The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-11-07
Enormous Realized Wealth OF Great
Britain.

Joseph Medills London Letter 10 Chicago Trbune.l
The whole national debt of Great
Britain, amounting to So, 700, 000, 900, is
held by her own capitalists and, in add
dition thereto, all British municipal
debts, estimated at $500, OOO,O 900. 1t is
stated on good authority that the bonds
of other nations of the world, including
those of political and municipal subdi-
visions OF other countries, owned in
Great Britain, fully equal the total of
the British debt, or, say, 81, 200, 900, 900.
1t is stated that the debts of all kinds
due the capitalists of Great Britain by
the nations of the East yield G100, 000,-
900 per annum, or $500, 100000. At
general average of to per cent. this
amount of interest would indicate
principal of eight thousand millions of
dollars, or nearly four times the present
national debt of the United States.
To lend all this money, it must first
have been earned and saved, and every
penny of it has been loaned since the
overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo, but
the greater part of it during the last
twenty years. The construction of the
gigantic system of railways at home,
and the immense aid given for their
construction all over the world, in addi-
ton to the billions of money loaned to
all other nations, States and cities, rep
resent but the smaller part of British
accumulated wealth. Consider the cost
or value of the buildings III Great Brit
ain, beginning with the 100000 in this
city alone, every one built OF brick,
stone, or iron, and covered with tile or
slate. Consider the value OF the manu-
factories and machinery of all kinds of
the stores filled with goods; OF the
shipping of every description, most OF
them of iron, and thousands OF them
iron steamers, plying all round these
islands and to all the ports OF the earth
in short, swarming wherever there is
saltwater enough to float them. 10 all
these must be added the farm improve
ments and implements, livestock, vehl-
cles of every description, churches and
public buildings, war-like materials, IN
GLIDING the navy. L had almost for
gotten the value of hundreds of thou
sands of miles of paved country roads
and city streets, with their river bridges
of stone or iron. i have seen no roads
in Great Britain or Ireland that were
not stone-paved. L have still omitted
the hundred millions of gold and silver
coins in bank or circulation, and the
hundreds of millions of the precious
metals in the form of plate, jewelry and
ornaments. Nor have L included in the
inventory the multitude of Libraries,
some of them containing million OF
volumes the numerous museums OF art
and natural objects; the galleries OF
paintings, the collections of sculpture,
ancient and modern. To sum it all up
in short sentence, the estimated value
of the property of the islands of Great
Britain and Ireland is put down at ten
billions of pounds, or fifty thousand
millions of dollars ! Forty per cent. OF
this almost incomprehensible sum is the
value of the real estate, and 60 per cent.
that of the improvements thereon, and
the personal property, moneys and
credits. / have included Ireland in the
estimate of the aggregate of wealth ;
but, while she contains rather more
than one-sixth of the total population,
she represents less than one-twentieth
part of the total wealth.