354 REPORT—1883. 
1,125,000,0007. In 1812 Dr. Colquhoun ! estimated the capital value of 
the United Kingdom at 2,700,000,0007. In 1842 Mr. Porter 2 estimated’ 
the amount of personal property at 2,200,000,0001., and of real property 
2,382,000,0001. ; total, 4,582,000,0007. And in 1878 Mr. Giffen estimated 
it at 8,500,000,0007.3 
But these varied estimates are not strictly comparable, however 
useful they may be as recording the results arrived at at different times 
by earnest and bond fide labourers in statistical science. We do not 
know the method pursued by each, or whether the income of every class. 
of the community has been duly computed in each case. If we compare 
the income of the people of the United Kingdom at the extreme periods 
embraced, making allowance for the altered value of money and the 
difference in the purchasing power, the economic progress, however large, 
thereby indicated, may easily be accounted for. But if we compare each 
estimate with the preceding one, ‘the results present some decided 
anomalies. Recent estimates have certainly the advantage of the income- 
tax assessments, which represent the amount for which the persons 
subject to the tax are willing to be rated. And though there may be, in 
many cases, the temptation to under-estimate that income so as to escape 
the tax in all or in part, still, on the aggregate, the range of error is 
considerably less by this method than by other modes of valuation, 
§ 3. Changes in the Distribution of Wealth. 
The purpose of this paper, however, is not to examine critically the 
estimates already made of the income of the people of the United Kingdom, 
nor to offer any exhaustive estimate of my own. For this purpose, the: 
forthcoming volumes of the ‘ Report on the Census of 1881’ will supply 
most valuable materials; and I hope to avail myself of the same for a 
paper for the forthcoming meeting of the Association at Montreal. What 
1 See Dr. Colquhoun’s work, p. 55. 
2 Progress of the Nation. 
* Estimates of a like character have also been made in France, Germany, Austria,. 
and the United States of America :— 
Germany and Austria.—Neumann-Spiillart, Vebersichten iiber Produhtion, Verhkehr 
wnd Handelin der Weltwirthschaft, 1878; Michaelis, Die Gliederung der Geselischaft 
nach dem Wohlstande, Leipzig, 1878; Soetbeer, Umfang und Vertheilung des Voliis- 
Hinkommens im Preussischen Staate, Leipzig, 1879. 
France.—Vauban, Projet d'une dime royale, Paris (Guillaumin), 1843. Vol. i. 
of the Economiste financier du XVTIT. sivtele; Lavoisier, De la richesse territoriale: 
de la France, Paris (Guillaumin), 1847. Mélange d’économie politique (by B. Daire and 
G. De Molinari); Lagrange, Yssai d’arithmétique politique sur les premiers besoins de 
Vintévieur de la République (ibid.); Block, Statistique de la France, Paris, 1878 ; 
Dictionnaire de la politique, 2de 6d. Paris, 1875, art. ‘France’; Mony, Etude sur le 
travail, Paris, 1877; Vacher, ‘La fortune nationale de la France, Jowrnal de la 
Société de Statistique de Paris, Nov. 1878; De Foville, ‘De quelques évaluations 
récentes du capital national,’ Heonomiste francais, December 28, 1878, and January 
28, 1879. 
England.—Porter, On the Progress of the Nation, London, 1847; Capps, The: 
National Debt Financially Considered, London, 1859; Levi, On Tawation, London, 
1860; Dudley Baxter, National Debt, 1871. National Income, 1868 ; Giffen, ‘ Recent 
Accumulation of Capital in the United Kingdom,’ Jowrnal of the Statistical Society, 
March 1878; Newmarch, On the Progress of the Foreign Trade of the United Kingdom 
since 1856; June 1878. 
Essai sur la question @une statistique de revenu national (Commission permanente: 
du Congrés International de Statistique), Mémoire, 1876. 
Annali di Statistica, vol. 15,1880. < Proposal of Professor Salandra for a Calcula- 
tion of National Wealth in Italy.’ 
