Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Page 16

10
LE NORD
penditure 3403.20 Kroner (about £ 190) leaving a surplus of
about £ 110, which was not stored away but returned to cir-
culation through savings banks or other channels. And if we
look at the expenditure in the two accounts we get a clear im-
pression of the difference in standard of living and purchasing
power of the two periods.
In 1780 the income of 245.44 Kroner was applied as
follows:
Taxes ........................................... Kr. 101.14
Wages to a labourer, a lad and a maid............. » 84.24
Blacksmith’s and wheeler’s wages.................. » 8.32
Herrings, salt, tar, iron and blubber............. » 33.80
Surplus .......................................... » 17.94
Kr. 245.44
No tea, coffee, sugar or other colonial goods, no clothes, to-
bacco and so forth. One lived on the products of the farm, it was
an example of almost pure natural economy, in which taxes
swallowed up almost half the cash revenue. If we examine the
corresponding accounts from 1912 the picture is completely
changed. The cash revenue is now 5337.00 Kr. and the ex-
penditure is distributed as follows:
Taxes ........................................ Kr. 600.00
Wages ......................................... » 1700.00
Seed and feeding stuffs ....................... » 190.20
Fuel .......................................... » 160.00
Groceries for human consumption ............... » 353.00
Repairs and renewals .......................... » 400.00
Total expenditure Kr. 3403.20
This is finance and purchasing power. Commentaries would
be an unnecessary waste of space.
Now if we remember that the population of Europe has been
more than doubled in the course of the last century, rising from
188 millions in 1800 to 401 millions in 19001), and that the
standard of living of this population has been improved to an
extent which the facts quoted above indicate, we are again faced
with the question: Which power has set this revolution moving
and maintained it, this real revolution with its world-embracing
*) Poul Mombert: Bevölkerungslehre, p. 272, Jena 1929.