Ireland, wish (in such their melancholies) that the people of Ireland being saved that island were sunk under water.' This is the key to the position. The people of Ireland are 'living capital' in a disadvantageous situation. If they were transported to the more populous districts of England and Wales and the Lowlands of Scotland their labour would be worth so much more, and the value and strength of this really 'United' Kingdom would be so much greater. The example is amusing by its grotesque detail, and it is interesting to note that the same argument is applied also with relentless logic to the Highlands of Scotland. The principle, however, on which it is based is perfectly sound, and has recently been much insisted on by American economists. Up to certain limits the increase of population in a given area more than proportionately increases the productive power of the people. The principle is, in fact, one of the main elements in the advantages of division of labour.
Following Petty's example up to the end of last century most writers who made estimates of the national wealth included as the principal item the value of the 'living capital.' In recent times, however, this element has been altogether dropped from the calculation. The omission is, I think, unfortunate in many ways, and especially in that it unconsciously leads people to exaggerate the importance of the material wealth of the nation in the narrowest sense of the term. Some years ago a thrill of gratified pride passed through the country when Mr. Giffen calculated that its materiel wealth (or capital as he called it) was accumulating at the rate of some two hundred and forty millions per annum. A more recent calculation by the same statistician to the effect that, in spite of depression and low prices, accumulations were still going on, though not so rapidly, was also received with undisguised satisfaction—especially hy the owners of dead capital. Mr. Giffen, it is right to bear in mind, took great pains to explain, especially on the last occasion, that his estimate was necessarily made in a very rough manner. The essence of his plan is to begin with national income as the basis, and to capitalise the various kinds of incomes at different numbers of years' purchase. This income is partly obtained from the income-tax returns (and is so far reliable as a minimum), but apart from this calculation a number of arbitrary and conjeotural elements are introduced. There are important classes of income which do not pay income tax, and there are items of property which do not yield income at all, e.g., the furniture in houses and public buildings. Again, of some important classes of income only a certain portion is sup-
