Sir William Petty

Born in Romsey, Hampshire, in 1623, Sir William Petty rose from modest beginnings to become one of the most wide-ranging minds of his age. He studied abroad, trained in medicine, and built a reputation as a practical problem-solver as well as a scholar. His career took him deep into public life in Ireland and England, where he worked as a physician, administrator, surveyor, inventor, and writer.

Petty is often remembered as an early founder of political economy and of what he called "political arithmetic"—the attempt to understand government, wealth, and population through measurement rather than guesswork. His writings on taxation, labour, trade, and national income were unusually modern in spirit, and they influenced later economists who tried to explain how states grow rich and how resources should be counted.

He was also connected with the early Royal Society, which fits the pattern of his life: curious, experimental, and always crossing boundaries between fields. That mix of practical ambition and original thinking makes him an especially interesting figure for listeners who enjoy the roots of economics, statistics, and modern social science.