Full text: Borrowing and business in Australia

APPENDIX 257 
burden of oversea debt per worker. This is here presented in graphi- 
cal form, and it is notable that while productive efficiency between 
1916 and 1927 has risen from 982 to 1,014, or by approximately 
4 per cent., the felt burden has risen from 1,000 to 1,842, or by 
84 per cent. 
PropucTivE ErriciENcY ! AND INTEREST BURDEN 
PER WORKER 
Productive 
Efficiency 
Index. 
18186 = 1.000 
Interest on 
Overseas 
Debt. 
£m. 
Interest on 
Overseas 
Debt per 
Worker. 
£ 
Felt ® Bur. 
den of 
Interest 
per 
Worker. 
Export 
Price 
Index. 
Index of Felt 
Burden per 
Worker. 
1816 = 1.000 
Year. 
1916 
1917 
1918 
1919 
1920 
1921 
1922 
'923 
924 
925 
1926 
1927 
A. 
1.000 
962 
935 
915 
t,029 
1,039 
1,029 
974 
1,089 
1,042 
1,084 
1.032 
B. 
2780 
10-792 
13-520 
14-012 
7263 
.8:233 
20-490 
20-792 
23-205 
23-748 
254551 
56-897 | 
O.. 
11-2 
12-2 
15-0 
14-9 
18-2 
187 
21-0 
20:9 
22:8 
23:0 
24-2 
Obed 
D. 
1,591 
1,965 
2,084 
2,033 
2,249 
2,254 
1,721 
2,039 
2,476 
2,803 
2,152 
2 080 
70 
62 
7.2 
7.3 
31 
83 
12:2 
10-2 
92 
8-2 
12-2 
19.0 
1,000 
885 
1,028 
1,043 
1,157 
1,185 
1,742 
1,457 
1,314 
1,071 
1,742 
1.8492 
The long-period trends of productivity and ‘felt’ burden of interest 
per worker are not quite so grave as the relative changes thus stated 
would appear to indicate; but at least there remains a discrepancy 
which points to serious ineffectiveness in the application of borrowed 
capital. Australian labour and oversea capital, co-operating in 
Australian industries, bave failed to enlarge production with suffi- 
sient rapidity to cover the rising burden of debt; and whilst each 
worker has been able to increase his output by 4 per cent., his liabili- 
bies even in 1927 represented an increase of over 80 per cent. Further, 
a sustained decline in export price levels which is far from impossible, 
or even improbable, in the years immediately ahead, tends to make 
the felt burden heavier by diminishing the exchange value of the 
commodities which we are able to apply to the satisfaction of the 
debt. 
Tt may be of interest to compute here the actual reduction in 
1 Revised estimate of Australian Productive Efficiency as presented in 4.4.4.8. 
Proceedings, vol. xviii, 1926, by Mr. C. H. Wickens. 
? Column E = C+D. 
2710 
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