Page:William Petty - Economic Writings (1899) vol 1.djvu/388

290 Millions and Six Hundred thousand Pounds per annum, which at Twenty Years purchase is Seventy Millions. Moreover, as the inhabitants of Cities and Towns, spend more Commodities, and make greater consumptions, than those who live in wild thin peopled Countries; So when England shall be thicker peopled, in the manner before described, the very same People shall then spend more, than when they lived more sordidly and inurbanely, and further asunder, and more out of the sight, observation, and emulation of each other; every Man desiring to put on better Apparel when he appears in Company, than when he has no occasion to be seen.

I further add, that the charge of the Government, Civil, Military, and Ecclesiastical, would be more cheap, safe, and effectual in this condition of closer |[74]| co-habitation than otherwise; as not only reason, but the example of the United Provinces doth demonstrate.

But to let this whole digression pass for a mere Dream, I suppose 'twill serve to prove, that in case the King of Englands Territories, should be a little less than those of the King of France, that forasmuch as neither of them are over-peopled, that the difference is not material to the Question in hand; wherefore supposing the King of France ' s advantages, to be little or nothing in this point of Territory; we come next to examine and compare, the number of Subjects which each of these Monarchs doth govern.

The Book called the State of France, maketh that Kingdom to consist of Twenty Seven thousand Parishes; and another Book written by a substantial Author, who professedly inquires into the State of the Church and Churchmen of France, sets it down as an extraordinary case, that a Parish in France should have Six Hundred Souls; wherefore I suppose that the said Author (who hath so well examined the mat-|[75]|ter) is not of opinion that every Parish, one with