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Regarding Irish slavery, here is a section from my new book ms. Sex,
Lies, and Economics.
Earlier, Petty proposed to improve upon his dream by engineering a
wholesale dislocation of the Irish people. This measure offered a
potential means to wipe out backwardness while providing profit both
for affluent people, such as himself, as well as those with whom he
sought to ingratiate himself. One such program had already begun
before Petty's arrival -- the enslavement of the Irish people sent to
be employed in the Americas. This program peaked around 1652-3, just
when Petty landed in Ireland (Jordan and Walsh 2008, p. 147). The
scale of this program was substantial:
##It is impossible to say how many shiploads of unhappy Irish were
dispatched to America by the sole negotiation of the commissioners of
precincts. No mention of such shipments would be likely to appear in
the State Papers, and no record of them is likely to be discovered
elsewhere. They must have been very considerable in number. It is only
in those cases of a merchant or captain who petitioned the government
for special license to transport such vagrants that any information
remains. [Smith 1927, p. 165]
Also, on September 18, 1655, Henry Cromwell wrote to Secretary of
State, John Thurloe, that 1,500 or 2,000 boys of twelve or fourteen
years be sent to the West Indies plantations (Smith 1927, p. 169).
The best estimate from the number of Irish transported to Europe and
the West Indies runs about 50,000 (Gwynn 1931, p. 301).
Charles Hull, Petty scholar and editor of his economic works, was
appalled: Again and again Petty advocates sweeping public measures
which take no account whatever of the rights and sensibilities of the
citizen. He is quite ready to suggest that the majority of the Irish
and Scotch be transplanted to England whether they consent or not
(Hull 1899, p. lxii).
No evidence survives indicating that Petty ever advocated
transporting the Irish to the colonies. His silence in this regard is
not evidence of some humanitarian instinct. Petty's interest was
always personal enrichment and advancement rather than any animosity
toward the Irish.
Despite the fact that the purpose of his survey was to facilitate
the relocation of Irish, clearing the land for English occupants
conflicted with the English need Irish workers (Gwynn 1931, p. 301).
Specifically, moving too many people from Ireland would deny Petty the
cheap labor he needed to make the development of his Kerry lands
profitable (Roncaglia 1977, p. 5). For the same reason, he opposed an
earlier scheme to transport the Irish to the province of Connaught.
Again Petty's objection was the damage such a plan would do to his
projects.
Even so, at one point, Petty went well beyond anything that the
government envisioned, proposing a grandiose scheme for remaking an
Ireland, almost devoid of the Irish people: there shall be but 300
Thousand Souls in Ireland, and those all Herdsmen and Dairy-Women
(whereas there are now 1300 Thousand of higher Quality) (Petty 1687b,
p. 559). In this way, the country would be reduced to a Kind of
Factory (Petty 1687b, p. 560).
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929
530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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