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|TREMENDOUS INCREASE OF ENGLANDS'
WEALTH.
London Tablet.

Calculations as to the rate and amount o
the accumulation of national wealth avail
liable as capital for employment in fresf
productive enterprise, are based mainly or
the income tax returns, and must, for tha,
reason err, if they err at all, much more or
the side of defect than on the side Of ex.
cess. These accumulations are shown to
to have been enormous beyond all former
precedent during the ten years from 1855
Ito 1875. The matter was stated with great
clearnes sat meeting of the Statistical So.
ciety on Tuesday, by Mr.. Robert Giffen, 9
well known economist, who is now at the
head of the Statistical Department of the
Board of Trade. 1t was shown that, at the
+ beginning of the present century the ma
tional property assessed to income tax in
Great Britain amounted to lis millions, in
al9l5 1t had risen to 130, in lS43 to 25I, and
lin 1853 to 262 millions. In 1855 the returns
for the United Kingdom showed the as.
ssessed property to amount to 306 millions,
land in 1865 to 306 millions. By the end OF
THE following decade of years the increase
amounted to "A per cent. or 175 millions
so that in 1875 the property as
Ssessed to income tax amounted to 57l mil
lions. An estimate of the increase of the
3otber kinds of capital based on those as
8sessed to income-tax, makes the valQe of
the national eetate TO have increased dur
the ten years in question at the rate of al
quarter of a million of millions of sterling
8per annum so that in ten years of aver
!age prosperity the country has been amas
sSing . sum equal to three or four times theI
amount of the national debt. In other
words, the United Kingdom could pay off
the national debt three times over in ready
icash and yet remain more wealthy than wei
wore in 1865. 1t may be noted that dis
lcussiOn arose amongst the members of tbe|
Statistical Society present on the conclu-
!sion of Mr.. Giffen's paper, and it WAS re i
marked by Mr. Newmarch, FRS, whoI
presided, that, according to his belief thej
lfgures given by Mr.. Giffen were considera-
IDLY below the reality. If we accept them
|as correct, they certainly convey, even al
lowing for the increase Of population-apl
|sAtimate OF national prosperity probably
- exceeding that enjoyed by any nationI
!of modern or ancient times. A question of
great present national interest closely
connected with this matter is as to whether
the national prosperity OF which we haveI
spoken, be not already showing symptoms|
Iof decay. Pessimism, it would seem, hasl
tits representatives amongst the statistic
|ians and political economists, as well az!
elsewhere, and gloomy forebodihgs haveI
been expressed that the enormous prosper
ity enjoyed by the United Kingdom fromI
1865 to 1875 is not progressive, nay has al
ready begun to decline. 1t has been as
serted "that We are spending our capital ii
that we have lost the power and the will toI
save; shat we are calling in our foreignE
investments and dissipating the money they
represent" Mr.. Giffen dealt with theseI
alarms in so far as they have anythingI
tangible about them ard showed their fall
lacy, except on the improbable suppositiopt
that the alarmists mast have enjoyed accessH
Go sources of informatio that were hid denk
from himself.