admitting them to the crafts, guilds, and to the exercise of commerce. Their endeavours were successful. At the end of the century, notwithstanding several new appearances of the plague, the Republic of St. Mark was repopulated, and the wages fell. 1. On Inequality of Local Rates: its Extent, Causes, and Consequences. By EDWIN CANNAN, M.A. The intricacy of the system under which money raised by one local authority is usually expended by several others, the immense number of different areas created by the overlapping of the various kinds of districts, and the inadequacy of the published returns, make it impossible to give any very comprehensive statistics as to the inequality of rates in England. In the small county of Oxfordshire the number of districts governed by different combinations of rate-raising authorities exceeds sixty, and the sum of the rates varies from about 1s. 6d. to about 68. 6d., the highest and the lowest rated districts being within ten miles of each other. In the whole of England and Wales the lowest rated district pays about 18., and the highest over 88. The chief causes of inequality of rates may be classified as follows: (1) Unequal returns from investments and unequal repayments of debt. authorities. (3) Inequalities of situation and circumstances which cause the same services to cost unequal amounts. (4) Unequal endowments. (5) Unequal voluntary liberality. (6) Unequal cost of certain charges imposed by law on localities, although they do not increase the advantages of a locality as a place of business or residence for self-supporting persons. (7) Inequalities of competence or honesty on the part of the authorities. The consequences, considered from the point of view of just distribution, are good so far as the inequalities are occasioned by causes 1, 2, 3, and 7, bad so far as they are occasioned by cause 6, and haphazard so far as they are occasioned by causes 4 and 5. Considered from the point of view of maximum productiveness of industry, the consequences of the inequalities are good so far as they are occasioned by causes 1, 2, 3, and 7, and bad so far as they are occasioned by causes 4, 5, and 6. 2. A Few Remarks on Fifty Years' Accounts of the Bank of England. By A. W. FLUX, M.A. The completion of fifty years of the operation of the present Bank Charter, coinciding as it does with the bicentenary of the Bank, seems a suitable occasion for the study of the accounts. The active note-circulation of England and Wales is now, owing to the operation of the Act of 1844, almost entirely in the hands of the Bank of England. The Bank of England has fewer notes in circulation than fifteen years ago, and the total active note-circulation of the country is hardly greater now than when the Act was passed. The bank-note is, in fact, used in business to a much less extent than formerly, other means of exchange and remittance, such as cheques, having been substituted for it. The annual variation of the quantity of notes in circulation has, of recent years, been much more uniform than it formerly was. The amount of the variation is two and a half to three millions in a total of about twenty-five millions. The year 1869 alone shows a less difference than two millions between the minimum and maximum. There were very large variations at the time of the 1866 panic, and in the years 1878-9. In the latter case the variation consisted of a greatly increased circulation in 1878, which did not begin to return to the normal level till 1879 was far advanced. Taking three millions as the ordinary variation in a year, the circulation in these years varied in excess of the normal by 2.6 and 38 millions respectively. It seems rather unlikely that such large increases of the normal variation should be due to the ordinary use of the banknote for making cash payments. Probably a considerable proportion of the registered increase was merely an addition to the till-money held by bankers, and was never really in active circulation. How much of the ordinary active circulation, so-called, is of the same nature there are no means of telling. The other deposits have largely increased. Taking the half-century in five periods of ten years, the average amount of other deposits in each period has been about eleven, thirteen, eighteen, twenty-four, and twenty-seven and a half millions. The considerable increase in the month of April, which was so marked during the decennium 1844-54 that the maximum of the year was reached in the middle of that month, has now almost vanished. The annual variation is less in proportion to the total than formerly, having then been about 20 per cent. on either side the average, while during the last decade it averaged hardly more than 15 per cent. What proportion of the increased deposits are bankers' balances is not known, it being nearly twenty years since the Bank ceased to supply this useful piece of information. The fluctuations of other deposits have, during the last ten years, been less steady than formerly. The public deposits vary in a manner markedly different from that of fifty years ago. Then there was a regular quarterly ebb and flow not differing much from quarter to quarter. The changes in the collection of the taxes have led to the increase of the March maximum and the progressive decrease of the others. This makes the maximum of total deposits