TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



779 



he reached, not by the workman huying up the aid of several employers (at a rate 

 slightly below that hitherto prevailing, so as to cut out his competitors), but solely 

 by the employer refusing to buy at the existing rate as many workmen as he has 

 hitherto done. The resilience of the money market is not impeded by any similar 

 defect. Another subject which may le usefully contemplated by the aid of mathe- 

 matical conceptions is the efl'ect of a quasi-monopoly, such as the Bank of England 

 used to enjoy. However interesting such inqviiries, we must always remember 

 that they are at an enormous height of abstraction above ;"real life. It has been 

 well said of the economical theorist that he has a key which has unluckily been, 

 left within the chamber which is to be opened. Yet though we cannot determine 

 the exact shape and number of the wards, it is something to have a general know- 

 ledge of the difficulty to be resolved. We can at least confute the charlatan when 

 he offers his patent picklocks. It is melancholy to contemplate the waste of 

 emotion and errors of conduct following upon the bogus theory of value which a 

 certain sect of Socialists has adopted. The Jevonian theory may not enable us to 

 predict what will be the price of money or any other article to-morrow, but at 

 least it helps to dissipate the sophisms incidental to a subject whose natural obscu- 

 rity is darkened by interest and passion. 



7. The Definition of Wealth. Bij H. D. McLeod. 



8. The Cost of Shiphuilding in H.M. Dochjards. 

 By Fkank p. .Fellows, Kt.S.J.J., F.S.S., F.S.A. 



This paper showed that about 1 ,000,000^. per year less was spent on the navy 

 in each year (1869 to 1872) than before or since; that the plant, buildings, and 

 machinery of the dockyards were better kept up then than before or since ; that if 

 since, up to 1884, as much had been expended on such plant, &c., 3,655,000L more 

 would have been expended ; and that, nevertheless, the warships built in H.M. 

 dockyards and bought were many thousands of tons yearly more in 1869 to 1872 

 than before or since, as the table below will show : — 



That, taking the cost per ton (displacement), i.e., the actual weight of the ir<m- 

 clads' hulls built in H.M. dockyards, and adding incidental charges as added or 

 shown in the Admiralty final expense accounts of the cost of ships built, they cost 

 about 67/. per ton from 1869 to 1872, about 100/. per ton from 1880 to 1884, and 

 about llOZ. per ton in 1884. 



The author of the paper believed that the excess cost, 1880 to 1884, arose largely 

 because the recommendations of Mr. Seely's Committee on Admiralty Moneys of 

 Accounts of 1868, carried out under the superintendence of the author in 1869 and 

 afterwards, and which led to the great results stated, had not been kept up in their 

 entirety and integrity. 



The author referred to papers on this subject read by him before the Statistical 

 Society of London, and at the meeting of the British Association at Swansea, which 

 stated in detail what these reforms were, and how they had caused this great saving 

 concurrently with increase of tonnage built, and gave it as his carefully considered 



