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322 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES

The Growth 0/ Wealth.
T):le income tax tables and the supplementary tables
generally contain further information as to the growth
of the resources of the country upon which the expan-
sion of the revenue depends. Though it is not really
necessary to show the growth of the country's ability to
meet the largely increased expenditure of recent years
-and I shall probably have an opportunity after 1905,
if the Society will permit me, of continuing those studies
on the income tax returns which were commenced
before you in 1878-still I may be allowed to add a
few more remarks bearing directly on this question.
What I should like to notice first of all, then, is that
the doubling of our wealth and of our ability to bear
increased burdens does not depend on any astonishing
change in the productiveness of the industry of the
country. It clepends mainly on two factors: (1), the
growth of population, and (2), a very moderate increase
in the wealth of the population per head. If the popu-
lation had doubled, the wealth per head remaining the
same, there would be no doubt of the country having
twice its former ability to bear taxation. But short of
doubling, the population may increase so greatly in a
given time that a very moderate addition to the wealth
per head may produce the same result. Now the in-
crease of population is obscured for this purpose by
dealing with the United Kingdom as a whole, which
causes the decrease of population in Ireland to set off
in part the increase in Great Britain, although the two
peoples are not homogeneous. I f we put the two to-
gether the increase is from 28.9 millions in 1861 to 41.5
millions in 1901, or 43! per cent., which would require
an increase of nearly 40 per cent. in the wealth per head
in the interval to account for the doubling of the re-
sources ohtte country. But if we take Great Britain
only, the 'progressive part of the country, we find the
increase of numbers is from 23.r to 37 millions, or 60