ABSTRACT
Swift's satire would retain less of its bite had not the subsequent history of colonialism in Ireland made a reality of what, for William Petty, had been a mere "dream or reverie"–his discussions of the advantages of the mass removal of Irish people from their native land. The tasks faced in the course of the 'reappraisal of Irish history' are not of Irish interest alone but are, clearly, of significance for the reassessment of the intellectual legacy of the colonial period of world history as a whole. In a seminal article calling for such a reappraisal, it was pointed out that "austerely clinical terms" had come to be seen as an essential prerequisite for an "academic" approach to Irish history. Indeed, as has been seen, slavery plays a central part in his economic thought in connection with his concept of the 'value of people'.
