Sir William Petty, 1623–87: Division of Labour and Surplus

Gianni Vaggi and Peter Groenewegen
Additional contact information
Peter Groenewegen: University of Sydney

Chapter 4 in A Concise History of Economic Thought, 2003, pp 29-36 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Sir William Petty was of humble origins; the son of a clothier. At age 13 he went to sea, but, after a shipwreck on the French coast, studied for a while with the Jesuits in France. After serving in the Royal Navy, Petty went to Leiden and Paris, where he studied medicine (possibly with Hobbes). Back to Britain in 1646 he became a doctor of medicine at Oxford University in 1648. In 1650, he was appointed Professor of Anatomy. However, the following year he moved to London to take the Chair of Music at Gresham College. In 1651 he went to Ireland as medical officer to the English army, and there prepared a topographical survey of Irish lands to be allotted to English soldiers in Cromwell’s army. He himself ended up with a remarkably large estate, whose care and management engaged him for the rest of his life. In 1660–62 Petty was among the founding members of the Royal Society.

Keywords: Social Division; Luxury Good; Large Estate; French Coast; Wage Good (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-50580-3_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230505803

DOI: 10.1057/9780230505803_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().