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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 86

IX.—The Two Nations

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IX.—The Two Nations.

This unequal division of the fruits of the combined labor of the working community divides us, as Lord Beaconsfield said, into "two nations," widely different from each other in education, in comfort, and in security. There is some limited central territory between, and some luckier few escape from the large camp in which their fellows are toiling to the more comfortable fortress of the monopolists, from which, on the other hand, others sink into destitution from extravagance or misfortune. But for the great majority the lines between these two nations are practically impassable.

It is not that this division is based on any essential differences in the industry or morality between individuals.

"Since the human race has no means of enjoyable existence, or of existence at all, but what it derives from its own labor and abstinence, there would be no ground for complaint against society if every one who was willing to undergo a fair share of this labor and abstinence could attain a fair share of the fruits. But is this the fact? Is it not the reverse of the fact? The reward, instead of being proportioned to the labor and abstinence of the individual, is almost in an inverse ratio to it; those who receive the least, labor and abstain the most" (John Stuart Mill, Fortnightly Review, 1879, p. 226, written in 1869).

We have seen what the "two nations" each receive : it remains to estimate their respective numbers, and the following facts supply materials for this computation :—
(a)

The Comparatively Rich.

It has been shown that the adult males without professed occupation numbered 407,169 in 1881. This represents a population of about 1,630,000, all of whom were living on incomes not derived from any specified occupation.

The landlords (of more than a field or a cottage each) number only 180,524, owning ten-elevenths of the total area (Mulhall, "Dictionary of Statistics," p. 266).

The mortgage upon the industry of the community known as the National Debt was owned, in 1880, by only 236,514 persons,* 103,122 of whom shared in it only to the extent of less than £ 15 per annum each (Mulhall, u Dictionary of Statistics," p. 109).

(b)

The Comparatively Poor.

The manual-labor class number about 5,000,000 families.
Mr. Mulhall, "Diet, of Statistics," p. 246; families 4,629,000
Prof. Leone Levi, Times, 13th Jan., 1885; families 5,600,000
Mr. Giffen, "Essays in Finance," Vol. II., p. 461; separate incomes 13,200,000

Five and a-half million families live in separate houses under £20, and of these four and a-half million in houses under £10 rental, notwithstanding that the poor in the great towns live in large tenement houses (Giffen, "Essays in Finance," Vol. II., p. 348).

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(a)

The Comparatively Rich.

Only thirty-nine out of every 1,0 persons dying, leave behind them £300 worth of property (including furniture, etc.), and only sixty-one per 1,000 leave any property worth mentioning at all.

"It appears . . . that one-half of the wealth of the United Kingdom is held by persons who leave at least £20,000 (personalty) at death" Mulhall, "Dictionary of Statistics," pp. 278, 279, from Probate and Legacy Duty Returns).

The number of these is given by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, as 1,129 in 1877 : as property is ascertained to pass by death about every twenty years, this gives a class of about 25,000 persons.

The incomes of £150 per annum and upwards are only 1½ millions in number out of 16½ millions of separate incomes (Giffen, "Essays in Finance," Vol. II., p. 467).

Mulhall estimates that there were, in 1881, 222,000 families of the very rich, 604,000 families of the rich, 1,220,000 families of the middle and trading class : in all only about two million families above the manual-labor class of nearly five million families ("Dictionary of Statistics," p. 246).

It may, therefore, safely be concluded that the whole of the £850,000,000 annually is now received by about 11,000,000 of the population, giving an average income of £305 per adult man: about two-fifths (£330,000,000; Mulhall, "Dictionary of Statistics," p. 246) is enjoyed by a small class of less than 1,000,000 persons who have on an average £1,189 per adult man whether they contribute anything to the product or not.

(b)

The Comparatively Poor.

Nine hundred and thirty-nine out of every 1,000 persons(about half of whom are adults) die without property worth speaking of, and 961 out of every 1,000 without furniture, investments, or effects worth £300 (Mulhall, "Dictionary of Statistics," from Probate Duty' Returns—p. 279).

The number of persons "employed" at wages in the industries of the Kingdom is placed at thirteen to fourteen millions, and this includes over four million women.

Mr. J. S. Jeans, Statistical Society's Journal, Vol. XLVII., p. 631, places the number at about 14,000,000
Mr. Giffen, "Essays in Finance," Vol. II, p.461 (separate incomes of manual labor class) 13,200,000
Mr. Mulhall, "Dictionary of Statistics," p. 246 (separate families of manual-labor class) 4,629,000
Prof. Leone Levi, Times, 13th Jan., 1885, (number of workers in manual labor class in 1881) 12,200,000

Out of 10,464,255 males with any occupation at all (see p. 4) 8,180,0 were in receipt of wages, and belonged to the manual-labor class (Prof. Leone Levi, Times, 13th January, 1885).

We may, therefore, certainly conclude that the £500,000,000 allotted to the manual-labor class is shared among 26,000,000 persons and is about £38 per adult (or £77 per adult male) annually.

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  • bar graph £145; average annual product of the whole community, per adult male.
  • bar graph £305; average annual income of the comparatively rich (including non-workers), per adult male.
  • bar graph £77; average annual income of the masses, per adult male.
  • bar graph £1189; average annual income, per adult male, of the gentry, about 222,000 families.

* These include many banks, insurance companies, foreign potentates, and others not to be included in the present computation.

This includes, of course, the rural districts, where a comfortable house may generally be obtained below £20 annual rental, but more than a third of the population now live in towns, where the poor are often herded together in slums, yielding more than that rental per house.