ON THE APPROPRIATION OF ■WAGES, ETC. 299 



paralyses the productive forces of the nation. And so is war, with all its 

 incidents ; the maintenance of large armies and navies, the destruction 

 of property, and the exhaustion of capital in every form. 



In the report laid before the Association meeting at York last year 

 many valuable facts were presented illustrative of the personal expendi- 

 ture of the people of the United Kingdom derived from the quantities of 

 produce and manufacture annually consumed and valued at import and 

 retail prices, both exclusive and inclusive of import and excise duties, 

 as well as of expenses and profits of distribution. Though, as your Com- 

 mittee have already stated, the question at issue is not capable of correct 

 statistical analysis, and the values are, at best, estimates, the facts collected 

 may be taken as sufficiently near the truth. For the purpose of this 

 calculation the population was taken at 25,200,000. In estimatmg the 

 income the number of paupers, sick and old, must be considered, but it 

 should be remembered that only a small proportion of paupers are able- 

 bodied, and that these are in the great majority not idlers, but persons 

 earning insufficient wages, the low rates of which contribute to lower the 

 estimated earnings for the whole number. The broad results, in their 

 aggregate, were that the gross or personal expenditure of the people may 

 be°taken to amount to about 870,000,000Z., and the net, or national, 

 to about 684,700,000L 



Upon these figures some emendations are required. The house-rent, 

 deduced from the amount assessed to the Inhabited House duty, is 

 made on the full value, and not on four-fifths, as for the poor-rate as 

 previously calculated. We must, therefore, remove the 8,000, 000Z._ added 

 for that purpose. The amount of house-rent in Ireland may be estimated 

 from the value of messuages charged to income-tax, which was 2,200,000Z. 

 Add twenty per cent, to that amount, which is too low according 

 to Griffiths' valuation, to arrive at the present rate, viz. 800,000Z., 

 and take two-thirds of the whole amount, so as to exclude shops, 

 &c., we obtain the amount of house-rent in Ireland, 2,700,000L Hence 

 the total gross or personal expenditure in house-rent may safely be taken 

 at 71,700,OO0Z. and the net at 67,400,000Z. The attention of the Com- 

 mittee has been called to the large expenditure in locomotion, apart from 

 that included under the heading of amusements. It is difficult, however, 

 to distinguish the personal from the business expenditure in locomotion. 

 The gross receipts from passenger traffic on the railways amounted to 

 26,000,000L ; add 6,000,000Z. for tramways, cabs, and omnibuses, and we 

 have a total of 30,000,OOOL But of this amount only one-fourth can be 

 taken as representing the personal expenditure, or about 7,500,000Z., only 

 40 per cent, of which would represent the real expenditure in the main- 

 tenance of way, locomotive power, horses, &c., or 3,000,OOOZ.^ Another 

 omission has been noted, viz., the expenditure on domestic service. Such 

 expenditure is, however, included in the cost of the articles which servants 

 consume, the remainder constituting a simple transfer from one class to 

 another. The same observation will apply to other branches of expendi- 

 ture, as the medical, lawyers' fees, &c. 



Making the necessary alterations, the total expenditure is as follows : — 



