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412 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDItS
residential town such as Southport, Eastbourne, or
Bournemouth, where none but local industries are
abroad because it is the own·
carried on and there is substantially no export, the
United Kingdom obtains so far what it wants from
of property abroad. It
is quite conceivable theore cal1y that a particular
country might obtain all its t foreign supplies in this
way, and produce nothing at ~l for export. and th~e
is no doubt, at any rate, of the existence of several
countries which are more or less in this favourable
position-Holland, Belgium, France, and Germany
being all countries of this description, to which perhaps
the Scandinavian countries should be added.
In the case of the United Kingdom the income from
foreign investments is an enormous sum. At least
about £9°,000,000 of the £398,000,000 that we import
from abroad for consumption is obtainable in this
manner. This was the estimate of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer a few years ago, and the figure is prob-
ably more. The Inland Revenue Department knows
of over £60,000,000 derived from foreign securities on
which income tax is expressly paid, and there are other
large sums, consisting of the profits of individuals and
firms having estates or doing business abroad, where
the income tax is otherwise paid, and not expressly as
on foreign income.! The sum of £90,000,000 is thus
very easily arrived at.
It need not be argued how valuable an asset this
foreign income is as a means of enabling the community
of the United Kingdom to obtain supplies from abroad.
The community begins each year with an annual foreign
credit of at least £9°,000,000, and so far gets what it
requires without giving an equivalent at all. I ~ave
seen it argued, indeed, that this large annual credIt 1'n
the foreigner is a misfortune for us. But for it, we are.
told, people would have to work in sotbe way to obtain
the needful forpign supplies, and it is assumed that
1 See Forty-sixth Report of Inland Revenue Department (section
Income Tax, p. 173).