SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— F. 377 



Truck Acts. In the present century these exceptions have extended so far and taken 



;S0 manj' forms, that the actual distribution of wealth to-day is very largely determined 



■by authority. 



Prof. Bowley has examined the changes in the distribution of the national income 

 between the years 1880 and 1913. The proportions in which the national income is 



■distributed between different social classes and different categories of income show 

 a remarkable constancy. In particular, average wages increased in the same ratio 



•as average income. If intervening years are examined, however, it is seen that nearly 

 the whole of the advance in real wages was made in the first half of the period in 

 •which the price-level was falling. The check to the rise in real wages since the end 

 of the last century coincides with a marked increase in the interference of the State 

 with wage settlements and with a marked increase in the distribution of the national 

 income by authority through the media of taxation and public social services. If 

 an estimate be made of the real income (as distinct from wages) of the wage-earner, 

 it appears that this increased authoritarian element to a large extent compensated 

 for the check to the rise in real wages, and that the economic welfare of the poorer 

 classes has more than kept pace with the increase in national wealth. 



Examination of the chief forms which this interference with distribution by the 



^tate has taken. 



Discussion of the limits to which it can be carried. 



Monday, August 9. 



5. Joint Meeting and Discussion with Section M on The Limits 



of Agricultural Expansion, opened with 



Presidential Address (Section M) by Sir Daniel Hall, K.C.B., 



F.R.S., on The Relation between Cultivated Area and Population. 



(See p. 2.55.) 



Speakers : Prof. D. H. Macgregor ; Right Hon. Lord Bledisloe, 



K.B.E. ; Sir Thomas H. Middleton, K.B.E. ; Mr. R. J. Thompson, 



C.B. 



Tuesday, August 10. 



6. Prof. T. E. Gregory. — The First Year of the Gold Standard. 



The first part of the paper deals with the theoretical issues involved in the return 

 to gold : the choice of the stabilisation ratio : the problem of internal as against 

 •external values and the use of wholesale as against cost-of-living figures. It is next 

 pointed out that recent experience goes to show that the return to gold involves the 

 ■danger of two different kinds of economic crisis : distinguished as 'Adjustment crisis' 

 and ' Stabilisation crisis ' respectively. The first year of the gold standard in England 

 is taken as an illustration of the first, the position in Austria and Germany of the 

 second type of crisis. In contrast, the developments in Holland and Sweden are 

 •examined. 



The second part of the paper deals with the last eighteen months, and comprises 

 a discussion of some general statistical aspects of the recent past, as well as an examina- 

 tion of the policy of certain trading central banks (Federal Reserve Bank, Bank of 

 England, Reichsbank). 



In the third part of the paper an examination is made of the course of events in 

 "the Latin countries and in Scandinavia. 



The last part of the paper deals with the development of the theory of stabilisation 

 :and recent views on that topic. 



7. Prof. W. Gelesnoff. — The Russian Currency after the Monetary 



Reform of 1924. 

 The Russian currency began to recover with the ' new economic policy ' pro- 

 •claimed in 1921 . The economic situation at that time was unfavourable to elaboration 

 of adequate provisional measures for the monetary reform. The reform was begun 

 Tinder adverse auspices (budgetary deficit and bad season). In fact, however, the 

 •difficulties proved not very hampering. A considerable increase in the quantity of 



