Note 23 — Chapter III

In a little book, ‘Political Arithmetic,’ by Sir William Petty, written about 1675, and published in 1691, the author of it remarks, “The extent of the shipping of Europe being about two millions of tons, I suppose the English have five hundred thousand—the Dutch nine hundred thousand, the French an hundred thousand, the Hamburgers and the subjects of Dantzic two hundred and fifty, and Spain, Portugal, Italy, &c., two hundred and fifty thousand!” the value of which the author reckoned “at 8l. per tun” (ton).