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THE PROGRESS OF THE WORKING-CLASSES.
43
Analysis of the Income-Tax Returns for the under-mentioned Years, showing the Estimated Income from Capital on the one side, and the Estimated Income from Wages of Superintendence and Salaries on the other side.
[In millions of pounds.]
| 1881 | 1862 | 1843 | ||||
| From capital. |
From salaries, etc. |
From capital. |
From salaries, etc. |
From capital. |
From salaries, etc. | |
| Schedule A— | ||||||
| Lands, tithes, etc., exclu- | ||||||
| sive of houses | 70 | nil | 60 | nil | 57 | nil |
| Messuages, etc | 117 | nil | 62 | nil | 41 | nil |
| Schedule B— | ||||||
| Occupation of land | 25[1] | 44 | 2212 | 3812 | 20 | 36 |
| Schedule C— | 40 | nil | 29 | nil | 29 | nil |
| " D (Part I)— | 64[2] | 100[3] | 32 | 49 | 2912 | 4612 |
| " D ( " II)— | 91 | nil | 47 | nil | 12 | nil |
| " E— | nil | 33 | nil | 20 | nil | 11 |
| 407 | 177 | 25212 | 10712 | 18812 | 9312 | |
Note.—In the estimate for 1843, the figures assigned to Schedule A are only those of lands and tithes and houses to correspond with the existing Schedule A: and the figures of Schedule D include mines, quarries, railways, etc., now in Schedule D. An estimate is also made of the totals for Ireland, based on the returns of 1854, the total gross income under all the schedules thus estimated being about £30,000,000.
This estimate may be summarized as follows:
Summary of Analysis of Income-Tax Income in under-mentioned Years.
| YEAR. | From capital. | From salaries, etc. | Total. |
| 1843 | £188,500,000 | £93,500,000 | £282,000,000 |
| 1862 | 252,500,000 | 107,500,000 | 360,000,000 |
| 1881 | 407,000,000 | 177,000,000 | 584,000,000 |
Thus a very large part of the increase of the income-tax income in the last forty years is not an increase of the income from capital at all in any proper sense of the word. On the contrary, the increase in the income from capital is only about two thirds of the total increase. This increase is, moreover, at a less rate than the increase of the capital itself, as appearing from the probate-duty returns,[4] a point which deserves special notice. The conclusion, therefore, is, that the working-classes have not been losing in the last fifty years through
- ↑ Interest on £500,000,000 of capital in 1881 at 5 per cent. In my paper on accumulations of capital, I estimated agricultural capital at a larger sum than this, but since then there has been some loss of agricultural capital, and, if a larger sum were taken, the rate of interest used in the calculation for the present purpose should be less.
- ↑ Estimating that the income here is worth four years' purchase, and that it may be capitalized at that rate; and then allowing that this capital earns 10 per cent, the rest being wages of superintendence or salaries.
- ↑ Estimating that the income here is worth four years' purchase, and that it may be capitalized at that rate; and then allowing that this capital earns 10 per cent, the rest being wages of superintendence or salaries.
- ↑ These returns, however, it should always be remembered, do not include real property.
