Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/168

 and Ireland,' he wrote at this period, 'as the Spaniards in the West Indies do to all other nations; for which cause all other nations have war with them there.' It was absurd, he pointed out, 'that a ship trading from Ireland into the islands of America, should be forced to unlade the commodities shipt for Ireland in England, and afterwards bring them home, thereby necessitating the owners of such goods to run unnecessary hazard and expense.' The Irish cattle trade was thenceforward diverted to the West Indies, where the cattle were sold in exchange for sugar; then this sugar had to be transported to England in English bottoms, and was sold there to pay what Ireland owed.

The amount of remittances to England was greatly increased by the rise at this period of the new class of nonresident proprietors, and the artificial obstacles placed by the English Parliament in the way of the natural development of Irish trade were rendering absenteeism peculiarly injurious to the country. The ordinary arguments against absenteeism Sir William Petty rejected, because he considered the remittance of rents to England as simply the remittance of interest on money invested in Ireland by English capitalists, which would bring back goods in exchange from England in the ordinary course; but 'to remit so many and great sums out of Ireland into England, when all trade between the two kingdoms is prohibited must,' he argued, 'be very chargeable; for now the goods which go out of Ireland in order to furnish the said sums in England must, for example, go into the Barbadoes, and there be sold for sugars, which, brought into England, are sold to pay for what Ireland owes. Which way being so long, tedious, and hazardous, must necessarily so raise the exchange of money, as we have seen 15% frequently given, anno 1671 and 1672.' Exchange, he points out, naturally corresponds 'with the land and water carriage of money, and the insurance of it while on the way, if the money is alike in both places.' 'If,' he continues, 'it be for the good of England to keep