Chapter 23 Chapter 7 The Growth of Wealth

Section 1 Prior to modern times, no high-priced forms of auxiliary capital were used; but now it is increasing rapidly, and so is the capacity for accumulation. In this chapter, there is no need to distinguish between the view of wealth as an object of consumption and the view of it as a factor of production; we only study the growth of wealth, and do not need to focus on the various uses of wealth as capital. The earliest forms of wealth were probably the implements of hunting and fishing, and personal ornaments; and in countries with cold climates, clothing and huts.At this stage, people began to domesticate animals; however, at first, animals were loved and loved mainly for the sake of the animals themselves, because they were beautiful in shape, and it was a pleasure to domesticate them; They are desired not in preparation for future needs, but because of the immediate gratification of their possession.Gradually, herds of domesticated animals multiplied; and in the pastoral age, animals became both an object of pleasure and pride to their owners, a semblance of social status, and a means of preparation for the future. The most important reserve of wealth accumulated by need.

As the population grew denser and the people settled down to agriculture, the cultivated land took the first place in the list of wealth; and in the value of the land, that part of its value due to various improvements, of which the well occupies a prominent place, become the main factor of capital in the narrow sense.Of secondary importance: houses, livestock, and in some places boats and boats; but the means of production—whether for agriculture or domestic industry—had been for a long time of little value.In some places, however, precious stones and precious metals of all kinds have long been the principal objects of desire and recognized means of storeholds of wealth; For public buildings - mainly for religious purposes, roads and bridges, canals and irrigation works.

These things have been the main forms of accumulated wealth for thousands of years.It is true that houses and furniture occupy the first place in cities, and the stock of high-priced raw materials is also very important; however, although the wealth per person of urban residents is often greater than that of rural residents, the total number of urban residents is small, so Their total wealth is much less than that of the village.The only trade in the whole of this age that used costly implements was that of sea transport; the weaver's loom, the farmer's plow, and the blacksmith's anvil were all simple constructions, and were almost insignificant compared with the merchant's ships. of.But in the 18th century, England began to use the era of expensive tools.

The value of the English peasant's tools rose very slowly for a long time; but by the eighteenth century progress was hastened.Soon, first by water power, then by steam power, successive branches of production were rapidly replacing cheap hand implements by costly machinery.Just as formerly the most expensive instruments were ships, and in some cases canals for navigation and irrigation, so now the most expensive instruments are transportation in general—railways and trams, canals, docks and ships, telegraphs and telephones Systems and Waterworks: Even a gasworks would more or less fall into this category, since most of its equipment is used to distribute gas.Next come the mines, the iron and chemical works, the shipyards, the printing works, and other great factories with many expensive machines.

Whichever side we look, we feel that the progress and spread of knowledge are constantly leading to the introduction of new methods and new machines, which, if the effort is expended long before human effort reaches its ultimate end, will Methods and new machinery save manpower.It is not easy to measure this progress correctly, for in antiquity there was no industry equivalent to many modern industries.We may, however, compare the past and the present situation of four great industries in which the general character of the product has not changed: agriculture, building, weaving, and transport.In the first two industries, manual operation still occupies an important place: but even in them, expensive machinery has been greatly developed.Compare, for example, the crude implements of even the present Indian farmer with the equipment of the progressive Scottish lowland farmer;

And consider the brick-maker, plaster-maker, sawmill, planer, wire-inner, hole-borer, and steam-lift and electric light of the modern builder.If we look again at the case of the textile industry, or at least of those which manufacture simpler products, we see that in the past each workman was satisfied with implements which cost no more than a few months' labour, In modern times, however, the capital occupied by the plant and equipment alone is estimated at more than £200 each for each man, woman, and child employed, or five years' labour.Again, the cost of a steamboat may be equal to fifteen years or more of the labor of those who steer it;

Meanwhile, the capital invested in the railways of England and Wales is about one hundred million pounds, equivalent to more than twenty years' work of the three hundred thousand wage-earners employed by the railways. Before the second quarter. As civilization advances, mankind constantly develops new desires and new and more expensive methods of satisfying them.The pace of progress has been slow at times, and occasionally there have been even major regressions; but now we are advancing at a brisk pace year by year; we cannot predict where we will stop.In every respect further opportunities must arise which will modify the character of our social and industrial life, and enable us to draw upon our vast stockpiles of capital to provide new satisfactions and to employ them in anticipation of distant desires. Offers new ways to save manpower.There does not seem to be sufficient reason to believe that we are approaching a state of rest, in which no new and important desires will be satisfied, and in which present efforts are expediently devoted to guarding against future opportunities, and that There is no longer any reward for the accumulation of wealth.The whole history of mankind shows that man's desires increase with his wealth and knowledge.

