Page 299 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

ARE WE LIVING ON CAPITAL? 291
sterling, S or not far short of that sum, and this was
estimated t<1 be equal to one-third of the aggregate
ann~l income of the individuals constituting the
natiorl at that time. We find, however, when we ex-
amine the records, especially the records of the Income
Tax, that the amount of 'p'roperty in the country must
have increased very rapIdly during the entire period
that this expenditure was going on. A few years after
the beginning of the century, viz., in 1802-3, the average
annual value of real property, according to the Income
Tax returns, amounted only to about £35,000,000
sterling. In 1814, or thereabouts, the amount was
£53,500,000 sterling. In other words, in about ten
years' time the property of the nation, so far as it was
derived from real property, increased about 50 per
cent., and we may assume that there was an equal in-
crease in the property itself.s All this, it must be re-
membered, was taking place during the strain of a
great war, when the expenditure on armaments was at
its maximum in this country. Of course, capital might
have increased still more if there had been no war.
The useful production of the nation might also have
been much greater than it was if the labour of soldiers
and sailors and those preparing clothing, food, and
ammunition for them had been available for other
occupations. The strain was undoubtedly very great.
The facts stated in Porter's II Progress ofthe Nation"
as to the non-increase of the yield of taxes in propor-
tion to the increase of population between 180 I and
1821 are significant (see Porter, p. 496 et seq.). Still,
in actual fact, the capital ofthe nation does not appear to
have been encroached upon, and the resources of the
• The actual figures were:
18 II ". • £84,000,000
18u. • • • • • 89,000,000
1813. • • • • • 106,000,000
1814. • • • . • 10 7,000,000
181S. • • • • 9:2,000,000
• See Mr. Goschen's .. Report on Local Taxation," p. 69. NO.4 70,
Session 1870.