Treatise of Taxes and Contributions (1899)/Preface

←

A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions
by William Petty, edited by Charles Henry Hull

→

related portals: Economic theory

A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions was first published in 1662 anonymously. It was reprinted several times during Petty's life. This edition, which is the one most often cited, is from the The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, Volume 1, edited by Charles Henry Hull, and published in 1899.

2207232A Treatise of Taxes and ContributionsCharles Henry HullWilliam Petty

The Preface.

YOung and vain persons, though perhaps they marry not primarily and onely on purpose to get Children, much less to get such as may be fit for some one particular vocation; yet having Children, they dispose of them as well as they can according to their respective inclinations: Even so, although I wrote these sheets but to rid my head of so many troublesome conceits, and not to apply them to the use of any one particular People or Concernment; yet now they are born, and that their Birth happened to be about the time of the Duke of Ormond's going Lord Lieutenant into Ireland, I thought they might be as proper for the consideration of that place, as of any other, though perhaps of effect little enough in any.

Ireland is a place which must have so great an Army kept up in it, as may make the Irish desist from doing themselves or the English harm by their future Rebellions. And this great Army || must occasion great and heavy Leavies upon a poor people and wasted Countrey; it is therefore not amiss that Ireland should understand the nature and measure of Taxes and Contributions.

2. The Parishes of Ireland do much want Regulation, by uniting and dividing them^[1]; so as to make them fit Enclosures wherein to plant the Gospel: wherefore what I have said as to the danger of supernumerary Ministers, may also be seasonable there, when the new Geograpy we expect of that Island^[2] shall have afforded means for the Regulation abovementioned.

3. The great plenty of Ireland will but undo it, unless a way be found for advantageous Exportations, the which will depend upon the due measure of Custom and Excize here treated on.

4. Since Ireland is under-peopled in the whole, and since the Government there can never be safe without chargeable Armies, until the major part of the Inhabitants be English, whether by carrying over these, or withdrawing the other^[3]; I think there can be no better encouragement to draw English thither, then to let them know, that the Kings Revenue being above ¹⁄₁₀ part of the whole Wealth, Rent, and Proceed of the Nation; that the Publick Charge || in the next Age will be no more felt there then that of Tythes is here; and that as the Kings Revenue encreases, so the causes of his Expence will decrease proportionably, which is a double advantage.

6. The employing the Beggars in England about mending the High-wayes, and making Rivers Navigable will make the Wool and Cattle of Ireland vend the better.

7. The full understanding of the nature of Money, the effects of the various species of Coins, and of their uncertain values, as also of raising or embasing them, is a learning most proper for Ireland, which hath been lately much and often abused for the want of it^[4].

8. Since Lands are worth but six or seven years purchase, and yet twenty years just cross the Channel, 'twere good the people of Ireland knew the reasons of it at a time when there is means of help.

Lastly, if any man hath any Notions which probably may be good for Ireland, he may with most advantage expose them to publick examination now, when the Duke of Ormond^[5] is Chief Governour: for,

1. His Grace knows that Countrey perfectly || well, as well in times and matters of Peace as War, and understands the Interests as well of particular persons, as of all and every factions and parties struggling with each other in that Kingdom; understanding withall the state of England, and also of several Forreign Nations, with reference to Ireland.

2. His Grace hath given fresh demonstration of his care of an English Interest in Ireland, and of his wisdom in reconciling the several cross concernments there so far as the same is possible.

3. His Graces Estate in Lands there is the greatest that ever was in Ireland, and consequently he is out of the danger incident to those Proreges against whom Cambden sayes, Hibernia est semper querula; there being no reason for ones getting more Land, who hath already the most of any.

4. Whereas some chief Governours who have gone into Ireland, chiefly to repair or raise fortunes, have withdrawn themselves again when their work hath been done, not abiding the clamours and complaints of the people afterwards: But his Grace hath given Hostages to that Nation for his good Government, and yet hath taken away aforehand all fears of the contrary.

