WILLIAM PETTY: BIOGRAPHY AND MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS - HISTORY - 2024

William Petty is recognized primarily for his contributions to economics. He developed new theories that later influenced the works of Adam Smith or Karl Marx. Marx even began one of his books with the phrase: “William Petty is the founder of modern political economy. His genius and his originality are undeniable ”.

But, as a good son of his time, Petty's interests are very diverse: he was also a philosopher, doctor, inventor, and statistician. In fact, this last facet applied to demography also owes several theoretical innovations, being the first to try to explain the link between the economy and the population.

Despite his very complete training, Petty came from a humble family. His economic situation improved thanks to his jobs as a doctor and, above all, because of his relationships with Oliver Cromwell. Thanks to him, he obtained large tracts of land in Ireland, which were granted to him to pay for the topographic maps that he had drawn up in the country.

William Petty was the creator of the term "full employment" or the so-called Petty Law. His comfortable financial situation after these rewards allowed him to dedicate himself fully to the study of various scientific disciplines.

William Petty biography

Childhood and education

William Petty's childhood was marked by growing up in a very humble home. He was born in the county of Ramsey, England, on May 23, 1623. He was the son of a weaver, and his first years of study were carried out at the Grammar School in his city; he soon began to stand out for his intelligence and abilities.

However, he had to start working at a very young age, which paradoxically gave him a great opportunity. Being a cabin boy, he was abandoned by his companions on the French Coast. Instead of being daunted, he wrote to the Jesuits at the University of Caen in Latin, and they immediately admitted him to their educational center.

At 17 he began studying at Oxford, where he completed his knowledge in the subjects mentioned above, also adding geometry and astronomy.

In the midst of the English Civil War, with the King and Parliament fighting, Petty went to the Netherlands. It was there that he would study medicine, a science that he would later use even in economics. After finishing his studies, he went to Paris, the city where he met Hobbes and worked with him.

At the age of 24 he returned to London and made a place for himself among the intelligentsia of his time. That time in his life as a professor at Oxford would end.

Relationship with Cronwell

The war of invasion of Ireland was a turning point in his career and his entire life. He enlisted as a doctor in the army and came to personally deal with Oliver Cronwell, with whom he established a good relationship.

This means that, after the conquest, I commissioned him to draw up several topographic plans of the new lands.

In that he worked from 1655 to 1658. As payment, large tracts of land were granted to him. In this way, the weaver's son ended up becoming a wealthy landowner.

Without financial problems, he became a member of Parliament and one of the founders of the Royal Society. From there he devoted himself entirely to the study of different sciences, writing several works with his theories.

He died in London on December 16, 1687, having been granted the title of Sir.

Contributions

One of the novelties that William Petty introduced in his economic studies is to apply the same method as in medicine.

This means that he considered each economic element as part of a whole, using much more mathematical, statistical and scientific tools in general to solve problems.

It is usually considered that he departed a lot from commercialism, the prevailing theory of his time. His contributions include his work on taxes and his theory of value.

Theory of value

For Petty, all economic exchange had rules that he considered natural, before which any opposition is useless. In this way, he thought that prices always return to their natural level.

The origin of value would be work. Petty differentiated two types of values ​​in each product. The first, what he called natural value, refers to the internal value of each product.

To calculate it, you have to take into account the work necessary to produce it and calculate productivity. Those calculations were made with two different measurements: the land and the aforementioned work. In his own words, "work is the father of wealth, and the land, its mother."

The second type of value that Petty distinguished is what he called political value. It is about the market value, which always depends on a multitude of factors that are often unrelated to what he considered natural.

Taxes

The author was also the first to develop a theory to explain what kind of taxes and fees were appropriate to generate social wealth. According to his theory, each person should contribute according to their assets and earnings.

However, he was aware that the majority were not satisfied with what they were paying and were trying to get rid of their obligations.

The amount to be paid should not be so high that it would harm national trade. He also believed that taxes would be beneficial to all as long as the proceeds were invested in national products.

Regarding the types of taxes, he was in favor of those that tax consumption, among other things because they promoted austerity and savings.

With regard to those applied in international trade, he warned that it was necessary to be selective and not cause damage to exports and imports.

Finally, he did not agree with some rates, such as those applied to monopolies or lotteries.

Petty's Law

The economic law that bears his name, and which was later expanded with the contributions of Clark, explains how the improvement of the technical means of transport increases the market for non-agricultural products.

For this reason he proposed to reallocate part of the budgets destined to the field to activities of another type.

In addition, he concluded that the well-being of a society is reflected in the number of people dedicated to services. Petty estimates that well-being increases as the economic situation improves.

Demography

One of Petty's passions was demographics, and he often linked it to economics. It was he, along with John Graunt, who created mortality tables in the United Kingdom that are considered the beginning of modern demography.

The economist and statistician came to formulate a quantification of what he called "the value of people." That is, the population increase as the basis for economic improvement.

He thought that this increase was a source of wealth, so he called for policies to be adopted to improve demographics.

Health

Related to his eagerness to increase the population, and also as a result of his training as a doctor, Petty placed great emphasis on improving the English health system.

For example, he proposed the founding of a Health Council in the capital to deal with infectious diseases. This was joined by the proposal to create a hospital that will be dedicated to better training doctors, so that they could provide better service.

Copy machine

In 1660 William Petty created a tool that had two pens, which some people consider to be the origin of the typewriter.

It was the invention of a copy machine, when Petty was only 23 years old, that opened the doors to British scholarly circles.

References

1. Jori, Gerard. Back to the origins of public health. Political power and health activity in England from the 17th to 19th centuries. Recovered from ub.edu
2. Zambón, Humberto. The theoretical contributions of William Petty. Retrieved from lmneuquen.com
3. Virtual Encyclopedia. Petty, William (1623-1687). Retrieved from eumed.net
4. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. Sir William Petty. Retrieved from britannica.com
5. Banta, JE Sir William Petty: modern epidemiologist (1623-1687). Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

6. Economics Theories. William Petty. Retrieved from economictheories.org
7. McCormick, Ted. William Petty: And the Ambitions of Political Arithmetic. Retrieved from oxfordscholarship.com
8. Hoppen, K. Theodore. Sir William Petty: Polymath, 1623-1687. Retrieved from historytoday.com