<u 
ON RECENT CHANGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 353 
Recent Changes in the Distribution of Wealth in Relation to the 
Incomes of the Labowring Classes. By Professor Leone LEVI, 
Wee. LS.S., FRG. 
[A communication ordered by the General Committee to be printed in extenso 
among the Reports. ] 
§ 1. Value of Estimates of National Income and National Wealth. 
Maxy attempts have been made to arrive at the annual income of the 
people of the United Kingdom; not, indeed, from any sentiment of 
vanity or sheer curiosity, but to obtain the necessary data for the appre- 
ciation of many economic and social problems of the greatest practical 
importance. But the problem is difficult to solve, because many branches 
of income defy any valuation, because different branches of income have 
not the same value, because such values are subject to constant fluctua- 
tions ; and because, when we have estimated the income of the different 
classes of the people, their aggregate will not represent the income of the 
nation as a whole; the income of one section, as in the case of the pro- 
fessional classes—the domestic service, &c.—being, in reality, the expen- 
diture of another section. All attempts, moreover, to estimate the income 
of the nation can only be of an approximate character. Enough, indeed, 
if we can come within a measurable distance of the real truth. 
§ 2. Estimated Amounts of Income and Wealth. 
As far back as in the reign of Henry VIII. a general survey was 
made of the kingdom, including the number of its inhabitants, their 
ages, professions, wealth, and other particulars, when the entire income 
was estimated at 4,000,000/.! per annum; which, with a population cf 
about 5,000,000, gave a proportion of 16s. per head. In 1822, Lord 
Liverpool valued the income of Great Britain at 250,000,0001. ; which, 
with a population of 14,400,000, gave a proportion of 17/. per head. In 
1854, Mr. M‘Culloch? estimated the income at 370,000,0002. ; which, 
with a population of 21,600,000, gave a proportion of 177. per head. 
‘None of these estimates, however, evidently included the incomes of the 
labouring classes. Of such income there was but little knowledge till 
1866, when I began to inquire into, and unite together, their wages and 
earnings, and found them amounting to upwards of 400,000,0001. per 
annum. In 1868, Mr. Dudley Baxter gave his valuable paper on national 
income ; and he estimated the total amount for the United Kingdom at 
$14,000,0007.; which, on a population of 30,000,000, gave a proportion 
of 201. 17s. per head. And in 1881, the population being about 
39,000,000, the income has been estimated at 1,000,000,0002. per annum, 
or 281. per head. In a similar manner, calculations have been made of 
the capital of the State. Gregory King, in 1688,3 estimated the total 
value of England at 650,000,000/. Dr. Becke, in 1798, estimated the 
capital at 995,000,000/.; and in the same year, Mr. Pitt estimated it at 
? Dr. Colquhoun, Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire, p. 148, 
1815. 
? M‘Culloch, Account of the British Empire, vol. ii. p. 526. 
* Natural and Political Observations upon the State and Condition of England, 
1696. 
1883. AA 
