Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/125

 Rh small 'dead' capital, are so large that a million or so is of no consequence, and the calculation must be made in a very rough manner.

Assume, then (following Mr. Giffen as already quoted), that the income of labour in the ordinary sense is £800 millions per annum. At thirty years' purchase this gives the value of labour qua labour as £24,000 millions. Next consider the capitalist as an employer and worker and not merely as the receiver of interest. Mr. Giffen assumes that four-fifths of the income under Schedule D (trades and professions) is really not interest but earnings of management. This, however, mounts to upwards of £140 millions, and capitalised as before extends beyond £4,000 millions. To this amount must be added the £8,000 millions derived, as already explained, from considering the management of the aggregate national dead capital. The total is thus £12,000 millions. Next we must consider the people of the country not as mere producers, labourers, or employers, but as 'things in themselves,' or rather superior domestic animals reared for their affectionate dispositions and intellectual and moral activities. Here, as already explained, it seemed best to take a rough empirical rule founded on 'cost of production.' For the present purpose it has been assumed that every 'person' is worth, or rather costs, at least as much as every 'house.' Without stopping to expand the meaning of the inverted commas we reach at once a sum total of £l0,000 millions.

Lastly, taking the income of those who return under Schedule E (official salaries and the like), and capitalising in the usual way, we conclude the inventory of the national living capital with the modest item of £l,000 millions.

The results, arranged in order, are: Living labour (ordinary), £24,000 millions; living labour (trades and professions), £12,000 millions; domesticated humanity (all kinds), £10,000 millions; professional salaried officialdom, £1,000 millions—in all, a grand total of £47.000 millions.

Thus the living capital of the United Kingdom is, taking the estimate given above, about five times the value of the dead! Or, to illustrate the general by the particular, the just ransom, appraised on commercial principles, of the men, women, and children would be five times as great as the market price of all the material wealth—lands, houses, railways, mines, furniture,