fall at the end of March, in spite of the decrease of the importance of the spring variation of other deposits. Taking next the coin and bullion, we notice that this item shows more frequent variation than formerly. Its amount has increased by little more than one-half as compared with half a century ago, and the average of the last ten years is nearly 10 per cent. less than that of the preceding ten years. No information is generally afforded as to the proportions between the coin and bullion held, or as to the amount of silver coin in the banking department. The reserve is the item of the account which attracts greatest attention. The annual variation for the last ten years has averaged about 25 per cent. on either side of the mean, while in the ten years after 1844 it was nearly 30 per cent. The average reserve during these two decades has been about fifteen and nine millions respectively. As the total deposits have doubled, while that part of them which reflects most closely the business of the country, the other deposits,' has increased by 150 per cent., the increase of reserve seems inadequate. For the three years 1891-2-3 the reserve has averaged sixteen millions, while the other deposits have averaged nearly thirty-two millions. 3. On the Economic Heresies' of the London County Council. The Council has been intelligently criticised, from an economic point of view, mainly on three grounds: (a) its adoption of a 'standard' and 'moral minimum' of wages, and consequent refusal to take advantage of the fiercest competition in reducing the price of labour; (b) its attempt to ensure that all contractors executing work for the Council should adopt the same policy; and (c) its supersession of the contractor, wherever possible, by the direct employment of workmen under salaried management. The facts and statistics given in the paper show precisely what has been done in these respects, together with such economic results as can already be discerned. It is contended that the Council's action is warranted by all administrative experience, and that it has the support of economic science. It is suggested that the 'economic heresy' is with the opponents of this policy. The experience of the National Government, other local authorities, and private customers is adduced in support of the policy of insisting that contractors should act on a like principle. The contractor's tendency, if let alone, is to seek his profits in a diminution, not necessarily of the cost of production to the community, but of the expenses of production to himself. The lesson of economic science is that it is advantageous to the community that there should be a constant upward shifting of the plane on which competition works (cf. the Factory, Sanitary, and Adulteration Acts), and especially that its pressure should be taken off the standard of life, and placed on the brains of the administrators and directors of industry. The supersession of the contractor, or entrepreneur, by direct employment under salaried management is shown to be part of a widespread tendency, common not only to other governing bodies, but also to large industrial undertakings of every kind. This integration of processes' can be traced in all important undertakings. So far as the change of policy can be assigned to a particular date, it appears to have taken place between 1875 and 1885. Economic advantage in this suppression of the subsidiary entrepreneur, or contractor, is found (a) in saving middleman profit; (b) in saving expense of incessant checking of the quality of his product; and (c) in increased convenience of having all parts of work done under direct control. The London County Council, in doing as much as possible of its own work, is thus merely conforming to an industrial tendency, strongly marked, not only in other local governing bodies, but also throughout the industrial world. The elimination of the contractor may or may not be economic heresy, but the business history of England during the past twenty years indicates that it is industrial orthodoxy. Formerly the best business management was held to be that which managed least; nowadays it is that which can safely and efficiently administer most. 4. On Co-operation in Agriculture. By HAROLD MOORE. It was pointed out that many systems of working land in order to give the workers the profits earned by them had been tried. These were divided into four classes, viz., communal farming, being those cases where the co-operators worked on equal terms for the benefit of the community, as tried at Ratalime in Ireland; co-operative tenancy, where the co-operators jointly took the position of ordinary tenants, as at Assington in Suffolk, and elsewhere; profit-sharing, where the labourers had some share in the management, as tried by Lord Spencer in Northamptonshire and by Mr. Bolton King in Warwickshire; and profit-sharing as a voluntary arrangement made by landowners working their own property, as carried out by Mr. Albert Grey in Northumberland and by others. The reasons why the first three systems were not likely to be successful were pointed out, and it was urged that for co-operation in agriculture to succeed it was necessary that distinct individual interest should be combined with those advantages which co-operation would give. This it was claimed could be done by the establishment