THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK. 



469 



represent three fourths. This change in the composition of the masses 

 of itself implies improvement, even if there had been no increase 

 in the wages of the different classes. But, during this same period, 

 the "money" wages of all classes of labor in Great Britain have ad- 

 vanced about 100 per cent, while the purchasing power of the wages 

 in respect to most commodities, especially in recent years, has been 

 also very great. Among the few things that have not declined, 

 house-rent is the most notable, a fact noticed equally in Great Britain 

 and France, although in both countries the increase in the number of 

 inhabited houses is very large ; the increase in the item of houses in 

 the income-tax assessments of the United Kingdom between 1875 and 

 1885 having been about 36 per cent.* But high rents, in the face of 

 considerable building, are in themselves proof that other things are 

 cheap, and that the competition for comfortable dwellings is great. 



The Government of Great Britain keeps and publishes an annual 

 record of the quantities of the principal articles imported, or subject 

 to an excise (internal revenue) tax, which are retained for home con- 

 sumption per head, by the total population of the kingdom. From 

 these records the following table has been compiled. From a humani- 

 tarian point of view, it is one of the most wonderful things in the his- 

 tory of the latter half of the nineteenth century : 



Per-capita consumption of different commodities (imported or subject to excise 

 taxes) hy the population of Great Britain. 



* 1879. 



During all the period of years covered by the statistics of this 

 table, the purchasing power of the British people in respect to the 

 necessities and luxuries of life has therefore been progressively in- 

 creasing, and has been especially rapid since 1873-76. Converting 

 this increase in the purchasing power of wages into terms of money, 

 the British workman can now purchase an amount of the necessaries 

 of life for 28s. 5c?., which in 1839 would have cost him 345. Oid.\ But 

 this statement falls very far short of the advantages that have accrued 



* The value of the new hou?es built in Great Britain since 1840 has been estimated at 

 double the value of the British national debt, 

 f David Chadwick. British Association, 1887. 



