
Observation, it has been said, is the one eye of political economy, and comparison the other. [12] Sir William was one of the first to grasp the fact, and was singularly successful in seeing through both eyes if, at least, he is to be judged by the knowledge of the times—in such a case the only legitimate standard of comparison. ”

“ Sir William's hands appear at this time to have been full of business of all kinds. He was again urging upon the English Government the adoption of a plan for the improvement of the Irish revenue, a subject rarely out of his thoughts. To do justice to his plan it was absolutely necessary for him to be upon the spot, and he was therefore reluctant to leave England. Under these circumstances Lady Petty, who had become the mother of a second son, Henry, born October 22, 1675, undertook to remain in Ireland, and to supply her husband's place. ”

“ In the privacy of his diary Evelyn wrote of Petty (22 March, 1675) "there is no better Latin poet living when he gives himself that diversion." See Bibliography, no. 9. ↑ "I am confident in all his Majestie's 3 Kingdomes, there lives not a more grating man than Sir William Petty" wrote Essex to Shaftesbury, 4 May, 1673. Essex Papers, i. 83. ↑ His letter is given by Fitzmaurice, p. 155. ↑ Carte, Ormond, ii. 494, 495. ↑ Ossory to Ormond, 5 June, 1680, from Windsor: "Sir William Petty has desired mee to gett him to be made a Councellor.... ”

“ On the death without issue of Sir William Petty’s sons, the first earls of Shelburne, the estates passed to his nephew John Fitzmaurice (advanced in 1753 to the earldom of Shelburne) , who in 1751 took the additional name of Petty. His son William spent his childhood “in the remotest parts of the south of Ireland,” and, according to his own account, when he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1755, he had both “everything to learn and everything to unlearn.” ”

“ His reputation has principally survived as a political economist; and he may fairly claim to take a leading place among the founders of the science of the origin of wealth, though in his hands what he termed political arithmetic was a practical art, rather than a theoretical science. ‘The art itself is very ancient,’ says Sir William Davenant, ‘but the application of it to the particular objects of trade and revenue is what Sir William Petty first began’ (Davenant, Works, i. 128–129) . Petty wrote principally for immediate practical objects, and in order to influence the opinion of his time. ”

“ It is hard at this distance of time to discover what amount of solid truth lay underneath the huge mass of half-insane imaginations which confused and distracted the public mind. The case of Sir William Petty's friend, Captain Graunt, affords an illustration of the absurdities which, even before the excitement of the Popish Plot, could be accepted as undoubted truth, if a Roman Catholic was concerned. ”

“ I have made so good use of my time, as I have not money to bring me. Pray give the bearer access to you upon my account; he does not use to be tedious or impertinent. It concerns me to have one that I can trust, to have such an access to you. I hope that you will not look upon him, as to me, under the character and representation that Sir Hierome Sankey and some others may give of him; but rather as one, that hath been faithful and affectionate unto me, and I may say unto yourself also; and one who I think, notwithstanding all that is said, is a very honest man. ”

“ The example was attractive, but James forgot that the circumstances were not the same.
Sir William had now begun reluctantly to realise how extreme was the danger, though he still obstinately hoped something from the good intentions of the King. Caution and a careful observation of the times were, he thought, for the moment the best policy. If necessary, though now an old man, he would try to begin life over again and seek to restore his fortunes. But for the first time in his life he began to lose hope about the prospect in Ireland, where all seemed in utter jeopardy. ”

“ Friendship with Hobbes, Dr. Pell, and the other learned refugees was, however, no remunerative investment, and William Petty was at times reduced to great poverty. On one occasion, according to Aubrey, he had to live for a week on 'three pennyworth of walnuts;' on another he seems to have been arrested for debt. In spite, however, of his sufferings he ultimately returned in 1646 to England with improved means, having increased his 60l. ”

“ In 1663 he applied his ingenuity to the invention of a swift double-bottomed ship, that made one or two passages between England and Ireland, but was then lost in a storm.
In 1670 Sir William Petty established on his lands at Kerry the English settlement at the head of the bay of Kenmare. The building of forty-two houses for the English settlers first laid the foundations of the present town of Kenmare. “The population,” writes Lord Macaulay, “amounted to a hundred and eighty. The land round the town was well cultivated. The cattle were numerous. ”

“ My lady Petty was created baronnesse of Shelburn in Ireland, and her eldest sonne baron of the same, a little before the comeing-in of the Prince of Orange.
[656] Sir William Petty had a brother ..., like him, who dyed sine prole: he has his picture.—Quaere if I have mentioned Nan Green [657] out of the printed narrative?
[658] His picture by Fuller in his Dr. of M gowne, a skull in his hand; then a spare man; little band; Veslingius' Anatomie by him. 'Twas he (Sir William) that putt Fuller to drawe the muscles as at Oxon gallery [659] . ”

“ It was the good fortune of the editor, nearly 200 years later, to see similar foresight and arrangements exercised on a far larger scale in another survey of Ireland, by one who possessed many of the qualities which distinguished Sir William Petty, and who also succeeded in carrying his great work to a successful close, under circumstances and obstructions, many of which bear a striking analogy to those which this history will show to have attended the Down Survey. ”

“ Charles Petty was abroad in 1686. 'I am glad,' Sir William wrote to his godfather, 'that wee agree that the main end of travelling is to learn frugality, circumspection, discreet jealousy, and generall prudence; with such Behaviours as will adapt us for conversation with all mankind — without laying much weight upon Languages, University Arts and Sciences—and Interest in the famous men of other nations. ”