With the increase of investment opportunities, the surplus of products exceeding the necessities of life is also increasing, and this surplus generates the ability to save.When the technique of production is backward, the surplus is very little, except where a powerful ruling nation compels a subservient nation to toil with the minimum necessities of life, and where the climate is temperate so that the necessaries of life are few and readily available. .But every advance in the art of production, and in the capital accumulated to assist and support future productive labor, increases the surplus, out of which more wealth can be accumulated.Soon, in warmer climates, even in colder ones, civilization became possible; and the increase of material wealth became possible without tormenting the workers and thus without destroying the foundations upon which it rested.In this way, wealth and knowledge increase step by step, and the power to save wealth and spread knowledge also increases step by step.

The third section continues. The habit of clearly anticipating and preparing for the future has developed slowly and intermittently in the course of human history.Travellers tell us that some tribes would have multiplied their resources and pleasures if they had but applied in advance a little of the means within their power and knowledge, e. without increasing all their labour. But even this indifference is perhaps not surprising when compared with the wastefulness of certain classes that we now see in our own country.It is not uncommon for men to earn two or three pounds a week, and to be on the verge of starvation: a shilling is of less use to them when they are employed than a penny is when they are unemployed, but they never intend to Just in case.At the opposite extreme, there are the misers, some of whom border on insane love of money; lost to the detriment of their ability to work in the future.Thus they suffer everywhere: they never really enjoy life; at the same time, they receive less from the wealth they store than they would from the increase in their earning power, if they put the If the wealth accumulated in the material form is used for themselves, the income they will get from the increase in earning power will probably be more.

In India we see people who do abstain from present pleasures, and save huge sums by great self-sacrifice, but spend all their savings on the pomp and ostentation of weddings and funerals, as in Ireland. people, but not to the same extent as India.They make only intermittent preparations for the near future, without any permanent preparations for the distant future: great public works which greatly increase their productive resources, but which are largely driven by much less self-denial The capital of the British to host. Thus the causes which govern the accumulation of wealth vary widely in different countries and in different ages.Nor are these causes identical in any two nations, nor, I am afraid, in any two social classes of the same nation.They depend very much on social and religious sanctions; and how differences in individual character, when custom is a little looser, make neighbors brought up under the same conditions differ in their habits of luxury or thrift. It is worth noting that being identical is more common and common than being different in almost any other respect.

