§ SIR EDGAR VINCENTTo ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer if he can give figures bearing upon the comparative growth of private wealth in England, France, and Germany since 1880, as indicated by Income Tax Returns, Death Duty Returns, and similar standards.
(Answered by Mr. Ritchie.) I am afraid there are no statistics in the possession of the Treasury upon which I could venture to frame an estimate of the growth of wealth in France and Germany. As regards the United Kingdom, full statistics for recent years were given in the last Report of the Board of Inland Revenue, and will be continued in their forthcoming Report, as to income and as to the capital value of property passing on death; and it 1076 would be possible to give a special Return for the purpose of comparison with the year 1880, or any other year prior to the decennial period covered by the Tables of the Report. But the figures of property passing on death can only be given at the full amount for the period subsequent to the Finance Act, 1894. Prior to that the capital value of real property was not fully disclosed.