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Front Page Titles (by Subject) [CHAPTER II.]: Of People, Houses, and Smoaks; their Number, Differences, and Values. - The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, vol. 1
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[CHAPTER II.]: Of People, Houses, and Smoaks; their Number, Differences, and Values. - 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.
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[CHAPTER II.]Of People, Houses, and Smoaks; their Number, Differences, and Values.
VIZ.
Of Smoaks.
And of Smiths Forges, near the same number, or rather ⅕ more. A more particular Account of the Houses in Ireland, which have more than one Chimney, viz.
2The Number of Coaches, besides Hackneys, near the same Number, or rather fewer. There be (ut supra) 160,000 Cabins without Chimneys, whose worth are not reckoned; but as for the others, we rate as follows, viz. Houses of ‖
There is in Nature but one in 500 at most who are Blind, Lame, and under incurable Impotence; so as not above 2000 in Ireland, whom 12000l.2 would maintain without Scandal. ‖
Memorandum, That in Dublin, where are but 4000 Families, there are at one time 1180 Ale-houses, and 91 publick Brew-houses, viz. near ⅓ of the whole; it seems, that in Ireland, there being 200 M. Families, that about 60 M. of them should use the same Trade.
In order to Money and Universal Wealth Local Wealth, or Universal Wealth
In order to Money and Universal Wealth.
[2]On the hearth money in Ireland see a note to chap. II of the Polit. Arith. [2]See note on p. 142 [1]‘165, M’ should be ‘16 M,’ and is so corrected in S. [2]1719 omits this paragraph. [3]This footing falls, both in S and in the first edition, in the middle of a page, where it is superfluous. It may have originated in a MS. which was the arche-type of S as well as of the first edition. Cf. note 4, p. 145. [1]‘2,000,000’ appears to be a misprint for ‘200,000,’ the reading of S. But on p. 142 Petty found 300,000 ‘Non-Papists’ in Ireland. See also p. 148. [2]Cox, ‘he allows 120001 to 2000 Impotents & pag 60 [of the MS., p. 189 of this ed.] but 80001.’ [1]Had Petty adopted Graunt's table [Observations, ch. XI.] without modification, his figures would have been 704, 440, 275, 176, 110, 66, 33. The figures actually used correspond more nearly to the probable mortality of Ireland at the time, but there is no indication of the reasons which led Petty to substitute them for Graunt's (or his own) 'six mean proportional numbers.’
[3]Cox, ‘6,000,000 of black Cattle or their equivalent is more yn all Ireland will feed vide pag 42’ [of the MS., p. 175 of this ed.]. [4]This line stands at the top of folio 10 in S and repeats the total (‘220,000,’ one line above) from the bottom of folio 9 (misnumbered 13). In the first edition both lines fall (as here) in the middle of a page where they are superfluous. Cf. note 3, p. 143. [5]Cox, 'smiths 15000 and their servts but 7500: whereas of all Trades Smiths doe most need a servt to help: It is indeed a two handed trade yt cannot be without a servt: ergo there should be as many Servts as Smiths.’ But Petty allows a servant to each smith, though none to the smiths’ wives. [1]Cox, ‘Workers of Wool & their wives are x times as many as are computed it being comon for one bagmaker to Imploy 1000 Spinners weavers &c. There are also three times as many Carpenters and Masons as he mentions.’ [2]S, 1691, ‘331,600,’ 1719, ‘364,600,’ which is the correct footing. [3]Making the corrections indicated, Petty's ‘employments’ foot up to £2,384,833. 6s. 8d. as against £2,380,000 of employments required. |

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The editors of the 1691 and 1719 eds., by an obvious blunder, made the total 2,200,000. Neither here nor elsewhere does Petty make use of the returns of the census taken in 1659, though it is probable that he once had the figures of that enumeration for nearly the whole of Ireland. The population at that time has been calculated at 500,091, of whom about one fifth were Englishmen or Scotsmen. Hardinge in Trans. R. I. Acad., xxiv., Antiquities, 317–328. If these figures are correct, Petty unquestionably overestimated the population of Ireland, both here and when, at a later date, he increased his estimate to ‘about 1,200,000 people’ and ‘near 300,000 hearths,’ and still later to 1,300,000. Polit. Arith., chap. II, and the Treatise of Ireland. Subsequent investigations have thrown but little additional light upon the correctness of his figures. The next estimate is for the year 1696. Calculating from the poll tax returns in three counties and in the city of Dublin, Capt. Sough set the population of Ireland at 1,034,102. ‘An Account of the Number of People in Ireland,’ Philos. Trans., 1700, no. 261, vol.xxii., p. 520. Nearly a century later