outlived him but two years. It was promptly abolished in the first
year of William and Mary.

The interest taken at home and abroad in these calculations of
Political Arithmetic set other men calculating, and reasoning upon
their calculations. The next worker in that direction was Gregory
King, Lancaster Herald, whose calculations immediately followed
those of Sir William Petty. Sir William Petty's essays extended
from 1682 until his death in 1687. Gregory King's estimates were
made in 1689. They were a study of the number population and
distribution of wealth among us at the time of the English
Revolution, and the unpublished results were first printed in a
chapter on "The People of England," which formed part a volume
published in 1699 as "An Essay upon the Probable Methods of making a
People Gainers in the Balance of Trade, by the Author of the Essay
on Ways and Means." The volume was written by a member of
Parliament in the days of William and Mary, who desired to apply
principles of political economy to the maintenance of English wealth
and liberty. It has been wrongly scribed to Defoe; and its
suggestion of the plan a trading Corporation for solution of the
whole problem of relief to the poor who cannot work, and relief from
the poor who can, might indeed make another chapter in Defoe's
"Essay on Projects." The chapter, which gives the Political
Arithmetic of Gregory King, with such comment and suggestions as
might be expected from a liberal supporter of the Revolution, and
with this suggestion of a Corporation, is in itself a complete
essay. It follows naturally upon the Political Arithmetic of Sir
William Petty in close sequence of time, and in carrying a like
method of inquiry forward until it reaches a few more conclusions.
I have, therefore, added it to this volume. It seems, at any rate,