106 FINANCE 



be said of the community. England is the healthiest 

 nation in the world and it is the richest. At Zanzibar, 

 the cost of the least valuable of human lives used to 

 be 20. But suppose the slave died, then the capital 

 expended upon her was lost (for there was no insur- 

 ance company to insure slaves at Zanzibar in those 

 days), as was the work that would have been done by 

 her. Or if she was constantly ill and unable to work, 

 the cost to her master was even greater, for she had 

 to be provided for during her illness ; it was increas- 

 ing capital expenditure with compound interest. 

 But if the slave's life could have been saved, or her 

 illness avoided, then the capital expended on her 

 would have been actually repaid by her work. All 

 persons are slaves of the State in which they live, 

 and for which they work, and if they are healthy 

 they will gradually repay any capital that is expended 

 by it on their welfare. 



If the State pays sixpence per head of popula- 

 tion per year, and thus renders the whole community 

 free from certain diseases, or if it merely renders the 

 life of that community more comfortable, the capital 

 sunk to produce the sixpences (33,000 at 3 per cent, 

 for a community of 50,000) will soon be repaid. The 

 death-rate will fall, and healthy children will grow up 

 instead of unhealthy ones. Every healthy child is 

 an actual financial asset to the State, for it will do 

 its share in increasing the industrial output. And 

 this increasing output will improve the credit of the 

 State. As the success of the mosquito campaign 

 becomes established, and the insects disappear, the 



