Part 5 (2/2)
From this last comparatively limited but not unimportant test of the general prosperity of the country, we pa.s.s to the Post Office returns.
Next to the test of railway traffic, already dealt with, no better evidence of the prosperity and commercial activity of a country can be found than is furnished by the growth of post office business. A nation whose trade is being filched from it by foreigners, whose blast furnaces are cold, and whose looms are silent, as Mr. Williams would have us believe, does not add every year forty million letters to the amount of its correspondence. Yet this is what we have been doing in the United Kingdom for a good many years past. Starting from the year ending March 31st, 1878, when a slight alteration was made in the method of presenting the statistics, we find that in the nineteen years that have since elapsed the number of letters delivered annually has increased from 1,058 millions to 1,834 millions. In the same period postcards have increased from 102 millions to 315 millions; newspapers and book packets, from 318 to 821 millions. Moreover, the increase has been steady, with one significant exception. In the year 1894-95, which was notoriously a year of bad trade, there was a drop in the number of letters delivered. The drop was more than made good in 1895-96. Turning to telegrams, we find a similar story. Here we are compelled to start with the year 1886-87, the first complete year after the introduction of sixpenny telegrams. In the ten years that have since elapsed the number of telegrams delivered has steadily increased from 50 millions to 79 millions.
EVER-GROWING INCOMES.
Another test of our national prosperity is furnished by the income tax returns. When the annual value of the property and profits a.s.sessed for income tax exhibits a steady increase, it is hard to believe that our manufacturers, and all the cla.s.ses that depend upon them for support, are being ruined by Germans or by anybody else. Here are the figures:-
INCOME TAX a.s.sESSMENTS.
In Millions Sterling.
-------------+-------------+------------- Five Years' | Schedule D. | All Average. | | Schedules.
-------------+-------------+------------- 1870-74 | 210 | 490 1875-79 | 263 | 575 1880-84 | 268 | 601 1885-89 | 292 | 634 1890-94 | 350 | 699 -------------+-------------+-------------
The return from which the above figures are taken stops with the year 1894; but a somewhat similar comparison was brought up to date in the last Budget speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The following table is taken from the ”explanatory memorandum” that accompanied that speech:-
YIELD PER PENNY OF THE INCOME TAX.
-------------+------------+----------------------------------- | | Ten Years' Growth, | | after allowing for alterations in Year | Yield | the incidence of the tax.
Ending | per +-----------------+----------------- March 31st. | Penny. | Amount of | Percentage of | | Growth. | Growth.
-------------+------------+-----------------+----------------- | Thousand | Thousand | Per Cent.
| | | 1876 | 1,978 | - | - 1886 | 1,980 | 62 | 323 1896 | 2,012 | 207 | 1147 -------------+------------+-----------------+-----------------
With such figures as these available it is difficult to understand how people can continue to pour forth nonsense about the ruin of our national industries. During the very decade in which the blight of German compet.i.tion was supposed to have destroyed the profits of our manufacturers, it is clear from the above infallible test that the incomes of our commercial, professional, and property-owning cla.s.ses have been growing with increasing rapidity.
REDUCTION OF NATIONAL DEBT.
Pa.s.sing from taxation to the question of what has been done with the taxes, it is sufficient to select one fact for comment-the enormous reduction in the National Debt. Here are the figures:-
THE INDEBTEDNESS OF THE NATION.
----------+------------------------------+------------------------ | Aggregate Gross Liabilities. | Per Head of Population.
----------+------------------------------+------------------------ 1876 | 776,000,000 | 23 13 9 1886 | 745,000,000 | 20 13 8 1896 | 652,000,000 | 16 13 2 ----------+------------------------------+------------------------
That is to say, that within the past ten years-the years of alleged depression and blight-we have reduced our national indebtedness by over 90 millions sterling. During the same period it is worth while to point out that we have expended enormous sums in the almost complete reconstruction of our navy. Meanwhile Germany-the hated rival-has, since the war, added as many millions to her debt as we in ten years have taken from ours.
SOME STAPLE COMMODITIES.
In case the pessimists and the Protectionists should be still unconvinced by these proofs of national prosperity, let us turn to a new series of tests, the test of consumption. The great staple commodities which we will first take (cotton, wool, and coal) are partly required for manufacturing purposes and subsequent export, and partly for home use. The word ”consumption” covers both uses, and we cannot, except in the case of wool, readily ascertain to which use the greater effect is attributable. In the case of wool it so happens, as was previously pointed out, that our export trade in manufactured goods has declined.
But since the total consumption of raw wool by the United Kingdom has gone on increasing, it is clear that the decline in woollen exports has been more than made good by the increased home demand, unless, indeed, it be imagined that woollen manufacturers go on weaving an endless web which n.o.body wears. Nor is that all, for the figures of our import trade show that in addition we are importing considerable and increasing quant.i.ties of foreign woollen manufactures. So that not only have the home consumers more than recouped the British woollen manufacturer for the decline of his export business, but so great is their purchasing power that they can, at the same time, afford to send abroad for fresh woollen stuffs to please their fancy. Here are the figures showing the consumption by the inhabitants and manufacturers of the United Kingdom of three staple articles referred to:-
CONSUMPTION OF COTTON, WOOL, AND COAL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
+-----------------+--------------+--------------+---------------+ | Average of Five | Cotton (Raw) | Wool (Raw) | Coal | | Years. | Million lbs. | Million lbs. | Million Tons. | +-----------------+--------------+--------------+---------------+ | 1870-74 | 1,178 | 342 | 108 | | 1875-79 | 1,221 | 353 | 118 | | 1880-84 | 1,445 | 354 | 136 | | 1885-89 | 1,467 | 416 | 141 | | 1890-94 | 1,590 | 475 | 151 | | Year 1895 | 1,635 | 510 | 157 | +-----------------+--------------+--------------+---------------+
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