320 REPORT— 1880. 



the ascertainment of the total national income is a question apart from 

 the manner in which the different classes of the community partici- 

 pate in the same, the income-tax returns of the amount assessed to each 

 individual under Schedules D & E, and of the aggregate of all the assess- 

 ments under Schedules A, B, & C, will be found as great helps in the cal- 

 culation ; especially in any attempt to consider the relation of expenditure 

 to income among the different classes of the community. From the 

 reports of the Local Government Board we have the total value of real 

 property subject to local taxation. The Miscellaneous Statistics give the 

 rates of wages in manufactures and trades. From the Agricultural 

 Statistics we have the materials for ascertaining the quantities of agri- 

 cultural products ; from the Board of Trade tables the tonnage of ship- 

 ping annually built. The Mineral Statistics give the quantities of coal, 

 iron, and other metals produced. As regards Expenditure, the Board of 

 Trade tables give the quantities and values of articles of food and clothing 

 imported and consumed. But no information is given in public docu- 

 ments of the quantities and value of the same produced and consumed at 

 home, and it will have to be obtained from other sources. The Statistics 

 of Coal, the accounts of Water and Gas companies, and the Accounts of 

 the House Tax, supply information regarding the expenditure on house, 

 fire, light, &c. The railway accounts give the amount expended in 

 travelling. Special information would be needed on the expenditure on 

 theatres and amusements ; in newspapers, reviews, tracts, and books. 

 And still greater difiBculty may be found in estimating the expenditure 

 in articles of consumption, arising from the additional value imparted 

 to such articles by artificial and other circumstances. A large item of 

 national expenditure consists in labour productively or unproductively 

 employed. In its great population the United Kingdom possesses a vast 

 source of wealth, and any portion of the population remaining idle or 

 unproductive must be considered as so much loss of national wealth. 



The national income of the United Kingdom is considerable in amount, 

 probably exceeding one thousand millions a year, but its economic value 

 depends on the mode of its appropriation, and any information illustrative 

 of the relation between income and expenditure among the different 

 classes of the community would be of great value. No sharp division, 

 it is true, exists between the upper, middle, and labouring classes ; never- 

 theless there are ample data to assist in the inquiry. Considerable 

 advantage, the Committee thinks, would be derived by the comparison of 

 the personal expenditure in different countries, gi'eatly affected though it 

 is by the difference of temperature and the habits of the people. Are the 

 people of England less thrifty than the people of other countries ? Is 

 the amount of national saving in the United Kingdom less than might 

 be expected ? Many economic and social problems depend for their 

 •solution on the mode in which wages and other sources of income are 

 appropriated, and your Committee ventures to solicit its reappointment 

 with a view of instituting the necessary inquiries, and making a full and 

 exhaustive report on the whole subject. 



