Essays on Mankind and Political ArithmeticPetty, William, Sir
History
Essays on Mankind and Political Arithmetic
Petty, William, Sir
London (England) -- Population; Population
Of the aforementioned vast difference between 10 years and 1,200 years
for doubling the people, we make this use, viz.:—To justify the
Scriptures and all other good histories concerning the number of the
people in ancient time. For supposing the eight persons who came out of
the Ark, increased by a progressive doubling in every ten years, might
grow in the first 100 years after the Flood from 8 to 8,000, and that in
350 years after the Flood (whereabouts Noah died) to 1,000,000 and by
this time, 1682, to 320,000,000 (which by rational conjecture are thought
to be now in the world), it will not be hard to compute how, in the
intermediate years, the growths may be made, according to what is set
down in the following table, wherein making the doubling to be ten years
at first, and within 1,200 years at last, we take a discretionary
liberty, but justifiable by observations and the Scriptures for the rest,
which table we leave to be corrected by historians who know the bigness
of ancient cities, armies, and colonies in the respective ages of the
world, in the meantime affirming that without such difference in the
measures and periods for doubling (the extremes whereof we have
demonstrated to be real and true) it is impossible to solve what is
written in the Holy Scriptures and other authentic books. For if we
pitch upon any one number throughout for this purpose, 150 years is the
fittest of all round numbers; according to which there would have been
but 512 souls in the whole world in Moses’ time (being 800 years after
the Flood), when 603,000 Israelites of above twenty years old (besides
those of other ages, tribes, and nations) were found upon an exact survey
appointed by God, whereas our table makes 12,000,000. And there would
have been about 8,000 in David’s time, when were found 1,100,000, of
above twenty years old (besides others, as aforesaid) in Israel, upon the
survey instigated by Satan, whereas our table makes 32,000,000. And
there would have been but a quarter of a million about the birth of
Christ, or Augustus’s time, when Rome and the Roman Empire were so great,
whereas our table makes 100,000,000. Where note, that the Israelites in
about 500 years, between their coming out of Egypt to David’s reign,
increased from 603,000 to 1,100,000.
On the other hand, if we pitch upon a less number, as 100 years, the
world would have been over-peopled 700 years since. Wherefore no one
number will solve the phenomena, and therefore we have supposed several,
in order to make the following table, which we again desire historians to
correct, according to what they find in antiquity concerning the number
of the people in each age and country of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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