English economist, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and Commonwealth in Ireland. He developed efficient methods to survey the land that was to be confiscated and given to Cromwell's soldiers. Was Member of the Parliament of England briefly and was also a scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, and was a charter member of the Royal Society.
Background
It is for his theories on economics and his methods of political arithmetic that he is best remembered, however, and he is attributed as having started the philosophy of 'laissez-faire' in relation to government activity. He was knighted in 1661. He was the great-grandfather of the future Prime Minister, William Petty Fitzmaurice, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Landsdowne.
Education
Already at his age of 12, Petty was an able smith, clockmaker and joiner. In 1637, he became a cabin boy. After a ship-wreck, he landed in Normandy and started his studies at the College of the Jesuits in Caen, where he learned Latin, Greek, French, Mathematics and Astronomy at his age of 14. He returned to England after one year.
Became a member of the Oxford Philosophical Club.
Career
During the 1rst English civil war, Petty escaped to the Netherlands, where he studied anatomy. In Amsterdam, he became private secretary of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and met Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) and Marin de Mersenne (1588-1648). In 1646, he returned to England and studied medicine in Oxford; in 1651 he became a professor for Anatomy at Brasenose College in Oxford and for Music in London. In 1651, he joined Oliver Cromwell as a army doctor in Ireland. He dealt with the new understanding of science developed by Francis Bacon. In 1654, he made a land-register of the whole of Ireland, the so-called Down Survey, which was finished in 1656. Cromwell used it to indemnify his creditors with land. Petty obtained a piece of land as well and the high sum of 9000 livres for that, which gave him the bad reputation of bribery. Also during the restoration under Charles II and James II, he was treated well, but lost a part of his property. His election into the parliament failed, and in 1666, he returned to Ireland, which he tried to modernize. He then turned more to the social sciences and lost all his posts in Oxford. In 1682, he became one of the founders of the Dublin Society. Petty developed the modern way of computing and thus became a forerunner of modern insurance business. He also made several practical inventions.
Politics
17th century - the height of the revolution, the bitter political and ideological struggle unfolding civil war. Petty was on the side of the bourgeois revolution and the Puritan religion, but he had no desire to personally get involved in the fight