Page 375 - clra62_0019-(GIPE)

WEALTH OF _EMPIRE, AND HOW IT SHOULD BE USED 367
are enormous, and no such economic force has ever
been in the possession of a single state or empire. An
income of nearly 3,200 million £ sterling and an accu-
mulated wealth of over 22,000 million £ are over-
whelming and unimaginable. France and Germany
have each probably not more than a third or a half of
these figures. Although they approach the United
Kingdom alone very closely, they have neither states
of their own kith and kilt beyond the seas to be added
to their home strength, nor an empire like that of India,
with many valuable possessions besides. They have
the beginnings of oversea empire, but as yet, in com-
parison with the United Kingdom, beginnings only.
Russia is another state which will no doubt be thought
of with its population of over 130 millions, exclusive
of Manchuria, but its economic development is too
primitive to make it come into the comparison not-
withstanding its great population. The United States
alone, of all modern states, is comparable to the British
Empire. Its aggregate income, at about £35 per head
only (and it is probably more, though we must allow
for the United States average being brought down by
the black population and the large immigration of late
years from Eastern Europe and Italy), would not be
far short of 3,000 million £, while its capital or wealth
appears to be reckoned officially at 18,000 million £.
It has the additional advantage that, exclusive of the
recent oversea additions, it is all within a ring fence.
It would not be going too far to say, I believe, compar-
ing broadly the British Empire and the United States
with the leading powers next to them,-Russia, Ger-
many, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Japan-
that the two Anglo-Saxon states or empires more than
outweigh in economic force the whole of the rest of
the world. In what way, then, are such forces to be
used?
It will not surprise economists, who -have of late
years given some attention to family budgets, to be told
that the income must be primarily used for maintenance