“ Charles Petty had returned to England before his father's death. 'Dear Cousin,' he wrote to Edward Southwell, 'if there be anything to ease the great affliction I lie under for the loss of such a father, the part Sir Robert and yourself take in it would much contribute thereunto; but what shall I say? The blow is very heavy and lowde. God make me to submit to his will; for myself I can do nothing. ”

“ Sir William, as usual, stood firmly by his own view of law and right and determined to fight out the issue, notwithstanding all the wise saws and sermons of Sir Robert on the wisdom of compromise. So the battle went on more fiercely than ever. 'I love peace,' he writes to Southwell, 'but will not buy it on base terms.' 'We are like a cat in a cupboard,' says Lady Petty, 'and must leap forth. We are now in a close fight with the farmers: lend us your prayers.' [32]
His position at the Admiralty was another cause of trouble, That position, he had by this time discovered, was no bed of roses. ”

“ Sir William had escaped destruction; but, notwithstanding his tenacity, it was only after many suits and after surrendering much, that he succeeded in getting into actual possession of his property, even after his legal title had been recognised and in retaining it when he had once got into possession. The custom still was to farm out the royal revenues to the highest bidder, and the farmers of the Irish Revenue, of whom Sir James Shaen, now an avowed enemy, was the head, were not only a powerful, but an unscrupulous body. Every species of abuse and oppression arose in consequence. ”

“ Interspersed with these directions are instructions for her guidance in business. 'I suppose,' Sir William writes in May from London, 'this letter will come to your hand before your arrival in Kerry. I thought to have said Oceans about that Gulf of trouble; but know not what to say more, than what was in the letters whereof you have a Catalogue, nor was I willing to perplex you with new and perhaps contradictory directions. Wherefore be courageous, let not every cross affect you; let none break your rest; talk with every body; hear all their tales, true or false ”

“ In the middle of the seventeenth century Sir William Petty, one of the most acute, and also one of the most practical men of his time, pronounced that the population of England would take three hundred and sixty years to double—the fact being, that it has doubled within about a seventh part of that period. ”

“ It was resolved to give the organization a more permanent and a more serious character. Petty was one of the promoters of the change which transformed the "Philosophical Club" into the Royal Society. He was one of the original Fellows, and was placed on the Council. [14] In 1661, April 11, he was knighted and was sent by Charles II to Ireland as Surveyor-General. [15] In the Irish Parliament, which met early in the summer, he sat as member for Enniscorthy. In August he was sent to England as one of the commissioners from that Parliament to watch over the interests of the English landowners. ”

“ These Dr. Petty impugned at once, believing that the public was being robbed; and he proceeded, as he says, to attempt to persuade 'several sober and judicious persons in the businesse, that the way of Survey the State was upon was a mistake.' [9] He found a willing listener in Henry Cromwell, who, from the time of his first arrival in Dublin on his mission of inquiry, had become the object of the attacks and misrepresentations of the powerful Anabaptist faction with which the Protector was at this moment wrestling in England. ”

“ Henry Cromwell, who had hitherto exerted himself in Petty's favor, wrote as follows in a letter of April 11, 1659, to Thurloe: [9] "If Sir Hierom Sankey doe not run him (Petty) down with numbers and noise of adventurers and such other like concerned persons, I believe the Parliament will finde him as I have represented him. He has curiously deluded mee these four years if he be a knave.... Petty is not the only marke aimed at." Despairing of a trial, Petty returned to Ireland on the 12th of May. ”

“ He gained some notoriety in 1650 by restoring to life a woman who had been hanged for infanticide. In 1651 he was made professor of anatomy at Oxford, and also became professor of music at Gresham College. In 1652 he went to Ireland, having been appointed physician to the army in that country. In 1654, observing that the admeasurement and division of the lands forfeited in 1641 and granted to the soldiers had been "most inefficiently and absurdly managed," he entered into a contract to execute a fresh survey, which he completed in thirteen months. ”

“ Marriage—Offer of a peerage—Housekeeping in 1672—Character of Sir William Petty—Correspondence with Lady Petty—Family troubles—Business affairs—John Aubrey—The farmers of the revenue—Commitment for contempt—Portrait by Sir Peter Lely—Southwell as an adviser—Colonel Vernon. ”

“ Contemporary with Graunt, and contributor to his attempts, was one of those strange, restless, speculative men whose love of money teaches them how to procure it, and whose desire to preserve it, by purchasing land, and leaving their heirs in possession, makes them the founders of noble English houses. This was Sir William Petty, who, in his “Essay on [20] Political Arithmetick concerning the Growth of the City of London, with the Measures, Periods, Causes, and Consequences thereof,” made a further onward movement. The earlier portion of his life was passed in battling with the world. ”

“ The Councill having considered of the third proposall of Dr William Petty, praying that the Councill would, before the army be satisfyed their respective proportions of land, bee pleased to state and agree what is due for measuring the same, as allsoe of the fourth proposall, praying that hee may bee allowed for his worke according to his account now exhibited, notwithstanding some part of the subdivision is not yett actually performed. ”

“ But when, owing to the firmness of Henry Cromwell, the disputes had at last been brought to some kind of at least superficial settlement, the work of distribution had to be entered upon. This was really a far more difficult matter than even the survey which preceded it. In the first, Dr. Petty had had mainly to contend with the natural difficulties of the country; in the second, whoever was entrusted with it would have to wrestle with the fiercest passions of the human heart, excited by greed and ambition. ”