" 1914 " " " 24 " "

Here you will see that the reduction from 32 to 24 was 25 per cent. or a
much greater reduction than the reduction of the _total_ capital debt,
and this, of course, was contributed to by the lower rates of interest
which had been brought about from time to time. When we take the annual
charge per head the fall is much more striking. In the hundred years it
decreased from 37s. to 10s. This, however, was a money reduction, and
the _real_ burden per head can only be judged after we have considered
what the purchasing power of that money was. Now, the charge per head,
reduced to a common basis of purchasing power, fell as follows:--

Index figure
1817 260
1842 242
1857 191
1895 210
1914 118

In the year 1920 the charge per head was £7.16 and my purchasing power
index figure 629. You will see that the _real_ burden in commodities
moved down much less violently than the _money_ burden, and the relief
was not actually so great as it looks, because prices were far lower in
1914 than they were early in the nineteenth century.

In view of the fact that our debt is approximately ten times that of the
last century, let us ask ourselves the broad question: "Can we look
forward to nothing better than the reduction of our debt by 450
millions in thirty-seven years?"