470 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to bini ; for wages in Great Britain, as before stated, are fully 100 per 

 cent higher at the present time than they were in 18o9. 



The impression probably prevails very generally in all countries 

 that the capitalist classes are continually getting richer and richer, 

 while the masses remain poor, or become poorer. But in Great Britian, 

 where alone of all countries the material (i. e., through long-continued 

 and systematized returns of incomes and estates [probate] for taxa- 

 tion) exists for scientific inquiry, the results of investigation demon- 

 strate that this is not the case. 



In the case of estates, the number subjected to legacy and succes- 

 sion duties within the last fifty years has increased in a ratio double 

 that of population, but the average amount of property per estate 

 has not sensibly augmented. If, therefore, wealth among the capitalist 

 classes has greatly increased, as it has, there are more owners of it 

 than ever before ; or, in other words, wealth, to a certain extent, is 

 more diffused than it was. Of the whole number of estates that were 

 assessed for probate duty in Great Britain in 1886, 77*5 per cent were 

 for estates representing property under £1,000 ($5,000). 



In the matter of national income, a study of its increase and appor- 

 tionment among the different classes in Great Britain has led to the 

 following conclusions : Since 1843, when the income-tax figures begin, 

 the increase in taxable income is believed to have been £755,000,000. 

 Of this amount, the income from the capitalist classes increased about 

 100 per cent, or from £190,000,000 to £400,000,000, But, at the same 

 time, the number of the capitalist classes increased so largely that the 

 average amount of capital possessed among them per head increased 

 only 15 per cent, although the increase in capital itself was in excess 

 of 150 per cent. In the case of the " upper " and " middle " classes, 

 the income from their "working" increased from £154,000,000 to 

 £320,000,000, or about 100 per cent ; while, in the case of the masses 

 (i. e., the manual-labor classes), which have increased in population 

 only 30 per cent since 1843, the increase of their incomes has gone up 

 from £171,000,000 to £550,000,000, or over 200 per cent. Between 

 1877 and 1886 the number of assessments in Great Britain for incomes 

 between £150 ($750) and £1,000 ($5,000) increased 19-26 per cent, 

 while the number of assessments for incomes of £1,000 and upward 

 decreased 2*4 per cent.* What has happened to all that large class 



* The followinj^ tabic shows how wealth is distributed in the different classes of in- 

 come-tax payers in Great Britain under Schedule D, which comprises incomes from profits 

 on trades and employments : 



" In 1877 the number of assessments of incomes from £150 to £500 was 285,754, and 

 in 1886 it was 347,031, showing an increase of 21-4 per cent; of incomes between £500 

 and £1,000, the numbers wore, in 1877, 32,085, and in 1886, 32,033, no increase at all; of 

 incomes between £1,000 and £5,000, the numbers were, in 1877, 19,726, and in 1886, 

 1 9,250, a decrease of 24 per cent ; and of the incomes over £5,000, the numbers were, 

 in 1877, 3,122, and in 1886, 3,048, a decrease of 2-3 per cent. It results that from these 

 figures the increase of the income-tax during times of depression and during ordinary 



