6. There are in England above four Acres of Arrable, Meadow and Pasture-Land, for every Soul in it; and those so fertile, as that the labour of one man in tilling them, is sufficient to get a bare Livelihood for above 10: So as 'tis for want of Discipline that any Poverty appears in England, and that any are hanged or starved upon that account. |22|
CHAP. X.
How to employ the People, and the End thereof.
WE said, That half the People by a very gentle labour, might much enrich the Kingdom, and advance its Honour, by setting apart largely for publick uses; But the difficulty is, upon what shall they employ themselves.
To which I answer in general, Upon producing Food and Necessaries for the whole People of the Land, by few hands; whether by labouring harder, or by the introducing the Compendium, and Facilitations of Art[1], which is equivalent to what men vainly hoped from Polygamy[2]. For as much as he that can do the Work of five men by one, effects the same as the begetting four adult Workmen. Nor is such advantage worth fewer years purchase than that of Lands, or what we esteem likest to perpetual. Now the making Necessaries cheap, by the means aforesaid, and not by raising more of them than can be spent |23| whilst they are good, will necessitate others to buy them with much labour
- ↑ Perhaps an allusion to Petty's projected epitome of useful books and to his "History of arts illiberal and mechanique." Petty's Advice to Hartlib and Hartlib's letters to Boyle 16 November, 1647, and 10 August, 1658 (Boyle's Works (1772), vi, 76, 112) give some account of the project, and copies of what appear to be Petty's notes towards its realization are in Sloane MS. 2903 fol. 63 seq., in the British Museum.
- ↑ See Graunt, ch. viii.
