Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/269

Rh INCOME ASSESSMENTS.] 257 te de- sits in dngs iks. itrihu- a of ings sr gland I lies. sess- nts to ome 43 to 75. The total number of both old and post-office savings banks open at the end of the year 1876 was 5912, and the total number of depositors 3,195,761. At the 20th November 1876 there were 1,493,401 accounts open with the old savings banks in the United Kingdom, and the amount owing to depositors was 43,283,700, being an average of nearly 29 for each depositor. The amount deposited in post-office savings banks at the end of 1876, in the name of 1,702,374 depositors, was 26,996,550, an average of 15, 17s. (see page 240). It appears from the detailed annual returns of the old savings banks, which, notwithstanding the wide-spread com petition of the post-office, still hold over 34 millions of savings of the lower classes, that these savings are made in very unequal proportions throughout England and Wales. They are largest, as may be expected, in Middlesex, where the deposits amounted at the end of 1876 to 5,347,217 ; but Lancashire came very near it, with deposits of 5,302,982. The county of York stood next, the deposits at the date amounting to 3,960,754 ; while three more counties showed deposits of over a million, namely, Devon shire, 1,950,303 ; Cheshire, 1,235,084 ; and Northum berland, 1,166,086. As a rule, the manufacturing coun ties of England show a far larger amount of savings, per head of population, than the purely agricultural counties, which may be sufficiently explained by the lowness of wages in the latter. In two counties of England, Hunt ingdonshire and Rutland, there were no savings banks of the old establishment in 1876 ; and the same was the case in two counties of Wales, Anglesey and Merionethshire. I?i Wales in general the savings are far below those in England. There were in the old savings banks of Carnar vonshire only 702 depositors at the end of 1876, being one in 152 of the population. The proportion at the same date for the whole of England and Wales was one de positor in every 21 of the population, and for Wales -alone one in every 37. Assessments to Income Tax. While the statistics of the savings banks serve as valuable indications of the growth of habits of thrift among the lower classes, they furnish little or no information of the progress of national wealth. It is naturally impossible to measure this progress with any approach to accuracy, but fair estimates towards it may be drawn from the income tax returns. Originally instituted in 1799, to defray the expenses of the war against France, the income tax was levied from that date till 1816, when it ceased, the motion for its renewal having been defeated in the House of Commons by a large majority. The tax was re-imposed in 1842, by Act 5 and 6 Viet. c. 35, and renewed at intervals, but with constant changes in the amount taxed per pound of income. In the first financial year of its being levied, ended April 5, 1843, the total annual value of property and profits assessed in England and Wales was returned at -227,710,444 : but the amount sank to 221,101,717 in 1844, and 220,464,968 in 1845, while it reached again 227,863,132 in 1846. There was a rapid increase, scarcely checked for a few years, at intervals from this date for the next twenty years. In the financial year ending 1848, the total annual value of property and profits assessed to the income tax in England and Wales had risen to 229,868,226, in 1851 to 230,419,304, in 1854 to 256,333,899, in 1857 to 261,069,680, and in 1860 to 282,312,309. The in crease from this time up to the financial period ended April 5, 1875 the last year for which returns have been pub lished in January 1878 is shown in the subjoined table, which gives the total annual value of property and profits assessed to income tax in England and Wales, as well as in the United Kingdom, during each of the fifteen years from 1861 to 1875 : Years ended April 5 f .h. England and Wales. United Kingdom. 1861 282,248,060 335,654,211 1862 295,894,976 351,745,241 1863 302,828,234 359,142,897 1864 313,639,959 371,102,842 1865 335,175,427 395,828,680 1866 350,277,476 413,105,180 1867 358,437,953 423,773,568 1868 365,366,419 430,368,971 1869 370,070,360 434,803,957 1870 379,310,635 444,914,228 1871 398,506,773 465,594,366 187-2 413,223,690 482,338,317 1873 439,803,156 513,807,284 1874 463,470,571 543,025,761 1875 481,774,580 571,056,167 Under the Act of 1842 which instituted the income tax, all incomes were ordered to be taxed under five classes, or schedules, marked by the first five letters of the alphabet. Schedule A was to comprise all incomes from ownership of lands, tenements, and tithes ; schedule B, all incomes from occupation of lands and tenements ; schedule C, all in comes from public dividends and annuities ; schedule D, all incomes from trades and professions ; and finally, schedule E, all incomes from Government offices and pensions. The annual value of each of these classes increased in the fifteen years from 1861 to 1875, but in very unequal proportions. The least increase was in the incomes under schedule B, arising from the occupation of lands and tenements, not amounting to more than 25 per cent, during the period, while there was but a slightly larger increase in the incomes under schedule C and E, the former comprising dividends and annuities, and the latter public salaries and pensions. On the other hand, the incomes under schedule A., from ownership of lands, more than doubled in England and Wales in the course of the fifteen years from 1861 to 1875 ; and the incomes under schedule D, from trades and pro fessions, were not far from trebling during the same period. The following table exhibits the gradual rise in annual value of these two classes of incomes in England and Wales during the fifteen years 1861 to 1875 : Division of in comes into classes. Years ended April 5th. Incomes under Schedule A. Ownership of Lands and Houses. Incomes under Schedule D. Trades and Professions. 1861 114,058,538 81,531,326 1862 1-20,124,206 85,208,610 1863 121,328,434 88,809,996 1864 122,993,875 96,982,709 1865 131,341,499 106,898,319 1866 135,144,462 115i601,940 1867 110,696,900 147,678,722 1868 116,341,387 147,576,240 1869 117,907,336 149,451,289 1870 119,429,807 154,174,613 1871 124,814,412 164,058,371 1872 125,896,143 176,447,374 1873 127,271,923 198,172,490 1874 131,084,816 214,808,581 1875 132,720,684 229,396,892 Incomes from land, and from trades and pro fessions. The annual value of the incomes assessed under schedule A in the year 1875 was 16.716,474 in Scotland, and 12,994,735 in Ireland, the aggregate for the United Kingdom being 162,431,893, so that England represented more than three-fourths of the total. Under schedule D, the annual value of the incomes in 1875 was 27,412,223 in Scotland, and 10,133,323 in Ireland, making an aggregate of 266,942,347 for the United Kingdom, and leaving not far from six-sevenths to the share of England and Wales. VIII. - 33
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