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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAP. V.: Of Money, and how much is necessary to drive the Trade of the Nation. - The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, vol. 1

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CHAP. V.: Of Money, and how much is necessary to drive the Trade of the Nation. - Sir William Petty, The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, vol. 1 [1662]

Edition used:

The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, together with The Observations upon Bills of Mortality, more probably by Captain John Graunt, ed. Charles Henry Hull (Cambridge University Press, 1899), 2 vols.

Part of: The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, 2 vols.

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CHAP. V.

Of Money, and how much is necessary to drive the Trade of the Nation.

1. IT may be asked, If there were occasion to raise 4 Millions per Annum, whether the same 6 Millions (which we hope we have) would suffice for such revolutions and circulations thereof as Trade requires? I answer yes; for the Expence being 40 Millions, if the revolutions were in such short Circles, viz. weekly, as happens among poorer artizans and labourers, who receive and pay every Saturday, then image parts of 1 Million of Money would answer those ends: But if the Circles be quarterly, according to our Custom of paying rent, and gathering Taxes, then 10 Millions were requisite. Wherefore supposing payments in general to be of a mixed Circle between One ‖ week and 13. then add 10 Millions to image, the half of the which will be 5½, so as if we have 5½ Millions we have enough.

2. And thus I have shewed, That if one half of the Subjects of England (playing 78 days in the year) will earn 7 d. per diem all the rest of the days one with another; and if they would work image more, and spend image less, they might enable their King to maintain double the Forces he now doth, without suffering in the general more than many well affected persons do now through negligence, or mistakes in their particulars. Nor is Money wanting to answer all the ends of a well Policied State, notwithstanding the great decreases thereof, which have happened within these Twenty years.

Nor were it hard to substitute in the place of Money (were a comptency of it wanting) what should be equivalent unto it. For Money is but the Fat of the Body-politick, whereof too much doth as often hinder its Agility, as too little makes it sick. ‘Tis true, that as Fat lubricates the motion of the Muscles, feeds in want of Victuals, fills up uneven Cavities, and beautifies the Body, so doth Money in the State quicken its Action, feeds from abroad in the time of Dearth at Home; even accounts by reason ‖ of it's divisibility, and beautifies the whole, altho more especially the particular persons that have it in plenty.