A Treatise Of Taxes And Contributions - 1662

The Treatise of Taxes and Contributions is the earliest of Petty's economic writings. Since it mentions' Graunt's Observations, published in January, 1662, as "lately made," and inasmuch as Petty was in Ireland before the end of October ", the Treatise was probably composed in the early months of 1662. About this time Petty, relieved from his political anxieties, returned with vigour to his scientific pursuits. He experimented with the Double Bottom, and wrote, in addition to the Treatise, his Discourse concerning the Making of Cloth, his Apparatus to the History of Dying, and a paper on shipping. The precise date of the publication of the Treatise is not known. If we take the phrase : "a parhament most affectionate to his [Ormond's] person" as an allusion to the gift of £30000 voted to Ormond by the Irish House of Commons 4 March, 1662 and acknowledged by him in a letter from Whitehall 19 April, we may well believe White Kennett's assertion' that the Treatise first appeared in May, 1662. If, on the other hand, we note Petty's statement that its birth "happened to be about the time of the Duke of Ormond's going Lord Lieutenant into Ireland," we shall place the publication nearly two months later. It appears, however, that Ormond's departure, postponed by the King's marriage until the beginning of July, was originally planned to take place in April". We can, therefore, bring the two passages into harmony by assuming that Petty wrote his preface, above quoted, in April, when he expected Ormond to go to Ireland at once, and that the Treatise was published in May, 1662. Four editions of the Treatise were issued during Petty's lifetimek Of these it is probable that the first alone was authorized by him. The second (1667) was printed at London during his absence m Ireland, and the edition of 1679 seems to have been issued against his expressed wishes. On the 29th May, 1678 , he wrote to Aubrey, "As for the Reprinting the Booke of Taxes I will not meddle with it. I never had thanks for any publick good I ever did, nor doe I owne any such booke' And on the 5th October following, in a letter to Sir Robert Southwell, he again expressed his unwillingness to have the Treatise reprinted. The edition of 1685, being but a re-issue, with a new title-page, of the sheets printed in 1679, is of no independent authority. The first edition, here reprinted', must, therefore, be esteemed the most authentic of the four, and although no MS has been found, the language of the preface gives assurance that it was not set forth without the author's approval. The edition is anonymous. The first public recognition of its authorship which I have noted occurs in the "Suppliment" to Brief Considerations concerning Trade and the Interest of Money. By J[osiah] C[hild]. London, Elizabeth Calvert, 1668.