But he accepted no reproach for his part in separating the survivors from their property. He had been asked to solve a technical problem: measure England’s newly reconquered prize. What was to be done with his report was a political decision (albeit one from which Petty himself profited). The lesson Petty drew from his Irish experience was that applying formal rigor to observation and measurement—the same concept his London circle of virtuosos had begun to explore—actually worked in the real world.
