Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/55

56 Petty's reason for assigning these advantages to labor applied in the production of non-perishable goods is political. He believes in a strong government. He wishes to strengthen the hands of England against her foreign neighbors and set her above possible attack. In the short tract entitled "Verbum Sapienti," he answers an imaginary objector, who asks, Is this untiring industry to be unending? It is to continue, he says, until "we have certainly more money than any of our neighbour states" (488). This principle he consistently applies to all forms of activity. He asks, Does such labor "enrich the kingdom?" (486). In order to procure money for public uses people must either work harder or introduce labor-saving processes. The great misfortune of Ireland is, as we have seen, the simple life led by the natives. They need so few goods. It would be well to beget in them a taste for luxury in order to make them spend and, consequently, earn more. Splendor, art, and industry will be increased "to the great enriching of the commonwealth" (356). Holland—so frequently held up for imitation—has become what it is by its large share in foreign trade (225).

A country with a large population is much richer than a thinly-settled country. He disapproves of the New England colonies, because human labor is wasted there (266). He is fertile in devising plans for making England more populous; i. e., increasing its labor power. He does not wish to see Ireland sunk under the sea. He did not want to destroy its population, but he was most earnest in proposing the transplantation of all the native Irish into England (253). With equal consistency he proposed to