Section 4 Guarantee is a condition of savings. The lack of thrift in past ages is largely due to the want of security, for those who provide for the future deserve security: only those who are already rich can afford to keep what they have accumulated; The austere farmer who accumulates a little wealth, only to see it seized by the mighty, is a constant warning to his neighbor to enjoy pleasure and ease while they can.On the frontiers of England and Scotland, no progress can be made so long as the robbery does not cease: in the eighteenth century the savings of the French peasants were so small that they could escape the tyranny of the tax collectors only by being considered poor. and the tenants of many fields in Ireland were compelled to do the same even forty years ago, in order to avoid exorbitant rent demands from the landlords. Such insecurity is almost a thing of the past in the civilized world.In England, however, we are still victimized by the influence of the Poor Laws, which prevailed at the turn of the last century and brought a new form of danger to the working classes.Because it stipulates that part of the wages of the working class should be taken out in the form of poverty relief; and the distribution of this relief among them is inversely proportional to their industry, thrift and foresight. Therefore, many people think that , it is foolish to prepare for the future.The traditions and instincts fostered by this pernicious experience are, even now, one of the great obstacles to the progress of the working class; Poverty, without any consideration of merit, has the same effect, though with less force. This insecurity, too, is diminishing: the development of an enlightened view of the duties of the state and of private persons to the poor has made it increasingly clear that those who are self-reliant and endeavor to prepare for their future will be more Get better care from the society.However, progress in this area is still slow, and much remains to be done. Section 5. The development of the money economy brings new temptations to extravagance; but it enables those who have no business ability to obtain the benefits of savings. The development of money economy and modern business habits has indeed hindered the accumulation of wealth by creating new temptations for those who love a life of luxury.In ancient times, if a person wanted to live in a good house, he had to build it himself; but now there are many good houses for rent, and you can rent them as long as you pay the rent.Once he wanted good beer, he wanted good breweries, and now he can buy better and cheaper beer than he can brew himself.Now he can borrow books from the library instead of buying them himself; he can also furnish his house with furniture before he is ready to buy it.Thus the modern system of buying and selling, of lending and lending, and the development of new desires, have in many respects given rise to new extravagances, and have placed present interests above those of the future. But, on the other hand, a money economy increases the variety of uses among which a person can allocate his future expenditures.In a primitive state of society, a man who stores things for future needs may feel that his need of those things he has stored is not after all as great as that of what he has not stored: there are many future desires, and It is impossible to satisfy directly by storing goods.But if he has accumulated a capital, from which he receives a money income, he can buy what he wants. Secondly, modern methods of business, which have brought about opportunities for safe investments, have left no good opportunity for any business—not even for agriculture, in which the land, under certain conditions, has the function of a reliable savings bank— people can also earn income.These new opportunities have led some to save something for old age that they would not have done without them.A much larger consequence of the increase in wealth is that it makes it much easier for a man to provide a secure income for his wife and children after death: for family affection is, after all, the chief motive for saving. Section 6. Family emotion is the main motivation for saving. There are indeed some who take intense pleasure in seeing their accumulated wealth increase under their hands, but hardly think of the happiness which they or others may derive from its employment.They are so in part due to the instinct of pursuit, the desire to outdo their competitors, and the ambition to demonstrate the ability to acquire wealth and the power and social status that comes with being rich.Sometimes the force of habit which takes place when they really need money, gives them, by a reflex action, an artificial and irrational pleasure in amassing wealth for its own sake.But, if it were not for family affection, many people who work hard and save carefully today would work no harder if they could get a comfortable annuity for their own living; Arrange for them to spend a portion of