5. His Grace dares do whatever he understands || to be fitting, even to the doing of a single Subject Justice against a Confederate multitude; being above the sinister interpretations of the jealous and querulous; for his known Liberality and Magnificence shall ever keep him free from the clamor of the people, and his through-tried fidelity shall frustrate the force of any subdolous whisperings in the Ears of His Majesty.

6. His good acceptance of all ingenious endeavours, shall make the wise men of this Eastern England be led by his Star into Ireland, and there present him with their choicest advices, who can most judiciously select and apply them.

Lastly, this great Person takes the great Settlement in hand, when Ireland is as a white paper, when there sits a Parliament most affectionate to his Person, and capable of his Counsel, under a King curious as well as careful of Reformation; and when there is opportunity, to pass into Positive Laws whatsoever is right reason and the Law of Nature.

Wherefore by applying those Notions unto Ireland, I think I have harped upon the right string, and have struck whilest the Iron is hot; by publishing them now, when, if ever at all, they be useful. I would now advertise the || world, that I do not think I can mend it, and that I hold it best for every mans particular quiet, to let it vadere sicut vult; I know well, that res nolunt male administrari^[6], and that (say I what I will or can) things will have their course, nor will nature be couzened: Wherefore what I have written, (as I said before) was done but to ease and deliver my self, my head having been impregnated with these things by the daily talk I hear about advancing and regulating Trade, and by the murmurs about Taxes, &c. Now whether what I have said be contemned or cavilled at, I care not, being of the same minde about this, as some thriving men are concerning the profuseness of their Children; for as they take pleasure to get even what they believe will be afterwards pissed against the wall, so do I to write, what I suspect will signifie nothing: Wherefore the race being not to the swift, &c. but time and chance happening to all men, I leave the Judgement of the whole to the Candid, of whose correction I shall never be impatient.||

