If the foregoing estimate is well founded, it is clear that very serious effects must be found both in the general state of the people and in that of various industries. Let us, therefore, make some general comparisons between this country and the greatest of those nations which have adopted a free-trade policy, and then survey as far as practicable the several effects of high tariffs on the laboring, farming, and manufacturing classes. Such a comparison must needs be more than fair to the United States, because they are growing rapidly in every respect, while England has more nearly reached a stationary state.
The total wealth and annual product of this country and England (applying that name to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) are given as follows:[1]
| 1870. | 1880. | |||
| Total wealth. | Wealth per capita. |
Total wealth. | Wealth per capita. | |
| United States | $34,379,640,000 | $899 | $46,145,700,000 | $923 |
| England | 33,436,680,0000 | 1,065 | 42,379,200,000 | 1,210 |
| 1870. | 1880. | |||
| Annual product. | Product per capita. |
Annual product. | Product per capita. | |
| United States | $5,098,000,000 | $129 | $6,901,200,000 | $132 |
| England | 4,613,000,000 | 146 | 5,549,000,000 | 171 |
Thus we see that the United States are not only behind England in wealth per capita, but in product per capita; and, still further, that the same relation existed in 1870, but not to the same degree as in 1880; England having made a greater gain during the decade. America gained $24 per capita in wealth during the decade, England $145; while the product per capita in America increased $3, and that in England increased $25.
In wealth per capita, Mr. Mulhall ranks the nations as follows: 1. England; 2. Holland; then France, Denmark, Australia, United States, Sweden, Canada, Belgium, Germany. In annual earnings per capita Australia is first; then England, the United States,
- ↑ See Mulhall's "History of Prices," which is generally accepted as a work of the highest authority.
