Let $1 \lt p_1 \leq p_2 \leq p_3 \leq \dots$ be an infinite sequence $\mathcal{P}$ of real numbers for which $p_i \to \infty$, and associate to this sequence the \emph{Beurling zeta function} $\zeta_{\mathcal{P}}(s):= \prod_{i=1}^{\infty}(1-p_i^{-s})^{-1}$. Suppose that for some constant $A\gt 0$, we have $\zeta_{\mathcal{P}}(s) \sim A/(s-1)$, as $s\downarrow 1$. We prove that $\mathcal{P}$ satisfies an analogue of a classical theorem of Mertens: $\prod_{p_i \leq x}(1-1/p_i)^{-1} \sim A \e^{\gamma} \log{x}$, as $x\to\infty$. Here $\e = 2.71828\ldots$ is the base of the natural logarithm and $\gamma = 0.57721\ldots$ is the usual Euler--Mascheroni constant. This strengthens a recent theorem of Olofsson.

A sequence of positive rationals generates a subgroup of finite index in the multiplicative positive rationals, and group product representations by the sequence need only a bounded number of terms, if and only if certain related sequences have densities uniformly bounded from below.