represent three fourths. This change in the composition of the masses of itself implies improvement, even if there had been no increase in the wages of the different classes. But, during this same period, the "money" wages of all classes of labor in Great Britain have advanced about 100 per cent, while the purchasing power of the wages in respect to most commodities, especially in recent years, has been also very great. Among the few things that have not declined, house-rent is the most notable, a fact noticed equally in Great Britain and France, although in both countries the increase in the number of inhabited houses is very large; the increase in the item of houses in the income-tax assessments of the United Kingdom between 1875 and 1885 having been about 36 per cent.[1] But high rents, in the face of considerable building, are in themselves proof that other things are cheap, and that the competition for comfortable dwellings is great.
The Government of Great Britain keeps and publishes an annual record of the quantities of the principal articles imported, or subject to an excise (internal revenue) tax, which are retained for home consumption per head, by the total population of the kingdom. From these records the following table has been compiled. From a humanitarian point of view, it is one of the most wonderful things in the history of the latter half of the nineteenth century:
Per-capita consumption of different commodities (imported or subject to excise taxes) by the population of Great Britain.
| ARTICLES. | 1840. | 1886. | ARTICLES. | 1840. | 1886. | ||
| Bacon and hams | Lbs. | 0·01 | 11·95 | Raw sugar | Lbs. | 15·20 | 47·21 |
| Butter | " | 1·05 | 7·17 | Refined sugar | " | None. | 18·75 |
| Cheese | " | 0·92 | 5·14 | Tea | " | 1·22 | 4·87 |
| Currants and raisins | " | 1·45 | 4·02 | Tobacco | " | 0·86 | 1·42 |
| Eggs | No. | 3·63 | 28·12 | Wine | Gals. | 0·25 | 0·36 |
| Rice | Lbs. | 0·90 | 10·75 | Spirits (foreign) | " | 0·14 | 0·24 |
| Cocoa | " | 0·08 | 0·41 | Spirits (British) | " | 0·83 | 0·73 |
| Coffee | " | 1·08 | 0·86 | Malt | Bush. | 1·59 | 1·64* |
| Wheat and wheat flour, | Beer (1881) | Gals. | 27·78 | 26·61 | |||
| Lbs. | 42·47 | 185·76 | |||||
- 1879.
During all the period of years covered by the statistics of this table, the purchasing power of the British people in respect to the necessities and luxuries of life has therefore been progressively in-creasing, and has been especially rapid since 1873-'76. Converting this increase in the purchasing power of wages into terms of money, the British workman can now purchase an amount of the necessaries of life for 28s. 5d., which in 1839 would have cost him 34s. 01/2d.[2] But this statement falls very far short of the advantages that have accrued
