Mr. Burdett, in this year's issue of his "Official Intelligence,"
that admirable account of all stocks and shares dealt in on 'Change, gives an estimate of the amount of foreign stocks held in Great Britain. This can be gathered pretty accurately from the Income-tax returns, and they show that the total amounts to 2763,807,000, or 23 per cent. of the total quantity of foreign stocks in existence. The interest receivable on these stocks is £29,000,000 a year, or rather less than half the income supposed to be derived from land. The sum is very great and it tends to become greater as the gradual rise in price of the best home securities, which are slowly but steadily absorbed by trustees, insurance offices, and large capitalists, drives small investors and speculative investors to look abroad. The sum of money in the hands of small men is, in the aggregate, very great, and increases eN ery year, and as they seek incomes for old age they cannot hold Consols or Railway Debentures or Municipal Bonds. Ten years hence, when " Goschens " pay only 21 per cent., there will be a rush on much more risky foreign investments.
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