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126 PETTY, Sir William. Another Essay in Political Arithmetick, concerning the Growth of the City of London. 1682. London: printed by H. H. for Mark Pardoe, 1683 The advantages of mass production First edition, very scarce on the market, of Petty’s significant statistical survey of London’s growth. Another Essay in Political Arithmetick was likely written in Ireland circa 1681, but was not sent to press until after Petty came to London in June 1682. In their 1966 article, Eleanor L. Nicholes and Dorothea D. Reeves cite Another Essay as proof that “as early as 1682 Petty had seen the advantages of mass production, with specialisation by both the individual and the community in functions for which they were best adapted” (p. 240). “The title page implies that an Essay in Political Arithmetic had already been published, though in fact the present Essay was the first that was printed. The discrepancy was resolved when it was reprinted in 1686 as An Essay Concerning the Multiplication of Mankind ” (Keynes). Small octavo (172 × 107 mm). Sometime extracted from a pamphlet volume, now rebound in 20th-century brown cloth, front cover lettered in gilt. Table to p. 24. A very good copy, contents evenly browned with the occasional spot, two small ink annotations to title page, one short closed tear to bottom edge of leaf A7, tiny area of loss to blank margin of the same and A8; a few uncut lower edges in gathering C. ¶ Goldsmiths’ 2515; Hill, p. 310; Keynes 19; Kress 1590; not in Einaudi, Mattioli or Sraffa. Eleanor Nicholes & Dorothea Reeves, “The Kress
Library of Business and Economics and Some of Its Treasures”, The Business History Review , vol. 40, no. 2, Summer 1966, pp. 237–49. £11,000 [134803] 127 PETTY, Sir William. Observations upon the Dublin- Bills of Mortality, MDCLXXXI. London: printed for Mark Pardoe, 1683 “The A, B, C, of publick oeconomy” Rare first edition, inspired by Graunt’s London-Bills of Mortality , applying the same analysis to Dublin, and perhaps the earliest published work on political arithmetic in Ireland. Referring to John Graunt’s work of 1662, Petty opens with: “The Observations upon the London-Bills of Mortality have been a new Light to the World; and the like Observation upon those of Dublin, may serve as Snuffers to make the same Candle burn clearer. The London-Observations flowed from Bills regularly kept for near One hundred years; but these are squeezed out of Six stragling [ sic ] London-Bills, out of Fifteen Dublin Bills, and from a Note of the Families and Hearths in each Parish of Dublin; which are all digested into the one Table or Sheet annexed, consisting of Three Parts, markt A, B, C; being indeed the A, B, C, of Publick Oeconomy, and even of that Policy which tends to Peace and Plenty” (p. 1). Octavo (174 × 112 mm), pp. [2], 8, 4 folding tables, [4]. 20th-century marbled paper boards, red spine label. Housed in a black cloth flat- back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Woodcut vignette of four thistle-and-
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