Books: Essays on Mankind and Political Arithmetic
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Sir William Petty >> Essays on Mankind and Political Arithmetic
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They are liable to frequent invasions; they labour under the
inconvenience and danger of bad ports; they consume immense sums
every year to defend their land against the sea; all which
difficulties they have subdued by an unwearied industry.
We are fenced by nature against foreign enemies, our ports are safe,
we fear no irruptions of the sea, our land territory at home is at
least 39,000,000 acres. We have in all likelihood not less than
5,500,000 people. What a nation might we then become, if all these
advantages were thoroughly improved, and if a right application were
made of all this strength and of these numbers?
They who apprehend the immoderate growth of any prince or State may,
perhaps, succeed by beginning first, and by attempting to pull down
such a dangerous neighbour, but very often their good designs are
disappointed. In all appearance they proceed more safely, who,
under such a fear, make themselves strong and powerful at home. And
this was the course which Philip, King of Macedon, the father of
Perseus, took, when he thought to be invaded by the Romans.
The greatness of Rome gave Carthage very anxious thoughts, and it
rather seems that they entered into the second Punic War more for
fear the Romans should have the universal empire, than out of any
ambition to lord it themselves over the whole world. Their design
was virtuous, and peradventure wise to endeavour at some early
interruption to a rival that grew so fast. However, we see they
miscarried, though their armies were led by Hannibal. But fortune
which had determined the dominion of the earth for Rome, did,
perhaps, lead them into the fatal counsel of passing the Eber
contrary to the articles of peace concluded with Asdrubal, and of
attacking Saguntum before they had sufficiently recovered of the
wounds they had suffered in the wars about Sicily, Sardinia, and
with their own rebels. If the high courage of Hannibal had not
driven the commonwealth into a new war while it was yet faint and
weak, and if they had been suffered to pursue their victories in
Spain, and to get firm footing in that rich, warlike, and then
populous country, very probably in a few years they might have been
a more equal match for the Roman people. It is true, if the Romans
had endeavoured, at the conquest of Spain, and if they had disturbed
the Carthaginians in that country, the war must have been
unavoidable, because it was evident in that age, and will be
apparent in the times we live in, that whatever foreign power,
already grown great, can add to its dominion the possession of
Spain, will stand fair for universal empire.
But unless some such cogent reason of state, as is here instanced,
intervene, in all appearance the best way for a nation that
apprehends the growing power of any neighbour is to fortify itself
within; we do not mean by land armies, which rather debilitate than
strengthen a country, but by potent navies, by thrift in the public
treasure, care of the people's trade, and all the other honest and
useful arts of peace.
By such an improvement of our native strength, agreeable to the laws
and to the temper of a free nation, England without doubt may be
brought to so good a posture and condition of defending itself, as
not to apprehend any neighbour jealous of its strength or envious of
its greatness.
And to this end we open these schemes, that a wise Government under
which we live, not having any designs to become arbitrary, may see
what materials they have to work upon, and how far our native wealth
is able to second their good intentions of preserving us a rich and
a free people.
Having said something of the number of our inhabitants, we shall
proceed to discourse of their different degrees and ranks, and to
examine who are a burden and who are a profit to the public, for by
how much every part and member of the commonwealth can be made
useful to the whole, by so much a nation will be more and more a
gainer in this balance of trade which we are to treat of.
Mr. King, from the assessments on births and marriages, and from the
polls, has formed the scheme here inserted, of the ranks, degrees,
titles and qualifications of the people. He has done it so
judiciously, and upon such grounds, that is well worth the careful
perusal of any curious person, from thence we shall make some
observations in order to put our present matter in a clearer light.
First, this scheme detects their error, who in the calculation they
frame contemplate nothing but the wealth and plenty they see in rich
cities and great towns, and from thence make a judgment of the
kingdom's remaining part, and from this view conclude that taxes and
payments to the public do mostly arise from the gentry and better
sort, by which measures they neither contrive their imposition
aright, nor are they able to give a true estimate what it shall
produce; but when we have divided the inhabitants of England into
their proper classes, it will appear that the nobility and gentry
are but a small part of the whole body of the people.
