Political Anatomy and the Idea of Public Wealth from William Petty to Adam Smith

Inthe article, the author attempts to solve three interrelated problems. First, by offering new readings of key texts authored by leading British thinkers and representatives of different strands of seventeenth-century economic thought, she explores the emergence of the labour theory of value in the intellectual context of the seventeenth-century scientific revolution and under the influence of its inspirer, Francis Bacon. Secondly, the author raises the question of the exact form in which the idea of labour as the source and foundation of social wealth, expressed by William Petty, an active critic of the doctrine of mercantilism and one of the founding fathers of English political economy, was initially embodied, as well as the “art of numbers” – quantitative methods of economic and demographic statistics, in his first economic work – “A Treatise on Taxes and Contributions”, published in 1662. Thirdly, the author examines and evaluates the economic ideas and proposals of William Petty and his associates as an integral part of their political views and ideas about “social wealth” and the importance of scientific knowledge for the improvement of public administration. She pays particular attention to the connection between the economic views of William Petty, a major Irish landowner, as set out in “The Political Anatomy of Ireland”, “A Treatise on Ireland,1687”, and other statistical works, and George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, with the assessment of the prospects for the development and future arrangement of Ireland, as well as with proposals for the unification of the two and even all three Kingdoms.

Keywords

England, Ireland, economic thought, political economy, statistics, public administration, public wealth, William Petty, George Berkeley, Adam Smith, economists

Acknowledgment

The article is part of the project № 22-18-00488 “The Crisis of Values and Strategies for Overcoming It: The Idea of the “Common Good” in the Intellectual Discourse of Britain and Russia (1650–1750)”, supported by the Russian Science Foundation.

Received

05.10.2023

Publication date

21.12.2023

Number of characters

42839

Cite

GOST	Repina L. “Political Anatomy” and the Idea of Public Wealth from William Petty to Adam Smith // Novaia i noveishaia istoriia – 2023. – Issue 6 C. 5-17 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://nni.jes.su/S013038640028923-3-1 (circulation date: 21.05.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013038640028923-3
MLA	Repina, Lorina "“Political Anatomy” and the Idea of Public Wealth from William Petty to Adam Smith." Novaia i noveishaia istoriia 6 (2023):5-17. DOI: 10.31857/S013038640028923-3
APA	Repina L. (2023). “Political Anatomy” and the Idea of Public Wealth from William Petty to Adam Smith. Novaia i noveishaia istoriia (6), pp.5-17 DOI: 10.31857/S013038640028923-3

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