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Property and Inheritance. 
To put the difference in a more summary way, 
about 6 per cent. of the persons own half the income 
of the country, but three-quarters of the property. 
And the inequality of property, while it is greater 
than the inequality of income, has even less economic 
justification. 
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The Influence of Inheritance. 
The explanation is to be found in the right of 
inheritance. Personal qualities, exceptional ability 
or industry, do not survive their possessor ; accu- 
mulations of wealth can be transmitted to descend- 
ants. Thus the effects of Inequality are cumulative ; 
the advantage gained by one generation of a family 
provides a start in the race for wealth in the next 
generation. And the change in the form of property 
that we have noted enhances this cumulative effect, 
Formerly, when ownership and use of capital were 
indissolubly associated, the intrinsic difficulty of 
administering and holding together an estate in- 
creased disproportionately as the estate increased, 
and the fact that the descendants of the exceptional 
person who created the family fortune rarely inherited 
his exceptional ability was a constant influence 
making for the disposal of large accumulations. 
This influence was counteracted by the practice 
of converting large fortunes into land, and tying up 
landed estates by strict settlements ; but the strictest 
settlement could not protect an estate from the 
incompetence and folly of the heir who would have 
to administer it. To-day we have changed all that. 
By the separation of ownership and use, and the 
vesting of ownership in gilt-edged securities, ground- 
rents, and the like, administered perhaps by con- 
servative investment trusts, we have made it possible 
for an heir to draw the income of his estate without 
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