§ Mr. Ellis Smithasked the Economic Secretary to the Treasury to give, in 1945 and 1953, values of our pre-war stock of national wealth, the present figures, the amounts liquidated during the last war, the value of lost shipping, physical destruction of land, and the amount paid in compensation for foreign assets that were taken over by the Government, in what countries and in which year.
§ Mr. MaudlingNo official estimate has been made of the national wealth since pre-war years. The pre-war figure was roughly estimated at £30,000 million (at 1945 prices) in Statistical Material presented during the Washington Negotiations (Cmd. 6707 of 1945, page 14).
In the same Command paper, estimates were given (page 14) of the losses of national wealth during the war, as follow:
£'000 million. Physical destruction—on land 1.5 Physical destruction—shipping (including cargoes) 0.7 Internal disinvestment 0.9 External disinvestment 4.2 These figures omitted any estimate of private (i.e. non-industrial) disinvestment —deterioration of dwellings, reduction of 16W household inventories, etc.—for which no estimate could be given. On the other hand, it also allowed no correction for any possible post-war value of war-time capital work undertaken by the Government. But the total of £7,300 million was regarded as being of the right order.
Compensation by H.M. Government for securities vested during the late war was paid out of the Exchange Equalisation Account, the transactions of which are not made public. But the figure of external disinvestment given above (£4,200 million) included £1,118 million for the proceeds of sale or repatriation of overseas investments during the war.
Further details of the various figures were given in the Command Paper. The details included (on pages 9 and 11) geographical analyses of the external disinvestment and (on page 12) estimates of the changes in each year of the war.