↑ In 1662 the Parliament of Ireland passed an Act for the real union and division of parishes—14 & 15 Charles II., c. 10. It is not clear that Petty had any connection with this Act, but the preamble seems to reflect his ideas: "Whereas parishes are in some parts of this Kingdom so little that five or six lie together within a mile or two, whereby subjects are likely to be much burdened with the unnecessary charge of building and repairing so many churches, and the means also are made so small that many of them will not serve for the sustention of one incumbent: and on the other side in some places parishes are so vast, or extended in length, that it is difficult for the parishioners to repair to their parish churches, and return home the same day, and many times so inconveniently divided that the parishioners of one parish may with much more convenience repair to another parochial church than their own," etc., therefore from Michaelmas, 1662, the chief governor, with the consent of all concerned, may unite or divide parishes.
↑ Probably an allusion to Petty's engraved maps of Ireland, based upon the original maps of the Down Survey, which had indicated the boundaries of parishes. Petty's Hist. of the Down Survey, ed. by Larcom, 49. In 1665 Petty petitioned the King for "assistance to finish the Map of Ireland" and the petition was granted. Ib., 400—401, 323. It seems doubtful, however, whether he actually received assistance sufficient to complete his scheme, since in 1672 he asserted that he had, at his own charge, caused distinct maps to be made of every barony or hundred, as also of every county, graven on copper, and the like of every province, and of the whole kingdom. Polit. Anat., ch. ix. The county maps, at least, were subsequently published, without date, under the title Hiberniae Delineatio. See Bibliography. Copies of this undated edition are in the British Museum and in the Bodleian Library. The Library of Trinity College, Dublin, has three copies. All of these, except the first mentioned, contain a portrait of Petty ("Edwin Sandys sculp."), dated 1683. The British Museum Catalogue of Printed Maps, likewise, assigns to the collection the conjectural date of 1685. But the "General Map of Ireland" ("Sutton Nicholls sculp."), which is mentioned in the title of the Delineatio, bears an engraved advertisement of Cox's History of Ireland, the first volume of which was issued in 1689. The copy in the National Library of Ireland is a reissue dedicated to Petty's son Henry as Earl of Shelburne. It must have been published, therefore, after 1719, the date at which the earldom of Shelburne was created, and before 1751, when Shelburne died.
↑ The settlement of the Irish question by the fusion of Irish and English was a favourite notion of Petty's from 1655, when, in collaboration with Vincent Gookin, he is said to have opposed the segregation of the Irish by transplantation into Connaught, to the year of his death. Fitzmaurice, 31, 32, also Petty's Treatise of Ireland.
↑ During the Commonwealth the issue of private token money had been much abused in Ireland, and shortly before Petty went thither certain Londoners had been executed for introducing counterfeit and clipped English money and base Peru pieces into the island. Simon, Essay on the Irish Coins, 48—49. Nevertheless the abuse continued, Ib., 49—52, 118—122. The 29th January, 1660—1, a proclamation (Ib., 123—124) was issued fixing rates for gold and silver coin, and the 17th August, 1661, a proclamation was issued against tokens. Ruding, Annals of the Coinage, ii. 4. Cf. Fleetwood to Thurloe, 16 Feb., 1653, State Papers, ii, 94.
↑ It is as unnecessary as it is impossible to give an adequate notice of Ormond in a foot-note. James Butler, twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormond, thrice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1610), had been a loyal supporter of the royal cause, and his devotion as well as his ability had received appropriate recognition at the Restoration. In November, 1661, he was for the second time appointed Lord Lieutenant, and his administration of that office justified the high estimation in which he was held. His recall, in 1669, appears to have been the result of unworthy intrigue and not of loss of the royal confidence, which he had done much to deserve. Again appointed Lord Lieutenant in 1677, he was recalled to England in 1685 and died 21 July, 1688. The warm admiration which Petty entertained for Ormond finds frequent expression in his letters, and it appears that Ormond, also, was well disposed towards Petty. See Aubrey to Anthony Wood, St John Evangelist's Day, 1681, Ballard MS. 14, f. 135, in the Bodleian Library, also Fitzmaurice, 104, 138—139, 151, 173—174. See however, Ormond to Ossory, 15 Aug., 1668, in Carte's Ormond, Appendix, lxxxii, p. 63.
↑ This is a favourite quotation with Petty. It occurs in his Discourse of Duplicate Proportion (1674, see note to Dedication of Polit. Arith.), and in his letter to Southwell, 2 June, 1686, Fitzmaurice, 274. In the modified form "Ingenia solent res nolunt male administrari," it is the motto of his Speculum Hiberniae. Brit. Mus. Addl. MS. 21, 128, f. 38. Sir Josiah Child (loc. cit.) apparently considered Petty the author of it. But Sir Peter Pett, who declares it a sentence of late (1680) much in vogue and one which he had heard some men living falsely vouched for the author of, traces it to Bede's Axiomata Philosophica [Migne, xc. 1023] and to Aristotle's Metaphysica, [xii. 10, ed. Schwegler (1847), i. 258]. Pett, Happy future State of England, 250.

[p5-1] In 1662 the Parliament of Ireland passed an Act for the real union and division of parishes—14 & 15 Charles II., c. 10. It is not clear that Petty had any connection with this Act, but the preamble seems to reflect his ideas: "Whereas parishes are in some parts of this Kingdom so little that five or six lie together within a mile or two, whereby subjects are likely to be much burdened with the unnecessary charge of building and repairing so many churches, and the means also are made so small that many of them will not serve for the sustention of one incumbent: and on the other side in some places parishes are so vast, or extended in length, that it is difficult for the parishioners to repair to their parish churches, and return home the same day, and many times so inconveniently divided that the parishioners of one parish may with much more convenience repair to another parochial church than their own," etc., therefore from Michaelmas, 1662, the chief governor, with the consent of all concerned, may unite or divide parishes.

