Sir William Petty

Sir William Petty was a 17th-century English economist and philosopher known for his pioneering work in political economy and statistics. He is best recognized for developing early concepts of economic measurement and for founding the field of social science through his analysis of population, wealth, and resources. Petty introduced the idea of "political arithmetic," which aimed to quantify economic and social data to inform policy. His influential writings laid the groundwork for later economic theories, and he is often regarded as a precursor to modern economics, emphasizing the importance of data in understanding economic dynamics.