Believing that taxes fell chiefly upon the better sort, they care
not what they lay, as thinking they will not be felt; but when they
come to be levied, they either fall short, and so run the public
into an immense debt, or they light so heavily upon the poorer sort,
as to occasion insufferable clamours; and they, whose proper
business it was to contrive these matters better have been so
unskilful, that the legislative power has been more than once
compelled for the peoples' ease to give new funds, instead of others
that had been ill projected.
This may be generally said, that all duties whatsoever upon the
consumption of a large produce, fall with the greatest weight upon
the common sort, so that such as think in new duties that they
chiefly tax the rich will find themselves quite mistaken; for either
their fund must yield little, or it must arise from the whole body
of the people, of which the richer sort are but a small proportion.
And though war, and national debts and engagements, might heretofore
very rationally plead for excises upon our home consumption, yet now
there is a peace, it is the concern of every man that loves his
country to proceed warily in laying new ones, and to get off those
which are already laid as fast as ever he can. High customs and
high excises both together are incompatible, either of them alone
are to be endured, but to have them co-exist is suffered in no well-
governed nation. If materials of foreign growth were at an easy
rate, a high price might be the better borne in things of our own
product, but to have both dear at once (and by reason of the duties
laid upon them) is ruinous to the inferior rank of men, and this
ought to weigh more with us, when we consider that even of the
common people a subdivision is to be made, of which one part subsist
from their own havings, arts, labour, and industry; and the other
part subsist a little from their own labour, but chiefly from the
help and charity of the rank that is above them. For according to
Mr. King's scheme -
The nobility and gentry, with their families and retainers, the
persons in offices, merchants, persons in the law, the clergy,
freeholders, farmers, persons in sciences and liberal arts,
shopkeepers, and tradesmen, handicrafts, men, naval officers, with
the families and dependants upon all these altogether, make up the
number of 2,675,520 heads.
The common seamen, common soldiers, labouring people, and out-
servants, cottagers, paupers, and their families, with the vagrants,
make up the number of 2,825,000 heads.
In all 5,500,520 heads.
So that here seems a majority of the people, whose chief dependence
and subsistence is from the other part, which majority is much
greater, in respect of the number of families, because 500,000
families contribute to the support of 850,000 families. In
contemplation of which, great care should be taken not to lay new
duties upon the home consumption, unless upon the extremest
necessities of the State; for though such impositions cannot be said
to fall directly upon the lower rank, whose poverty hinders them
from consuming such materials (though there are few excises to which
the meanest person does not pay something), yet indirectly, and by
unavoidable consequences, they are rather more affected by high
duties upon our home-consumption than the wealthier degree of
people, and so we shall find the case to be, if we look carefully
into all the distinct ranks of men there enumerated.
First, as to the nobility and gentry, they must of necessity
retrench their families and expenses, if excessive impositions are
laid upon all sorts of materials for consumption, from whence
follows, that the degree below them of merchants, shopkeepers,
tradesmen, and artisans, must want employment.
