THE PROGRESS OF THE WORKING-CLASSES. 45 



what are called the capitalist classes, whether it is from capital proper 

 or, as I maintain, a retm-n only in the nature of wages, has only in- 

 creased about 100 per cent, although capital itself has increased over 

 150 per cent. At the same time the capitalist classes themselves have 

 greatly increased in number, so that the amount of capital possessed 

 among them per head has only increased 15 per cent, notwithstand- 

 ing the great increase in capital itself, and the average income per 

 head can have hardly increased at all. On the other hand, as the 

 masses of the nation, taking the United Kingdom altogether, have 

 only increased about 30 per cent since 1843, when these income-tax 

 figures begin, while their aggregate incomes have increased 160 per 

 cent, it is explained how these incomes have gained, individually, 

 about 100 per cent as against hardly any increase at all in the incomes 

 of what are called the capitalist classes, on the average. Thus the 

 rich have become more numerous, but not richer individually ; the 

 " poor " are, to some smaller extent, fewer ; and those who remain 

 "poor" are, individually, twice as well off on the average as they 

 were fifty years ago. The " poor " have thus had almost all the bene- 

 fit of the great material advance of the last fifty years. 



We may now conclude this long inquiry. It has been shown 

 directly, I believe, that, while the individual incomes of the working- 

 classes have largely increased, the prices of the main articles of their 

 consumption have rather declined ; and the inference as to their being 

 much better off, which would be drawn from these facts, is fully sup- 

 ported by statistics showing a decline in the rate of mortality, an in- 

 crease of the consumption of articles in general use, an improvement 

 in general education, a diminution of crime and pauperism, a vast in- 

 crease of the number of depositors in savings-banks, and other evi- 

 dences of general well-being. Finally, the increase of the return to 

 capital has not been in any way in proportion, the yield on the same 

 amount of capital being less than it was, and the capital itself being 

 more diffused, while the remuneration of labor has enormously in- 

 creased. The facts are what we should have expected from the con- 

 ditions of production in recent years. Inventions having been multi- 

 plied, and production having been increasingly efficient, while capital 

 has been accumulated rapidly, it is the wages-receivers who must 

 have the benefit. The competition of capital keeps profits down to 

 the lowest point, and workmen consequently get for themselves nearly 

 the whole product of the aggregate industry of the country. It is 

 interesting, nevertheless, to find that the facts correspond with what 

 theory should lead us to anticipate. 



The moral is a very obvious one. Whatever may be said as to 

 the ideal perfection or imperfection of the present economic regime, 

 the fact of so great an advance having been possible for the masses of 

 the people in the last half -century is encouraging. It is something to 



