GERMANY'S NATIONAL WEALTH. For many generations the poor neighbor nation of Europe, Germany after 1890 acquired wealth and prosperity. The in crease of wealth is indicated by the savings bank deposits. In 1888 they amounted to $1,137,500,000 while 25 years later they had grown to $4,500,000,000, an increase of nearly 400 per cent.
During the same period the total turnover of the Reichsbank (Germany's governmental central bank) including checks and discounts increased from $19,950,000,000 to $103,500, 000,000, while the turnover of the Deutsche Bank, the largest private bank, increased from $4,525,000,000 to $33,050,000,000. Bills of ex change increased from $3,000,000,000 in 1887 to $8,500,000,000 in 1912. The expansion of in ternal trade is shown by the increase of the post office receipts from stamps and telegraph messages from $47,500,000 in 1887 to $196,000,000 in 1911. The total deposits in banks and other institutions of deposit were $1,625,000,000 in 1888, but by 1913 the aggregate was $7,500, 000,000.
A collateral evidence of the growth of wealth in Germany is seen in the increased consumption per capita of products of various kinds. At the close of the Franco-Prussian War the general standard of living was low and there were few large cities. Modern stand ards of living were confined to the well-to-do and frugality was the necessary virtue of the times. The increase of wealth was accom panied by increasing demands for better living conditions. A comparison with the increases of other countries shows that from 1886 to 1906 the consumption of wheat and rye in Ger many per capita increased 39 per cent, in the United States 28 per cent, in Italy 18 percent and in Austria-Hungary 16 per cent, while the consumption in Great Britain remained station ary and in France decreased 4 per cent. In barley, oats and potatoes Germany's increase per capita was 70 per cent, 39 per cent and 49 per cent respectively. For the consumption of meat, statistics are less completely available, but indicate a consumption (1912) of 51.9 kilo grammes (113 pounds) per capita. This com pares with the figures for 1904 in Great Britain. Between 1890 and 1904 the British consumption increased from 99 to 114 pounds per capita. There was in 25 years no increase
per capita in the consumption in Germany of alcoholic beverages or of tobacco. The per capita consumption of sugar, although it in creased from 14.9 to 41.8 pounds per capita from 1885 to 1911, remained far behind that of other countries, whose increases were as fol lows: Russia, from 8.1 to 22.2 pounds; Aus tria, from 11.2 to 28.6 pounds; France, from 25.9 to 42.5 pounds, now equal to Germany's; the United States from 49.3 to 79 pounds and Great Britain from 70.2 to 90.4 pounds. In cotton there was an increase in Germany of from 9.2 pounds per capita in 1886 to 13.4 in 1912.
A number of estimates of Germany's na tional wealth and income have been made from time to time and these estimates accord within reasonable limits. Any estimate of national wealth and incomes must naturally be more or less approximate, as many factors escape sta tistical review, but the means of checking the figures which are available prove that the final results are reasonably accurate. The returns of the income tax provide a means of estimat ing the private income of the citizens in gen eral. The figures are taken from 1896 onward as the income tax was not established until 1892 and several years were required to get it into normal operation. The income tax in Prussia is more stringently enforced than in the other two-fifths of Germany, and furnishes a more exact index of incomes than do any other returns. The result of Prussia's assess ment for 1912 showed aggregate taxable in comes of $3,810,000,000. The incomes of those exempt from the tax and of those whose in comes were too small to be taxed amounted to about $1,785,500,000. These two items aggre gate $5,595,000,000. An addition of 10 per cent is considered proper to cover taxable incomes which evade taxation, which would amount to $381,000,000. A further addition should be made to cover earnings placed in reserve by corporations, instead of being declared in divi dends, which is estimated at $55,000,000. The total for Prussia would thus be about $6,000, 000,000. The population of Prussia being about 40,000,000, the average income on this basis would be about $150 per annum, or for a family of six, the average size, $900 per annum.