Petty several times discussed numerical examples in which  
(usually) 100 farmers could feed 1000 people in total (a  
remarkably high assumed productivity for the time,  
incidentally). I am interested in the idea that one could  
quantify the relation between agriculture and the rest of  
the economy in this way - x farmers can feed y people - or  
at least a clear recognition that the productivity of  
agriculture governs the size of the non-agricultural  
population. 
 
Here is the question: did anyone before Petty state this  
relationship at all explicitly, or develop it at all? 
 
Tony Brewer: [log in to unmask]