their capital and any other income each year after they retire.In the former case they leave nothing behind them: in the latter they leave only that part of their savings which is superfluous by early death from their desired high life.People work and save primarily for their families, as evidenced by the fact that after they retire, their expenses rarely exceed the income they earn from their savings, preferring to leave their stored wealth intact to their families; in England alone, twenty millions a year are saved up in the form of insurance policies, which are only drawn upon the death of the saver. Nothing stimulates the energies and enterprise of a man so much as the hope of raising his station in life, of starting his family at a higher station in society than when he started his business.This hope even gave him an overriding zeal which made nothing of his desire for ease and all common pleasures, and sometimes even destroyed his inner sense of beauty and noble aspirations.But this hope, as the astonishing increase in wealth in modern America shows, made him a powerful producer and accumulator of wealth; His ambition would lead him to the paths of great extravagance, as disregard for the future and self-indulgence of temper can lead him. The greatest savings are made by those who come from humble beginnings, who grow up to do demanding and hard jobs, who maintain austere habits despite their corporate success, who despise profligacy, and There is hope that they will be richer than anyone expected.This character, which was common in the quieter parts of the old and vigorous country, was for more than a generation oppressed by the great war against France and the heavy taxes which followed it, among the middle classes in the English countryside. This character is also very common. The seventh section is the source of accumulation.public accumulation.Cooperative business. The second is about the source of accumulation.The ability to save depends on the excess of income over necessary expenditure; this is greatest among the wealthy.In Great Britain the greater part of the great incomes are principally derived from capital, but only a small part of the small incomes are principally derived from capital.At the beginning of the century the merchant class of England had a far greater habit of saving than either the country gentry or the working class.The combination of these reasons led the economists of the previous generation to regard saving as deriving almost exclusively from the profits of capital. But, even in modern England, ground-rent and the income of freelance and wage labourers, were an important source of accumulation: and in all earlier stages of civilization they were the principal sources of accumulation.Moreover, the middle class, and especially the freelance class, have always worked very hard themselves in order to invest their capital in the education of their children; meanwhile, the greater part of the wages of the working class is devoted to the health and strength of their children.Contrary to the fact that economists of the past were too indifferent to the fact that human talents are as important a means of production as any other kind of capital, we can conclude that any change in the distribution of wealth Giving more to wage laborers and less to capitalists, other things being equal, hastened the increase in material production without significantly delaying the accumulation of material wealth.Of course, if this change is carried out by violent means, and public safety is shaken, other things will not be unchanged.But even a slight and temporary check on the accumulation of material wealth is not necessarily a bad thing, even from a purely economic point of view, if it is applied calmly and without disturbance, and provides relatively good economic benefits to the majority of the population. Good opportunity to increase their efficiency and develop habits of self-respect within them to produce far more efficient producers in the next generation.If so, such containment would, after all, be more conducive to the growth of material wealth than the massive increase of our existing factories and steam engines. Well-distributed wealth and high-minded peoples accumulate great public property; and the saving of some wealthy democracies in this form alone constitutes one of the best inheritances our own time has inherited from previous generations. most. The development of various forms of cooperative movements, of building societies, of friendship societies, of trade unions, of workers' savings banks, etc., shows the fact that, as far as the direct accumulation of material wealth is concerned, the resources of the state are spent on the payment of wages. Not a total loss, as economists in the past thought. Section 8 The choice between present gratification and delayed gratification.The accumulation of wealth generally implies some waiting or postponement of gratification.Interest is its reward. Having studied the