The invention of the concept of social surplus: Petty in the Hartlib Circle*

Abstract

Among other innovative and important contributions to the formation of political economy, William Petty is the originator of the concept of an economic or social surplus, a vital element in the formation of classical economics. It therefore is a natural and intriguing question, how Petty came to develop his seminal formulations of surplus. Our argument is that the concept took form in his thought as a result of stimulus provided by Petty's involvement in the agricultural technology programme of Samuel Hartlib and his ‘Circle’.