Page:PettyWilliam1899EconomicWritingsVol2.djvu/231

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536
Five Essays.

grounded upon many observations, nearer than 30, I hope to have done pretty well in multiplying our Burials by 30, to find the number of the People, the product being 696,360, and what we find by the Families they are 695,076, as aforesaid.

The Third way.

It was prov'd by Grant[1], that 15 of the People died of the Plague, but Anno 1665 there died of the |30| Plague near 98 thousand persons[2], the Quintuple whereof is 490 thousand, as the number of People in the year 1665, whereunto adding above ⅓, as the increase between 1665 and 1686, the total is 653 thousand, agreeing well enough with the other two Computations above mentioned.

Wherefore let the proportion of 1 to 30 continue till a better be put in its place.

Memorandum, That 2 or 3 hundred new Houses would make a Contiguity of 2 or 3 other great Parishes, with the 134 already mentioned in the Bills of Mortality; and that an oval Wall of about 20 Miles in compass would enclose the |31| same, and all the Shipping at Deptford and Black-wall, and would also fence in 20 thousand Acres of Land, and lay the foundation or designation of several vast advantages to the Owners, and Inhabitants of that Ground, as also to the whole Nation and Government. |32|

  1. Graunt does not say this.
  2. In 1665 there died in all 97,306, whereof 68,596 of the plague. On this basis, Petty's method would give a population of about 460,000 in 1686, agreeing ill enough with the other two computations above mentioned.