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7 - ‘Honest’ and ‘industrious’ labourers?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2011

Craig Muldrew
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

And hence must arise a kind of Competition amongst the people who shall farm or purchase Land, when the Revenue of Land is certain, and grows higher daily, as the Treasure and People increase, which must cause Land to rise as well in the years' purchase, as in the years' value; nay, the very Earth must receive an inevitable Improvement by their Industrious numbers, whilst every one will be able and willing to possess and manure a greater or lesser part, according to his occasions; there is hardly any Land in England but may be improved to double the value, and very much to treble and more.

William Petyt, Britannia Languens or a Discourse on Trade

The main spur to Trade, or rather to Industry and Ingenuity, is the exorbitant Appetites of Men, which they will take pains to gratifie, and so be disposed to work, when nothing else will incline them to it; for did Men content themselves with bare Necessaries, we should have a poor World.

The Glutton works hard to purchase Delicacies, wherewith to gorge himself; the Gamester, for Money to venture at Play; the Miser, to hoard; and so others. Now in their pursuit of those Appetites, other Men less exorbitant are benefitted; and tho' it may be thought few profit by the Miser, yet it will be found otherwise … for if he labours with his own hands, his Labour is very beneficial to them who imploy him; if he doth not work, but profit by the Work of others, then those he sets on work have benefit by their being employed. […]

Type
Chapter
Information
Food, Energy and the Creation of Industriousness
Work and Material Culture in Agrarian England, 1550–1780
, pp. 298 - 318
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

Winstanley, R. L. and Jamesond, Peter (eds.), The Diary of James Woodforde: 1785–1787, 17 vols., Parson Woodforde Society (1999), XI, pp. 28–32

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