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ARE Wlt LIVING ON CAPITAL? 299
was added to immensely by the Franco~German war;
afterwards there was a great addition in consequence
0(' the schemes of public works, but of late years the
addttions have been inconsiderable. Ten years ago
the annual interest on the funded debt in France was
about £34,000,000. Now it is about £32,000,000 only,
showing no increase of annual burden at aU. In Ger-
many the whole Imperial Debt, after thirty years of
existence. was still abollt £ 120,000,000 only until the
present year. and the annual charge inconsiderable.
In Russia the annual charge ten years ago was about
£26,000,000, and is still only about £27,000.000. One
reason, no doubt, is the fall in the rate of interest of
late years, a reason which comes close home to a
banking audience; but whatever the cause, we have
here to do with the fact that leading nations have not
sensibly been adding to their annual burdens in the
shape of interest on their debts.
. In conclusion, then, I must dissent, in the strongest
way, from a great deal of the criticism to which the
expenditure upon military armaments in time of peace
has been subjected on the score of their diminishing
the national capital. A good deal of the criticism is the
reflection, I believe, of ideas which were formed in
times of great stress, such as those which existed at
the beginning of last century. Armaments are still
talked of in a way which was justified at a time when
great burdens were imposed upon the people, and
almost as much was taken by the tax collector out of
their pockets as possibly could be taken. The point,
however, is that the burden of armaments in time of
peace, as happens even with the much greater burden
which has to be borne in time of war, may fall exclu-
siveJy on the income of the people at the time,
especially when the charge is so moderate, as it is in
our own case, as not to be more than 4 or 5 per cent.
of that income, and there is no question whatsoever as
to national capital itself being expended or wasted.
There is also an error in what seems to be a common