Germany's investments abroad, including foreign government bonds, stocks and obliga value of Germany's national wealth lies be tween the two limits or in the neighborhood of $75,000,000,000.
Bringing together the various forms of pub lic wealth, the following result is obtained: Real and personal property insured against fire S50 , 000 , 000 . 000 Land in city and country 17, 500 . 000 . 000 Mining property 1,500,000.000 Shipping, goods in transit and metallic money 1,500,000,000 Public property, including railways, not insured against fire 7 , 500, 000,000 Capital investments abroad 5.000,000.000 Total S83 000, 000 , ceo In 1895 the national wealth of Germany was estimated at about $50,000,000,000, but since that time the property assessed in Prussia for the property tax has increased in value from $15, 894,500,000 to $26,014,250,000 or some 65 per cent, and the real and personal property in sured against fire increased in value from $29, 325,000,000 to $52,600,000,000 or nearly 80 per cent. Even if one-fourth of such increase be regarded as due to a more rigid assessment and a more complete insurance of property, an in crease of national wealth of from 50 to 60 per cent between 1895-96 and 1910-11 would be indicated. If the national wealth of $50,000, 000,000 in 1895 be assumed to have increased proportionately, the total would now reach $75,000,000,000 to $80,000,000,000 for 1910-11, a result which is not far from the previously given estimates of $71,250,000,000 and $83,000, 000,000. These estimates indicate a per capita wealth of from $1,150 to $1,225 for the entire population of Germany.
The yearly gross profit of the German peo ple, estimated at $10,000,000,000, is to a great but not yet determinable extent absorbed in ex penses. The remaining surplus is the yearly increment of wealth, or national savings. A considerable part of the expense or absorption of income is taken up by the governmental expenses. Those of the empire amount to about $750,000,000 and those of the several states to about $1,450,000,000, or a total of Of this total, however, $900, OO is for railways and other business undertakings of the empire and states, which is balanced by receipts and thus not cluirgeable as net expenses. The sum of $1,300,000,000 re
mains as the actual consumption for public purposes. The special expenses of the govern ment in business undertakings. also are not properly chargeable against expenditures, as they are merely transactions of a commercial. nature.
To the state expenditures must be added the expenses of municipalities and other public corporations and governmental organizations, which amount to about $500,000,000. The total ccmstimption for administrative purposes is thus about $7,000,000,000, or about one-sixth of the gross. This total does not include the con tributions for labor insurance, now exceeding $250,000,000 a year, or more than the total normal expenses of the army and navy in times of peace. These contributions partly reappear as national savings or investments and partly as income in the cases of those who receive pensions or aid from the funds. Only the cost of administering the funds, about $20,000,000 a year, should be charged as expense.
The governmental expenses are the only ex penses which can be estimated with any de gree of accuracy, as personal expenditures can not be ascertained. Since, however, the na tional savings appear in certain definite forms, such as new issues of securities, bank deposits, savings bank deposits, co-operative loan socie ties, etc., a useful estimate may be made by calculating what remains rather than what is spent. In the 27 years from 1886 to 1913 the issue of new stock exchange securities has been from $13,250,000,000 to $13,500,000,000, or some $500,000,000 annually. For the last seven years the increase has been very nearly $750,000,000 per annum. While a considerable part of the new securities represent refunding pperations and the transformation of private firms into corporate organizations, there has been on the other hand a considerable investment in foreign securities and in home securities not listed on the exchanges.