Page:Sir William Petty - A Study in English Economic Literature - 1894.djvu/79

80 Some brief references must be made to the economic environment in which Petty wrote. For the few facts presented here I have relied entirely on secondary sources. They are only offered with the hope that they may illustrate Petty's writings. His tracts were composed with the direct purpose of influencing his own contemporaries. Anything that helps us to grasp his point of view may be useful. When we hear him pleading for the advantage of increased population, it is well enough to remember that in the last half of the seventeenth century the population of England was only five and a half millions. Again, he dwells with undue exaggeration on the necessity of large towns to the prosperity of England. In his life-time the only town of any considerable size was London. The north of England had practically no towns of importance. Compared with the south that part of the country was in an undeveloped state. Roads were everywhere bad. We can understand why he disapproves of agriculture. The land was usually carelessly cultivated, and its product consumed only by the cultivator. Transportation was impossible. Only in the neighborhood of the London market was it profitable to raise corn. What Petty calls the primitive trade of cow-keeping was everywhere else the most profitable on