[2] In "Riches and Poverty" (1905), Chapter 2, I estimated this figure at £900,600,000.
[3] It has been too freely assumed in calculating the national income that the gross assessments represent actual income.
[4] As Schedule D is an exceedingly important gauge of national prosperity, it may be well to remind the reader of its precise application. It is a tax upon all income derived from trades, industries and professions, and from all sources not specified under the other four Schedules. Profits from businesses established in places abroad are assessable under it. The assessments are made annually, and are generally based upon the mean of the income received during the preceding three years. Fuller particulars will be found in Chapter 21.
[5] "National Income." R. Dudley Baxter. Macmillan & Co. 1868.
[6] "The National Income," Dudley Baxter.
[7] "Economic Journal," Sept. 1904. Page 458.
[8] Take, for example, the boot and shoe trade. The Wage Census for 1886 (Cd. 6889, p. xiii.) gives the average earnings in boot and shoe factories (both sexes and all ages) as £48 per annum. In 1908, more than twenty years after, the Board of Trade "Labour Gazette" shows, from employers' returns, that (in a July week) 60,337 boot workers took only £58,147 in wages, which is about 19s. per week or £49, 8s. in a year of 52 such weeks. With regard to this trade, it is clear that either the 1886 estimate was too liberal, or that earnings have been practically stationary in the twenty years.
[9] "Economic Journal," September 1904.
[10] If, however, the reader prefers to rely upon the larger estimates he will find that the general conclusions of this and the following chapter remain practically unaltered.