The Burden of the National Debt. 
Oar first sub-question, “Is the Debt an economic 
burden? ” is now answered in the affirmative; we can, there 
fore, turn to the computation of the burden. The interest 
on our War Debt of eight thousand million pounds is four 
hundred millons a year. What meaning shall be given to this 
figure? The pre-war Income of the Nation is generally agreed 
as being in the neighbourhood of £2,400,000,000 (two thou- 
# • • 
sand four hundred million pounds). Dividing this amongst 
our population of forty-eight million souls, we get an average 
income of £50 per head. The interest on our Debt is 
£400,000,000, Which, divided by 50, gives eight million. But 
as money values have doubled during the war, and as in our 
calculation of National Income we took pre-war figures, we 
must halve this figure of eight millions, leaving us with only 
four millions. The gross burden of the Debt, then, is 
apparently equal to supporting four million citizens at the 
average income per head of the Nation. It is obvious that 
unless a very large proportion of the interest raised came out 
of the pockets of those to whom it was paid, the Nation could 
not bear this burden, but even supposing that taxes of every 
description, direct and indirect, amount to ten shillings in the 
£, the burden of the Debt, measured by average income per 
citizen, equals the burden of supporting two million citizens 
who produce nothing, or an idle population of two-forty- 
eighths, or over 4 per cent. My computation is a very rough 
and ready one, but I suggest it as indicating the lines upon 
which an inquiry for the purpose of ascertaining the real 
burden of the Debt should be conducted. 
Regarding the Nation as a whole, it is obvious that the 
annual income from which it lives is produced by its Capital 
used in conjunction with its Labour. The consumption of 
goods by citizens, such as children, the aged, and infirm, not