SAVINGS BANKS. A savings bank was estab lished in Scotland in 1810, and soon after such institutions became established in different parts of Great Britain. Under the law of 1817 and subsequent laws, these banks were placed under the regulation of the Government, and during the second quarter of the nineteenth century they en joyed a rapid growth. The deposits of these banks are turned over to the Bank of England, which allows a specified rate of interest upon them. The rate of interest paid depositors va ries, but is in excess of that ordinarily paid by banks. The trustees are prohibited from receiv ing any profits. The growth of the old. or trus tees, savings banks was checked by the estab The above table does not show the receipts and expenditures of the post and telegraph service, except that these items are included in the fig ures for 1851-60, hut were not large. These re ceipts and expenditures in large measure at pres ent cancel each other; the receipts in 1900 being £16,580,000, and the expenditures f12,850,000. Neither do the figures show the recent extra ex penses incurred by the Boer War, the total war charges for the year 1900-01 being £68,620.000. It. will be seen that the largest absolute increase for the last decade of the nineteenth century was that incurred by the navy, this having now become the largest item of the ordinary expenditure. The expense of the army is also becoming heavier.
The greatest per cent. of increase in any single expenditure item was that incurred for elemen tary education. After the item of the army and that of the navy, the service of the national debt (see below) is at present (1903) the largest item of the annual expenditure. As a result of the change in the tariff policy of the country, the customs duties are relatively of much less im portance than they were in the middle of the nineteenth century, although they have almost held their own absolutely. The collections from the excise duties, on the other hand, have about doubled during the same period. The death du ties and the income tax have latterly become very important sources of revenue.
The British budget is characterized by sim plicity, and by its attempt to adjust the burden imposed in such a mariner as will make it least felt, i.e. in accordance with the ability of people
to pay. The income tax was first resorted to in 1798 as a special means of raising revenue for war purposes. From 1815 to 1842 it was abolished, but was revived at the latter date in consequence of the reduction of the corn taxes. This tax now meets with general approval, and has become a permanent feature in the national budget. Incomes under £160 are exempt from the operation of the tax, and the moderate in comes, or those below £700, are favored by abate ments. The income tax is made to fluctuate more or less as the annual exigencies of the budget may demand. The income-tax rate has gradually increased from 2d. per pound in 1874, until in 1901-02 it stood at Is. 2d. per pound. Like the income tax, the death rates operate to favor the masses. The most important fiscal change made in the last quarter of the nineteenth century was the readjustment of the death rates in 1894 so as to increase the rates and the assessment of an export duty on coal. Tobacco and tea are the chief customs revenue producers, yielding respectively in 1901 £12,838, 578 and £6,264,515, other taxed articles being rum, brandy, and other spirits, wine, coffee, cur rants, raisins, and cocoa. The principle of pro tection is generally considered to have been wholly abandoned in the British revenue policy, but in fact the tariff is still in a limited way highly protective, and is shaped expressly to aid British manufacturers. Thus a distinction is made between raw cocoa and the manufactured cocoa, roasted and unroasted coffee, manufactured and unmanufactured tobacco; and the distinction is sufficiently large to guarantee the importa tion of the raw products, and render possible the prosperity of the home industries based upon them. In 1901 the import duty on un manufactured tobacco was from 3s. to 3s. 4d. per pound and on manufactured tobacco from 3s. 10d. to 5s. 6d. per pound. Raw coffee' was taxed at 14s. per hundredweight, while kiln dried was taxed at 2d. per pound. The minimum tax on tea was 3s. 7d. and the maximum 4s. 4d.