The aim of this thesis is to reconsider Sir William Petty’s later years, and examine his ambitions for England contained in his reform agenda written between 1685 and 1687. This period of his life has been comparatively neglected in the secondary literature, as have his largely unpublished writings during this time. Petty’s agenda was designed to achieve his vision of a powerful and prosperous England and, with the accession of lames to the throne, he thought that, at long last, he was in a position to influence policy. This thesis will show that he had repeated access to the monarch to present his ideas and proposals. Petty’s reform agenda is wide-ranging and covers many aspects of national life and international policy. It is particularly enlightening about his lack of allegiance to any particular political ideology. Seen as a transitional figure in the history of economic thought, his reform agenda reveals him also to be a transitional figure politically -his ideas move from reflecting traditional ways of thinking, to those that put him close to many Whig writers at the time. His more radical reforms stand by themselves, and show him as a strikingly original thinker. When writing his agenda, Petty moved away from the discursive style of his earlier works into a way of presenting it, notably with plentiful quantitative justification, which can be seen as a more modem form of policy proposal. Coming from a man for whom practical application was of great importance who believed he could now influence policy, Petty’s reform agenda is both revealing of his views and represents the culmination of his work.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:643560 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Dale, Sue |
| Publisher | Birkbeck (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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