Page:Hull 1900 Petty's Place in the History of Economic Theory.djvu/29

Rh This introduces a new element into the calculation of "the value of people" as we met it in the Treatise and in Verbum Sapienti. Some individuals are not "superlucrators," and must be excluded. For example, there are twenty thousand churchmen in England, and over two hundred and seventy thousand in France. This quarter of a million of supernumerary clergymen, withdrawn out of the world, are adult and able-bodied persons, and consequently "equivalent to about double the same number of the promiscuous Mass of Mankind; ... wherefore the said Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Churchmen (living as they do) makes the King of France's Thirteen Millions and a half to be less than Thirteen." He then shows further that the King of England has forty thousand seamen, and the King of France ten thousand. "But one seaman earneth as much as three common Husbandmen; wherefore this difference in seamen addeth to the account of the King of England's Subjects an advantage equivalent to Sixty Thousand Husbandmen." Similarly, the superiority of England in artisans employed upon shipping of all sorts, who likewise earn three times as much per capita as husbandmen, adds the equivalent of eighty thousand husbandmen more. Still further, the King of England's territories are, because of their coast line and deep rivers, "in effect but 12 miles from Navigable Water, the King of France's 65, ... upon which grounds it is clear that England can be supplied with all gross and bulky commodities of Foreign growth and Manufacture at far cheaper rates than France can be, namely, at about 4s. per cent, cheaper, the Land carriage ... being so much or thereabouts." This cannot amount to less than the labor of one million people. Thus the effective population of France is reduced from 13½ to 12 millions.