methods of saving and the development of the accumulation of wealth, we can now return to the analysis of the relation between present and deferred gratification, which we began from a different point of view in our previous study of needs. We know in the study of wants that any man who has a commodity which can be used for several purposes tries to distribute it among all the uses so that he can get the greatest satisfaction. If he thinks he can obtain greater satisfaction by transferring a part of the commodity from one use to another, he will do so.If, therefore, his distribution is proper, he stops at that point in the various uses of the commodity at which he derives just the same amount of profit from the different uses of the commodity. advantage (in other words, he distributes the commodity among various uses so that it has the same marginal utility in each use). We also know that the principle is equally valid whether all uses are present, or some are present and some deferred; but in the latter case there are some new considerations, chief among them: , the postponement of gratification necessarily raises the question as to the reliability of future gratification; and secondly, that present gratification is generally—though not always—according to human nature, greater than that which can be expected to be the same as it is in human life. An equally reliable satisfaction is preferable. A prudent man who thinks that he will derive the same satisfaction from the same property at all stages of his life may try to distribute his property equally throughout his life: if he thinks that his earning power is If there is a risk of reduction in the future, he will definitely save some money for future use.He does this not only when he thinks his savings will increase in his hands, but also when he thinks his savings will decrease.He would store some fruit and eggs for winter, as they would be scarce in winter, though they would not be better by preservation.If he does not know how to invest his income in trade or lending for interest or profit, he will also follow the example of some of our ancestors who accumulated a few gold coins, and when they retired from their busy lives, they took these coins with them. to the countryside.They do not think that the added satisfaction of a few ducats, when their income is large, will help them so much as the comfort which those ducats will afford them in old age.The custody of these coins cost them a great deal of trouble; and no doubt they would have been willing to give him a little reward if any one could spare them this trouble without exposing them to any risk. We can, therefore, imagine a situation in which the stored wealth is hardly put to good use; many have to provide for the future; and few who want to borrow goods can put up a sure security that the goods will be returned in the future. or equivalent goods.In this case the postponement or waiting of pleasure is not so much an act of reward as of punishment; Solid Promise: Returns less than what he lent, so the interest rate becomes negative. Such a situation is conceivable.But it is also conceivable, and almost as likely, that men might be so eager to work that they would prefer some penalty as a condition of their admission to work.For just as putting off the consumption of a portion of property is what a prudent man would do for his own sake, so doing some work is what a healthy man would do for his own sake.For example, a political prisoner generally considers it a favor if he is allowed to do a little work.In the present state of human nature, we are justified in saying that the interest on capital is the reward for the sacrifice involved in the waiting to enjoy material resources, because few people save much without it; just as we say that wages are the The pay is the same because, without pay, few people work hard. The sacrifice of the pleasures of the present for the sake of the future is what economists call abstinence.But the term is misunderstood: for the greatest accumulators of wealth are the very rich, some of whom live in luxury, and certainly do not practice abstinence in the sense of the term's synonym, frugality.What the economist means is that when a person refrains from consuming anything within his consumption power with the aim of increasing his future resources, his abstinence from this particular act of consumption increases the accumulation of wealth.Since this term is misleading, we had better not use it. We say that the accumulation of wealth is generally the result of the postponement or waiting of enjoyment.Or, to put it another way, the accumulation of wealth depends on man's foresight, that is, his ability to imagine the future. The "demand price" of the accumulation of wealth—that is, the future pleasure that circumstances enable man to derive from his work and his anticipation of the future—takes many forms: but its substance is always the same.A farmer built a hut against the weather, while his