Secondly, as to the manufactures, high excises in time of peace are
utterly destructive to that principal part of England's wealth; for
if malt, coals, salt, leather, and other things, bear a great price,
the wages of servants, workmen, and artificers, will consequently
rise, for the income must bear some proportion with the expense; and
if such as set the poor to work find wages for labour or manufacture
advance upon them, they must rise in the price of their commodity,
or they cannot live, all which would signify little, if nothing but
our own dealings among one another were thereby affected; but it has
a consequence far more pernicious in relation to our foreign trade,
for it is the exportation of our own product that must make England
rich; to be gainers in the balance of trade, we must carry out of
our own product what will purchase the things of foreign growth that
are needful for our own consumption, with some overplus either in
bullion or goods to be sold in other countries, which overplus is
the profit a nation makes by trade, and it is more or less according
to the natural frugality of the people that export, or as from the
low price of labour and manufacture they can afford the commodity
cheap, and at a rate not to be undersold in foreign markets. The
Dutch, whose labour and manufactures are dear by reason of home
excises, can notwithstanding sell cheap abroad, because this
disadvantage they labour under is balanced by the parsimonious
temper of their people; but in England, where this frugality is
hardly to be introduced, if the duties upon our home consumption are
so large as to raise considerably the price of labour and
manufacture, all our commodities for exportation must by degrees so
advance in the prime value, that they cannot be sold at a rate which
will give them vent in foreign markets, and we must be everywhere
undersold by our wiser neighbours. But the consequence of such
duties in times of peace will fall most heavily upon our woollen
manufactures, of which most have more value from the workmanship
than the material; and if the price of this workmanship be enhanced,
it will in a short course of time put a necessity upon those we deal
with of setting up manufactures of their own, such as they can, or
of buying goods of the like kind and use from nations that can
afford them cheaper. And in this point we are to consider, that the
bulk of our woollen exports does not consist in draperies made of
the fine wool, peculiar to our soil, but is composed of coarse broad
cloths, such as Yorkshire cloths, kerseys, which make a great part
of our exports, and may be, and are made of a coarser wool, which is
to be had in other countries. So that we are not singly to value
ourselves upon the material, but also upon the manufacture, which we
should make as easy as we can, by not laying over-heavy burdens upon
the manufacturer. And our woollen goods being two-thirds of our
foreign exports, it ought to be the chief object of the public care,
if we expect to be gainers in the balance of trade, which is what we
hunt after in these inquiries.
Thirdly, as to the lower rank of all, which we compute at 2,825,000
heads, a majority of the whole people, their principal subsistence
is upon the degrees above them, and if those are rendered uneasy
these must share in the calamity, but even of this inferior sort no
small proportion contribute largely to excises, as labourers and
out-servants, which likewise affect the common seamen, who must
thereupon raise their wages or they will not have wherewithal to
keep their families left at home, and the high wages of seamen is
another burden upon our foreign traffic. As to the cottagers, who
are about a fifth part of the whole people, some duties reach even
them, as those upon malt, leather, and salt, but not much because of
their slender consumption, but if the gentry, upon whose woods and
gleanings they live, and who employ them in day labour, and if the
manufacturers, for whom they card and spin, are overburdened with
duties, they cannot afford to give them so much for their labour and
handiwork, nor to yield them those other reliefs which are their
principal subsistence, for want of which these miserable wretches
must perish with cold and hunger.
Thus we see excises either directly or indirectly fall upon the
whole body of the people, but we do not take notice of these matters
as receding from our former opinion. On the contrary, we still
think them the most easy and equal way of taxing a nation, and
perhaps it is demonstrable that if we had fallen into this method at
the beginning of the war of raising the year's expense within the
year by excises, England had not been now indebted so many millions,
but what was advisable under such a necessity and danger is not to
be pursued in times of peace, especially in a country depending so
much upon trade and manufactures.
Our study now ought to be how those debts may be speedily cleared
off, for which these new revenues are the funds, that trade may
again move freely as it did heretofore, without such a heavy clog;
but this point we shall more amply handle when we come to speak of
our payments to the public.
Mr. King divides the whole body of the people into two principal
classes, viz.:-
Increasing the wealth of the kingdom 2,675,520 heads.
Decreasing the wealth of the kingdom 2,825,000 heads.
By which he means that the first class of the people from land,
arts, and industry maintain themselves, and add every year something
to the nation's general stock, and besides this, out of their
superfluity, contribute every year so much to the maintenance of
others.
That of the second class some partly maintain themselves by labour
(as the heads of the cottage families), but that the rest, as most
of the wives and children of these, sick and impotent people, idle
beggars and vagrants, are nourished at the cost of others, and are a
yearly burden to the public, consuming annually so much as would be
otherwise added to the nation's general stock.
The bodies of men are, without doubt, the most valuable treasure of
a country, and in their sphere the ordinary people are as
serviceable to the commonwealth as the rich if they are employed in
honest labour and useful arts, and such being more in number do more
contribute to increase the nation's wealth than the higher rank.
