' Sir Walter Harris. Remarks (1691), p. 30.
IN A SYSTEM OF NATIONALISM 71

Harris's results are, of course, of no value, but they
acquire new significance when placed in proper relation-
ship to the core of reasoning which runs through his book.
Ireland's failure to make the most of her resources, the
author believed to be due in large part to the "paucity of
inhabitants," the whole number being reckoned at "but
1,200,000 souls, whereof 300,000 are children, many of
their quaUty exempt from labor, and the rest few enough
for tillage and husbandry." ' But tillage and husbandry
would not enrich any nation because these lines of occu-
pation could not supply exports of sufficient value to pro-
duce a favorable balance of trade; Ireland, then, must turn
to manufacture and to this end must increase her popu-
lation and encourage industry. It was as an agency for
enlisting labor in the cause of enriching the country, that
the supply of money received attention.
Sir William Petty and Sir Dudley North were as free
from the Mercantilist money fallacy as any writers of their
day; the former believed that the supply of money within
the country might be too large and strongly opposed all
attempts at prohibiting its exportation, but even Petty
attempted to estimate the amoimt of coin necessary to
discharge the duty of "circulation" and stated his con-
clusions in such a way as to imply the possibility of a de-
ficiency.^ North, too, believed that the evil would correct
itself through the effect upon the price level.' Neither of

> Sir Walter Harris, Remarks (1691). p. 9.