neighbors did not spend as much labor in building theirs, so that when the wind and snow blew into their The increase of pleasure gained on the advantage of the hut is the price he earns for his work and waiting.This increase in pleasure, as compared with that which can be obtained by seizing immediate gratifications on the spur of the moment, represents an increase in the productiveness of efforts wisely employed to guard against distant misfortunes, or to prepare for the gratification of future desires. .The retired physician lends capital to a factory or mine to enable it to improve machinery, and he receives interest on the capital. The above-mentioned happy increase is similar in all fundamental respects to interest; since interest has a numerically definite form, we can Interest is considered to be typical of and representative of other forms of interest derived from wealth. A man's ability to wait for enjoyment is acquired by him directly from labor--work being the original source of almost all enjoyment, or from speculation, robbery, or Obtained from others by deceitful means, it does not matter to our present purpose; The only question we are now dealing with is this: that the growth of wealth in general involves the pleasant, conscious waiting of a man's present power (rightly or improperly) at his disposal, and that his willingness to do so depends on his vividness. The habit of imagining the future and preparing for it. The greater the Section IX remuneration, the higher the saving rate usually is.But there are exceptions. But let us examine in some detail the following statement: As human nature produces, the increase in future pleasure which can be obtained by a given sacrifice now, generally increases the amount of present sacrifices which are made.For example, if country dwellers have to go to the forest to get timber to build their huts, the farther the forest is, the less will be the reward for future comfort from the daily labor of getting the timber, and the wealth accumulated by the daily labor and the less future benefit would accrue: so little would be the reward of future pleasure at a certain present sacrifice, that they would not enlarge their huts, and would perhaps reduce the amount of labor which they expended in obtaining timber on the whole. .However, this rule is not without exceptions.For, if custom familiarizes them with only one type of hut, the farther they are from the woods, the less profit they will have from the produce of a day's work, and the more days they will spend at work. In the same way, if a person does not wish to use his wealth himself, but expects to lend it at interest, the higher the rate of interest, the greater will be the return on his savings.If the rate of interest on a sound investment is 4%, he gives up pleasures worth £100 now, and he can gain pleasure worth £4 a year; but if the rate of interest is 3%, he can only gain pleasures worth £3.A fall in the rate of interest generally lowers the margin at which it is just not worth giving up present pleasures for those future pleasures which can be gained by saving a portion of property.Therefore, the decrease of interest rate generally causes people to slightly increase current consumption, and make less preparation for future enjoyment.However, this rule is not without exceptions. Sir Gard said more than two centuries ago that in countries where the rate of interest is high, merchants "get out of trade when they have accumulated a large amount of money", and that they lend money at interest, "so easy and Reliable and great. But in countries where the rate of interest is low, they continue to be merchants from generation to generation, enriching themselves and the country." There are many who, when they are in the prime of life, when their knowledge of dealing with people enables them to It has been the case in the past, and it is the same case now, to quit while running the business more efficiently than before.Secondly, as Sargent pointed out, a man who has decided to continue his work and savings until he has provided a certain income for old age or for his family after death will feel that the rate of interest will low, he must save more than when the interest rate is high.Suppose, for example, that he wishes to have an income of £400 a year before he can retire, or to insure £400 a year for his wife and children after his death; Life insurance of £8,000; but if the rate of interest is 4%, he must save £10,000, or have life insurance of £10,000. Therefore, it is possible that the continued decline of the interest rate will lead to a further increase in the annual increase of world capital.But a decline in the remote benefits derived from a given amount of work and anticipation of the future will generally reduce the provision for the future; This is equally true.For, although man's growing dominion over natural resources may continue to save a great deal when interest rates are low, yet, as long as human nature remains the same