They explain to James II., who, at least in Petty's fancy, was willing, if only he could afford it, to cut loose from the dependence upon France inaugurated by his brother, that his own capital of London was a greater city than Paris, and, indeed, the greatest in the world. From this demonstration it is clear that Petty expected great results. In fact, their influence upon the royal conduct was too slight to be detected. They attracted some attention of the curious,[1] but they failed altogether of the purpose which their author had at heart.
The present interest of the Essays lies chiefly in the light which they throw upon Petty's statistical method. Economically, they are barren. The Quantulumcunque, on the other hand, is full of meat. This little tract of eight pages is one of the least known of Petty's writings, for it was never included in the collected editions of the Essays; and the reprints of it[2] are nearly, if not quite, as scarce as the original. It takes the form of a dialogue, thirty-two questions being asked and answered about the coinage of England. It was written in August or September, 1682, when Halifax, always before his contemporaries in appreciating public needs, was already planning for the recoinage that was not carried out until 1696; and it is addressed to that far-sighted statesman. It begins by arguing that the clipped money should be recoined at full weight of the old standard, but at the cost of the holders, not of the State. If it were recoined at public cost, "men would clip their own Money; But the Owner himself must bear the loss, because he might have refused light and defective Money." The argument that recoinage at full weight will increase the export of coin to the damage of England
- ↑ See Journal des sçavans, 15 Mars, 1683, Bayle's Nouvelles de la république des lettres, October, 1686, and the Leipzig Acta Eruditorum, October, 1687.
- ↑ In Massie's Observations relating to the Coin, 1760, and in A Select Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts on Money from the Originals of Vaughan, Cotton, Petty, Lowndes, Newton, Prior, Harris, and Others. With a preface (by J. R. McCulloch), notes, and index. London: Printed for the Political Economy Club, 1856.