But a country may be populous and yet poor (as were the ancient
Gauls and Scythians), so that numbers, unless they are well
employed, make the body politic big but unwieldy, strong but
unactive, as to any uses of good government.
Theirs is a wrong opinion who think all mouths profit a country that
consume its produce, and it may be more truly affirmed, that he who
does not some way serve the commonwealth, either by being employed
or by employing others, is not only a useless, but a hurtful member
to it.
As it is charity, and what we indeed owe to human kind, to make
provision for the aged, the lame, the sick, blind, and impotent, so
it is a justice we owe to the commonwealth not to suffer such as
have health, and who might maintain themselves, to be drones and
live upon the labour of others.
The bulk of such as are a burden to the public consists in the
cottagers and paupers, beggars in great cities and towns, and
vagrants.
Upon a survey of the hearth books, made in Michaelmas, 1685, it was
found that of the 1,300,000 houses in the whole kingdom, those of
one chimney amounted to 554,631, but some of these having land about
them, in all our calculations, we have computed the cottagers but at
500,000 families; but of these, a large number may get their own
livelihood, and are no charge to the parish, for which reason Mr.
King very judiciously computes his cottagers and paupers, decreasing
the wealth of the nation but at 400,000 families, in which account
he includes the poor-houses in cities, towns, and villages, besides
which he reckons 30,000 vagrants, and all these together to make up
1,330,000 heads.
This is a very great proportion of the people to be a burden upon
the other part, and is a weight upon the land interest, of which the
landed gentlemen must certainly be very sensible.
If this vast body of men, instead of being expensive, could be
rendered beneficial to the commonwealth, it were a work, no doubt,
highly to be promoted by all who love their country.
It seems evident, to such as have considered these matters, and who
have observed how they are ordered in nations under a good polity,
that the number of such who through age or impotence stand in real
need of relief, is but small and might be maintained for very
little, and that the poor rates are swelled to the extravagant
degree we now see them at by two sorts of people, one of which, by
reason of our slack administration, is suffered to remain in sloth,
and the other, through a defect in our constitution, continue in
wretched poverty for want of employment, though willing enough to
undertake it.
All this seems capable of a remedy, the laws may be armed against
voluntary idleness, so as to prevent it, and a way may probably be
found out to set those to work who are desirous to support
themselves by their own labour; and if this could be brought about,
it would not only put a stop to the course of that vice which is the
consequence of an idle life, but it would greatly tend to enrich the
commonwealth, for if the industry of not half the people maintain in
some degree the other part, and, besides, in times of peace did add
every year near two million and a half to the general stock of
England, to what pitch of wealth and greatness might we not be
brought, if one limb were not suffered to draw away the nourishment
of the other, and if all the members of the body politic were
rendered useful to it?
Nature, in her contrivances, has made every part of a living
creature either for ornament or use; the same should be in a politic
institution rightly governed.
It may be laid down for an undeniable truth, that where all work
nobody will want, and to promote this would be a greater charity and
more meritorious than to build hospitals, which very often are but
so many monuments of ill-gotten riches attended with late
repentance.
To make as many as possible of these 1,330,000 persons (whereof not
above 330,000 are children too young to work) who now live chiefly
upon others get themselves a large share of their maintenance would
be the opening a new vein of treasure of some millions sterling per
annum; it would be a present ease to every particular man of
substance, and a lasting benefit to the whole body of the kingdom,
for it would not only nourish but increase the numbers of the
people, of which many thousands perish every year by those diseases
contracted under a slothful poverty.
Our laws relating to the poor are very numerous, and this matter has
employed the care of every age for a long time, though but with
little success, partly through the ill execution, and partly through
some defect in the very laws.
The corruptions of mankind are grown so great that, now-a-days, laws
are not much observed which do not in a manner execute themselves;
of this nature are those laws which relate to bringing in the
Prince's revenue, which never fail to be put in execution, because
the people must pay, and the Prince will be paid; but where only one
part of the constitution, the people, are immediately concerned, as
in laws relating to the poor, the highways, assizes, and other civil
economy, and good order in the state, those are but slenderly
regarded.