of the intending co-operators on one farm, giving to each one a particular portion of the land on perpetual lease or other secure tenure, and securing for their general benefit agricultural credit banks, farm factories, and other means of cooperation which would assist in working the land and realising that portion of the produce which would not be consumed. Instances were then given of this system of co-operation which is now being introduced with useful results, it being finally urged that this was the best system by which those agricultural labourers now in want of regular employment, owing to the existing condition of agriculture, would be best assisted to secure maintenance for themselves and families. TUESDAY, AUGUST 14. The following Reports and Papers were read: 1. Report of the Committee on Methods of Economic Training in this and other Countries.-See Reports, p. 365. 2. Report of the Committee on Teaching of Science in Elementary Schools.-See Reports, p. 359. 3. On the Relation between Wages and the Numbers employed in the Coal-mining Industry. By R. H. HOOKER, M.A. The influence of wages in attracting labour to an industry is best shown by means of a diagram, and the industry concerning which we possess the most trustworthy statistics of wages and of the numbers employed over a series of years is undoubtedly coal mining. The data concerning this occupation have accordingly been plotted on the annexed diagram, in which the upper (continuous) line represents the course of wages in 1871-91 in the county of Durham (according to the evidence of Mr. L. Wood before the Labour Commission 1), while the lower (dotted) line shows the number of persons employed in coal mining in the same county (taken from the annual reports of the mining inspectors). The wages are expressed in percentages above or below the rate paid in 1871. above or 1871 '2 '3 '4 '5 '6 '7 '8 '9 '80 '1 '2 '3 '4 '5 '6 '7 '8 '9 '90 '1 '2 '3 Wages. Per Cent. 60 50 40 30 20 10 Level of 1871 -10 Numbers employed 90,000 85,000 80,000 75,000 70,000 65,000 60,000 55,000 below 1871 60 50 40 30 20 10 Level of 1871 -10 Numbers employed 90,000 85,000 80,000 75,000 70,000 65,000 60,000 55,000 The correspondence of the two curves is very apparent, and, judging by the magnitude of the fluctuations, it would seem that the variations in the number of the employés must be attributed almost entirely to the changes in wages. Especially the very large increase of miners in 1872-74 and 1889-91 can hardly 1894. 1 Parl. Paper, C. 6,708, iv. 3 B be ascribed to any other cause than to the attraction of the great rise in wages at those periods. It must be remembered that the coal-mining industry is in many respects peculiar, the organisation of the men is very complete, and the principle of the sliding scale is everywhere in force, even in those districts where a scale does not actually determine the wages. These latter being then dependent on prices, employers cannot lower their rate of pay when the supply of labour is unusually large, nor can they raise the remuneration unless there is a corresponding change in the price of coal. It would seem, then, that the numbers depend on the wages. It does not follow that this condition prevails in every occupation, but it is probable that, according as the organisation of the men in any industry is more complete, there is a greater tendency in that industry for the numbers employed to follow the wages. 4. Popular Attitude towards Economics. By Rev. L. R. PHELPS, M.A. Economics once a rule of conduct, now either contemned or patronised. History of the change of opinion. Reasons for the change : 1. On the part of economists: Desertion of the à priori method. Attempts to generalise from an existing state of things. Tendency to be content with an historical explanation of facts. 2. On the part of the public: Dislike of exercise of reasoning powers. Tendency to substitute an appeal to sentiment for appeal to reason. Possible remedies: 1. A narrowing and defining of the field of economics. 2. Education of the public by experience. 5. On the Relation between Wages, Hours, and Productivity of Labour. By J. A. HOBSON, M.A. Progressive wages. Operative upon different elements of industrial efficiency. Economic limits in several kinds of work. (1) The navvy; (2) the agricultural labourer; (3) the textile worker. Curves of productivity in relation to rising wages. Progressive leisure: Two classes of effects: (1) Compression and intensification of effort per unit time; (2) improved quality of labour by utilisation of leisure. Curves of productivity as affected by (1) objective economic conditions of industry; (2) race, class, climatic and other conditions affecting labour. Relativity of the policy of a short working day. Combined action of rising wages and reduced hours of labour. Interdependency of the two. Complex character of the curve expressing the joint action. The assimilation of fresh increments of wages and leisure. Progressive wages and leisure dependent upon advancement of industrial arts. Power of the former to direct and stimulate the latter. Limits to this power. Comparison of advanced and backward trades in respect to the progressive policy of wages and hours. Inductive arguments for the Eight Hours Day. How far valid? General summary of relations of wages, hours, and productivity. |