[2] Probably an allusion to Petty's engraved maps of Ireland, based upon the original maps of the Down Survey, which had indicated the boundaries of parishes. Petty's Hist. of the Down Survey, ed. by Larcom, 49. In 1665 Petty petitioned the King for "assistance to finish the Map of Ireland" and the petition was granted. Ib., 400—401, 323. It seems doubtful, however, whether he actually received assistance sufficient to complete his scheme, since in 1672 he asserted that he had, at his own charge, caused distinct maps to be made of every barony or hundred, as also of every county, graven on copper, and the like of every province, and of the whole kingdom. Polit. Anat., ch. ix. The county maps, at least, were subsequently published, without date, under the title Hiberniae Delineatio. See Bibliography. Copies of this undated edition are in the British Museum and in the Bodleian Library. The Library of Trinity College, Dublin, has three copies. All of these, except the first mentioned, contain a portrait of Petty ("Edwin Sandys sculp."), dated 1683. The British Museum Catalogue of Printed Maps, likewise, assigns to the collection the conjectural date of 1685. But the "General Map of Ireland" ("Sutton Nicholls sculp."), which is mentioned in the title of the Delineatio, bears an engraved advertisement of Cox's History of Ireland, the first volume of which was issued in 1689. The copy in the National Library of Ireland is a reissue dedicated to Petty's son Henry as Earl of Shelburne. It must have been published, therefore, after 1719, the date at which the earldom of Shelburne was created, and before 1751, when Shelburne died.

[p6-3] The settlement of the Irish question by the fusion of Irish and English was a favourite notion of Petty's from 1655, when, in collaboration with Vincent Gookin, he is said to have opposed the segregation of the Irish by transplantation into Connaught, to the year of his death. Fitzmaurice, 31, 32, also Petty's Treatise of Ireland.

[4] During the Commonwealth the issue of private token money had been much abused in Ireland, and shortly before Petty went thither certain Londoners had been executed for introducing counterfeit and clipped English money and base Peru pieces into the island. Simon, Essay on the Irish Coins, 48—49. Nevertheless the abuse continued, Ib., 49—52, 118—122. The 29th January, 1660—1, a proclamation (Ib., 123—124) was issued fixing rates for gold and silver coin, and the 17th August, 1661, a proclamation was issued against tokens. Ruding, Annals of the Coinage, ii. 4. Cf. Fleetwood to Thurloe, 16 Feb., 1653, State Papers, ii, 94.

[p7-5] It is as unnecessary as it is impossible to give an adequate notice of Ormond in a foot-note. James Butler, twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormond, thrice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1610), had been a loyal supporter of the royal cause, and his devotion as well as his ability had received appropriate recognition at the Restoration. In November, 1661, he was for the second time appointed Lord Lieutenant, and his administration of that office justified the high estimation in which he was held. His recall, in 1669, appears to have been the result of unworthy intrigue and not of loss of the royal confidence, which he had done much to deserve. Again appointed Lord Lieutenant in 1677, he was recalled to England in 1685 and died 21 July, 1688. The warm admiration which Petty entertained for Ormond finds frequent expression in his letters, and it appears that Ormond, also, was well disposed towards Petty. See Aubrey to Anthony Wood, St John Evangelist's Day, 1681, Ballard MS. 14, f. 135, in the Bodleian Library, also Fitzmaurice, 104, 138—139, 151, 173—174. See however, Ormond to Ossory, 15 Aug., 1668, in Carte's Ormond, Appendix, lxxxii, p. 63.

[6] This is a favourite quotation with Petty. It occurs in his Discourse of Duplicate Proportion (1674, see note to Dedication of Polit. Arith.), and in his letter to Southwell, 2 June, 1686, Fitzmaurice, 274. In the modified form "Ingenia solent res nolunt male administrari," it is the motto of his Speculum Hiberniae. Brit. Mus. Addl. MS. 21, 128, f. 38. Sir Josiah Child (loc. cit.) apparently considered Petty the author of it. But Sir Peter Pett, who declares it a sentence of late (1680) much in vogue and one which he had heard some men living falsely vouched for the author of, traces it to Bede's Axiomata Philosophica [Migne, xc. 1023] and to Aristotle's Metaphysica, [xii. 10, ed. Schwegler (1847), i. 258]. Pett, Happy future State of England, 250.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]