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308 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES

The General Growth of Exjendz'ture.
Taking the tables in their order, I begin by nPticing
Tables I. to IV., dealing first with the revenue and
expenditure of the Imperial Government of the United
Kingdom, in the gross, and then specially with the ex-
penditure. The lesson of the first table is striking.
Expenditure increases froIp 72.8 million £ in 1861
and 69.5 million £ in 1871, to 80.9 million £ in 188 J ,
87.7 million £ in 1891, and then in 1901 to 183.6
million £, which is exceeded by the estimates of the
current year. Revenue increases in much the same
way, lagging a little behind in the last period of all.
The figures are 70 million £ in each of the years 186 J
and 1871, 82 million £ in 1881,89.5 million £ in 1891,
and 130.4 million £ in 1901, and finally 142.5 million
£, estimated in the current financial year. The change
from the earlier period is most striking, and practically
it has come with a rush in the latest period of all, that
is since 189 I. The explanation on the surface is that
the recent growth is mainly due to the war in South
Africa. The sum of nearly 70 million £ is put down
for war expenditure in South Africa and in China in
1901, only a small part being for China. But in a
general retrospect such as the present, too great stress
must not be laid on such explanations. The present
period is obviously different from the past, whatever
may be the cause. Possibly it may be found after a few
years that the figure of 180 to 190 million £ exceeds
the normal expenditure of the period into which we
have come; but as prudent men we must accept the
warning for the present, and not fix upon a much less
figure than what has actually lasted for nearly three
years, say a less figure than ISO million £, until there
is experience of the reduction.
This is not the whole account of the growth of ex-
penditure. Appended to Table I. is an account of the
revenue received by the Imperial Government, and
handed over by them to the local authorities of the