The public good being therefore, very often, not a motive strong
enough to engage the magistrate to perform his duty, lawgivers have
many times fortified their laws with penalties, wherein private
persons may have a profit, thereby to stir up the people to put the
laws in execution.
In countries depraved nothing proceeds well wherein particular men
do not one way or other find their account; and rather than a public
good should not go on at all, without doubt, it is better to give
private men some interest to set it forward.
For which reason it may be worth the consideration of such as study
the prosperity and welfare of England, whether this great engine of
maintaining the poor, and finding them work and employment, may not
be put in motion by giving some body of undertakers a reasonable
gain to put the machine upon its wheels.
In order to which, we shall here insert a proposal delivered to the
House of Commons last session of Parliament, for the better
maintaining the impotent, and employing and setting to work the
other poor of this kingdom.
In matters of this nature, it is always good to have some model or
plan laid down, which thinking men may contemplate, alter, and
correct, as they see occasion; and the writer of these papers does
rather choose to offer this scheme, because he is satisfied it was
composed by a gentleman of great abilities, and who has made both
the poor rates, and their number, more his study than any other
person in the nation. The proposal is as follows
A Scheme for Setting the Poor to Work.
First, that such persons as shall subscribe and pay the sum of
300,000 pounds as a stock for and towards the better maintaining the
impotent poor, and for buying commodities and materials to employ
and set at work the other poor, be incorporated and made one body
politic, &c. By the name of the Governor and Company for
Maintaining and Employing the Poor of this Kingdom.
By all former propositions, it was intended that the parishes should
advance several years' rates to raise a stock, but by this proposal
the experiment is to be made by private persons at their risk; and
300,000 pounds may be judged a very good stock, which, added to the
poor rates for a certain number of years, will be a very good fund
for buying commodities and materials for a million of money at any
time. This subscription ought to be free for everybody, and if the
sum were subscribed in the several counties of England and Wales, in
proportion to their poor rates, or the monthly assessment, it would
be most convenient; and provision may be made that no person shall
transfer his interest but to one of the same county, which will keep
the interest there during the term; and as to its being one
Corporation, it is presumed this will be most beneficial to the
public. For first, all disputes on removes, which are very
chargeable and burthensome, will be at an end--this proposal
intending, that wherever the poor are, they shall be maintained or
employed. Secondly, it will prevent one county which shall be
diligent, imposing on their neighbours who may be negligent, or
getting away their manufactures from them. Thirdly, in case of
fire, plague, or loss of manufacture, the stock of one county may
not be sufficient to support the places where such calamities may
happen; and it is necessary the whole body should support every
particular member, so that hereby there will be a general care to
administer to every place according to their necessities.
Secondly, that the said Corporation be established for the term of
one-and-twenty years.
The Corporation ought to be established for one-and-twenty years, or
otherwise it cannot have the benefit the law gives in case of
infants, which is their service for their education; besides, it
will be some years before a matter of this nature can be brought
into practice.
Thirdly, that the said sum of 300,000 pounds be paid in, and laid
out for the purposes aforesaid, to remain as a stock for and during
the said term of one-and-twenty years.
The subscription ought to be taken at the passing of the Act, but
the Corporation to be left at liberty to begin either the Michaelmas
or the Lady Day after, as they shall think fit. And XXX per cent.
to be paid at the subscribing to persons appointed for that purpose,
and the remainder before they begin to act; but so as 300,000 pounds
shall be always in stock during the term, notwithstanding any
dividends or other disposition: and an account thereof to be
exhibited twice in every year upon oath, before the Lord Chancellor
for the time being.
Fourthly, that the said corporation do by themselves, or agents in
every parish of England, from and after the XXX day of XXX during
the said term of one-and-twenty years, provide for the real impotent
poor good and sufficient maintenance and reception, as good or
better than hath at any time within the space of XXX years before
the said XXX day of XXX been provided or allowed to such impotent
poor, and so shall continue to provide for such impotent poor, and
what other growing impotent poor shall happen in the said parish
during the said term.
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