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NATIONAL WEALTH.
507
National Wealth.
The aggregate possessions of a country or of a nation — that is,
its so-called national wealth — is the sum of the material property and
foreign claims to be found in the possession of the nation and of those
forming the nation, upon which both it and they have to subsist.
A calculation, however, of a nation’s revenue and wealth is one of the most
difficult tasks that statistics can be expected to achieve; and, at the present time,
a fully exact statement on this subject is impossible to give. However, even
an approximate assessment may be of great interest, as affording a species of
»balancing of books» and a stock-taking of a nation’s revenues and property as a
whole, or to employ another simile, as presenting an instantaneous photograph of
them. Moreover, even if the contours in the picture be not quite clear, yet
nothing can present so concentrated a view of the economical position of a nation’
as a complete account of its assets in fixtures and movables, natural products,
and products of labour.
The best method of calculating the wealth of a nation is to specify, with,
as much accuracy as possible, the different subdivisions into which it falls, and
then to reckon out the value of each subdivision separately, basing the calculation
upon the prices that rule in the purchase or disposal of the properties in
question, or, where that is not feasible, to take the net yield, the cost of production, and
the value as assured. For a more detailed account of the manner in which the
figures have here been arrived at, the reader is referred to: P. Fahlbeck,
Sveriges Nationalförmögenhet (National Wealth of Sweden), Stockholm 1890, or
the Bulletin de V Institut international de statistique, T. VI., 1892.
Following the principles just indicated, we calculate the values of the
different heads of national wealth in Sweden for the year 1898 as follows. (A
krona = Tio shilling = 0-2 6 8 dollar).
a) Landed Property. Under this heading is embraced land in general,
that is, with the exception only of such land as is set apart for, or occupied
by building-sites in towns and villages, by factories and railways, etc.;
furthermore such buildings as are built upon and belong to estates and also
forests and mineral deposits, with the exception of mines and waterfalls. The
value of the real landed property subject to these qualifications, was, according
to the official assessments (see p. 504), 2,488’5 million kronor, in the year
1898. It ought, however, to be noted that the valuation for the six northern
Lftns, where forests occupy so prominent a place, is universally acknowledged
to have been too low, the total for these districts requiring to be increased
by nearly 400 million kronor, according to the estimate of those well qualified
to judge. This addition, together with an approximate calculation of the value
absorbed by taxes to the State and the local exchequers (capitalized: about 180
million kronor) and with a 50 % increase for the estates belonging to the State
in southern Sweden, that are taxed too low, bring the grand total for all the
real property in land to about 3,100 million kronor.
0) Other Keul Property. Under this heading are embraced: houses and
sites in towns, villages etc.; further, all other buildings not belonging to landed
estates, such as villas, industrial works etc., and waterfalls. The value of property
of this description was assessed in the year 1898 at 2,298’? million kronor, to
which is to be added about 50 million kronor, being the capitalized amount
absorbed by taxes paid to the State and local exchequers, making a total of 2,348’7
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