as it is now, every decline in interest rates causes more people to save at higher rates than they do now. Save less, not more. The tenth section continues. The causes governing the accumulation of wealth and its relation to the rate of interest have so much to do with various parts of economics that the study of them cannot easily be included entirely in one part of our study.Though in this chapter we have been mainly concerned with the side of supply; it seems necessary here to give some account of the general relation between the demand and the supply of capital. We have seen that the accumulation of wealth is governed by various causes: custom, self-control, the habit of imagining the future, and above all the force of family affection.Security is a necessary condition of the accumulation of wealth, and the advancement of knowledge and intellect facilitates the accumulation of wealth in many ways. An increase in the rate of interest paid to capital—that is, the demand price of savings—will tend to increase the amount of savings.For although a few persons, determined to obtain a certain fixed amount of income for themselves or their family, will save a little less when the rate of interest is high than when it is low, it is almost the general rule that a rise in the rate of interest increases the desire to save. ; and a rise in the rate of interest tends to increase the capacity to save, or rather, it tends to be a symptom of an increase in the efficiency of our productive resources; Sacrifice, which always increases the capacity to save, is exaggerated: they forget that, from the point of view of the state, wealth is as productive for the children of the laborer as for horses or machinery. It must be remembered, however, that the annual investment is only a small fraction of the capital already in place, so that the annual saving rate may increase considerably without appreciable increases in the capital in any one year. Notes to Section 11 Wealth Growth Statistics. The statistical history of wealth growth is very poor and misleading.This is partly due to the difficulty inherent in any attempt to make measurements of figures of wealth applicable to different places and times, and partly to the lack of a systematic attempt to gather the necessary facts.The U.S. government does demand a financial report from everyone, and the result, though unsatisfactory, is probably the best we have ever had. The estimates of wealth in other countries are based almost entirely on estimates of revenues, calculated according to the number of years of capitalization of various revenues; This number of years is chosen by reference to: (i) the general rate of interest prevailing at the time, (ii) the extent to which income is derived from any particular form of use of wealth: (a) due to the permanent income-generating capacity of the wealth itself, (b) By the labor expended on the use of wealth, or by the expenditure of capital itself.This last item is especially important for ironworks, which are very expensive to depreciate, and still more important for mines, which will soon be completed; both must be capitalized on only a few years' revenue.On the other hand, the income-generating capacity of the land would increase; and in this case the income from the land must be capitalized in the income of many years (these incomes are under (ii)(b) can be regarded as a negative number). Land, houses, and livestock are three forms of wealth of prime importance anywhere and at all times.但是，土地与其他东西的不同之处在于：土地价值的增大，往往主要是由于土地稀少的增大；因此，土地价值的增大，与其说是满足欲望手段的增加之尺度，不如说是欲望增加的尺度。例如，1880年美国土地的价值，算起来与联合王国土地的价值大约相等，而大约是法国土地价值的一半。土地的货币价值在一百年前是毫不重要的；倘使二三百年后美国的人口密度与联合王国大约相同，则前者的土地的价值，将比后者至少大二十倍。 在中世纪之初，英国土地的全部价值，比冬天饿死在土地上的少数骨瘦如柴的动物的价值还低得多；现在，虽然最优良的土地有许多已列入房屋、铁道等项目之下；虽然现在牲畜总的重量也许增加十倍以上，而且质量较好；虽然现在有各种为中世纪所不知道的大量农业资本；但是，现在农业土地的价值比农业资本大三倍以上。几年拿破仑战争的压力，使英国土地的名义上的价值差不多增加一倍。自那时以来，自由贸易、运输的改良、新国家的开发以及其他各种原因，使用于农业的土地的名义上的价值下降了。这些原因使得以货物计算的货币一般购买力，在英国比在欧洲大陆相对地提高。 在上一世纪之初，在法国和德国，二十五个法郎能买到比在英国一镑所能买到的东西——尤其是工人阶级所需要的东西——更多。但是，现在这种利益却在英国方面：这就使法国和德国近来的财富增长，如与英国相比，似乎较大，而实际上则不如此。 如果我们考虑这类事实和以下的事实：利率的下降增加收入的年数，而在这年数中任何收入必须被化为资本，因而就增大产生一定收入的财产的价值；我们就可知道，即使国民财富的估计所根据的收入统计是正确的话，这种估计也会是很令人误解的。但是，这样的估计仍不是完全没有价值的。 吉芬爵士所著的《资本的增长》和莫耐先生所著的《财富与贫困》两书包括关于下表中许多数字的可供参考的研究。 但是，他们的意见分歧表明一切这样的估计都很不确实。莫耐先生对于土地——即农业土地——及农业建筑物的价值之估计，恐怕是太低了。吉芬爵士估计公共财产的价值是五亿镑：他省略了国内所持有的公债数，理由是在公共财产的项目下记入借方的数额与在私有财产项目下记入贷方的数额相等，把公债数记入帐内就会互相抵消。但是，莫耐先生把公路、公园、建筑物、桥梁、阴沟、灯水设备、电车等的总价值算为十六亿五千万镑：从其中减去公债十二亿镑，则公共财产的净值是四亿五千万镑；这样，他就可在私有财产的项目下计算国内所持有的公债数了。他估计联合王国所持有的外国股票证券及其他外国财产的价值是十八亿二千一百万镑。财富的这些估计数主要是根据收入的估计数：关于收入的统计，我们可以注意包莱在他所著的《1882年以来的国民进步》之中，以及在1904年9月份《经济杂志》中所作的有益的分析。 吉芬爵士估计1903年英帝国的财富（见《统计杂志》第66篇，第584页）如下： 联合王国15，000百万镑加拿大1，350百万镑澳大利亚1，100百万镑印度3，000百万镑南非600百万镑帝国的其余部分1，200百万镑关于英国各部分的相对财富的变化之尝试性的历史，已由罗杰斯为了征税的目的从各郡的课税额中推算出来。戴维纳尔子爵的名著《1200—1800年的财产经济史》包括关于法国的丰富资料；而勒瓦瑟、波流、南马克和福维勒则作了关于法国与其他国家的财富增长的比较研究。 克莱蒙先生1919年3月在银行学会的演讲中，估计联合王国的国民财富为二百四十亿镑，国民收入为三十六亿镑。照他计算，联合王国的国外投资之净值已降到十六亿镑，它近来卖出的证券数达十六亿镑；另又借入十四亿镑。收支对照，联合王国似乎是有二十四亿镑的债权人：但这个数额的大部分都不能算为有充分的担保。