Mankind and Political Arithmetic | Page 9

surface of the earth furnish footing for so vast a number; whereas
we did (by the method afore mentioned) assert the number of men now
living, and also of those that had died since the beginning of the world,
and did withal show, that half the island of Ireland would afford them
all, not only footing to stand upon, but graves to lie down in, for that
whole number; and that two mountains in that country were as weighty
as all the bodies that had ever been from the beginning of the world to
the year 1680, when this dispute happened. For which purpose I have
digressed from my intended purpose to insert this matter, intending to
prosecute this hint further upon some more proper occasion.
A TABLE SHOWING HOW THE PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE
DOUBLED IN THE SEVERAL AGES OF THE WORLD.
A.D., after the Flood. Periods of { 1 8 persons. doubling { 10 16 { 20
32 { 30 64 { 40 128 In 10 years { 50 256 { 60 512 { 70 1,024 { 80
2,048 { 90 4,096 { 100 8,000 and more. { 120 years after In 20 years
{ the Flood. 16,000 { 140 32,000 { 170 64,000 30 { { 200 128,000 40
240 256,000 50 290 512,000 60 350 1,000,000 and more. 70 420
2,000,000 100 520 4,000,000 190 710 8,000,000 290 1,000 16,000,000
in Moses' time. 400 1,400 32,000,000 about David's time. 550 1,950
64,000,000 750 2,700 128,000,000 about the birth of Christ. 1,000
3,700 256,000,000 300 { In { 4,000 320,000,000 1,200 {
It is here to be noted, that in this table we have assigned a different
number of years for the time of doubling the people in the several ages

of the world, and might have done the same for the several countries of
the world, and therefore the said several periods assigned to the whole
world in the lump may well enough consist with the 360 years
especially assigned to England, between this day and the Norman
Conquest; and the said 360 years may well enough serve for a
supposition between this time and that of the world's being fully
peopled; nor do we lay any stress upon one or the other in this
disquisition concerning the growth of the city of London.
We have spoken of the growth of London, with the measures and
periods thereof; we come next to the causes and consequences of the
same.
The causes of its growth from 1642 to 1682 may be said to have been
as follows, viz.:- From 1642 to 1650, that men came out of the country
to London, to shelter themselves from the outrages of the Civil Wars
during that time; from 1650 to 1660, the royal party came to London
for their more private and inexpensive living; from 1660 to 1670, the
king's friends and party came to receive his favours after his happy
restoration; from 1670 to 1680, the frequency of plots and parliaments
might bring extraordinary numbers to the city; but what reasons to
assign for the like increase from 1604 to 1642 I know not, unless I
should pick out some remarkable accident happening in each part of the
said period, and make that to be the cause of this increase (as vulgar
people make the cause of every man's sickness to be what he did last
eat), wherefore, rather than so to say quidlibet de quolibet, I had rather
quit even what I have above said to be the cause of London's increase
from 1642 to 1682, and put the whole upon some natural and
spontaneous benefits and advantages that men find by living in great
more than in small societies, and shall therefore seek for the antecedent
causes of this growth in the consequences of the like, considered in
greater characters and proportions.
Now, whereas in arithmetic, out of two false positions the truth is
extracted, so I hope out of two extravagant contrary suppositions to
draw forth some solid and consistent conclusion, viz.:-
The first of the said two suppositions is, that the city of London is
seven times bigger than now, and that the inhabitants of it are
4,690,000 people, and that in all the other cities, ports, towns, and
villages, there are but 2,710,000 more.

The other supposition is, that the city of London is but a seventh part of
its present bigness, and that the inhabitants of it are but 96,000, and that
the rest of the inhabitants (being 7,304,000) do cohabit thus: 104,000 of
them in small cities and towns, and that the rest, being 7,200,000, do
inhabit in houses not contiguous to one another, viz., in 1,200,000
houses, having about twenty-four acres of ground belonging to each of
them, accounting about 28,000,000 of acres to