THE POSSIBILITIES OF ACCUMULATION.
THE Parisian papers have been amusing themselves by specula-
tions as to the wealth of the late Baron James Rothschild, which they estimate variously at sums ranging from £25,000,000 to £80,000,000 sterling. All these speculations are probably alike in- correct, as in the case of a fortune so vast, invested in so many countries, and dependent on the stability of so many Governments, -even the LegacyDuty Office must remain content with an approxima- tion to the truth. The rumours, however, are calculated to set men thinking as to the possibilities of accumulation which have opened out of late years, the extent to which it might be carried, and the social danger or benefit of very extreme cases. We doubt if the world is quite aware how very great the possible accumulations of a single family, or, indeed, of a single individual, might be. It looks very absurd to most men to say that a man might accumu- late £80,000,000, but such a concentration of wealth is by no means beyond the range of ordinary possibilities. Our own impression is very strong that such things have occurred, that some of the Roman nobles can be shown to have possessed fortunes which represented as much either of labour or goods as that immense sum would now ; but that is a speculation too deep for this article. We turn to more practical and every-day illustrations. It is certain that there have recently been individuals among us, like the late Mr. Morrison, Mr. Thornton, or Mr. Crawshay, possessed -of from three to seven millions realizable in cash and liable to taxa- tion, and there is now living at least one whose possessions, if 4' sold up," would yield ten. Suppose, what has never actually -occurred, we believe, but what it is very easy to conceive occurring, wealth to the amount of, say, six millions descending to a young man trained to business, inclined for business, and as competent to manage business as, say, the Manager-General of the Westminster Bank. He could, if he liked to occupy his whole time and tax his whole energies in accumulation, employ his capital throughout Europe as that bank does in England, at an average, say, of about fifteen per cent., or if a very able man, as apt at great averages as Mr. Thornton was, at an even higher figure. Give him, however, only ten per cent. as a fair, steady rate of gain at 30, and at 40 he would have, if he spent his compound interest on his own living, £12,000,000, at 50 £24,000,000, at 60 £48,000,000, and at 70 £96,000,000. It may be said even ten per cent. is too much, but the fact is that the whole amount might be lent without much exertion to Govern- ments and great traders at that rate with security quite good -enough for one man's life, and under a system of nearly com- plete insurance against everything but a general cataclysm. No doubt, in practice the grand check upon him would be the -difficulty of investing his enormous wealth as it accrued, a difficulty which would demand an agency as widely spread as that of a con- siderable government, an agency dealing in money in almost every capital of the globe. Americans say that this difficulty worries Mr. Astor till he has been heard to say he is nothing but Inspector- -General of his own fortunes. Very good agents can, however, be secured by very rich men, the amount-of brain required to govern them would be hardly greater than that demanded in a good Finance Minister, and what with house property in great capitals, banks, and mortgages outside Europe, where the secure interest runs high, even that vast sum might be invested. That a religious society like that of Jesus could form such a fund we have no doubt, though, as it could not directly trade, it would have to content itself with lower interest ; but the effort would not bo wholly beyond the power of a man with the head and the consti- tution of, say, Mr. Vanderbilt, or the late King Leopold,— a splendid accumulator, in his way,—or many a less known City man the world sees every day. Indeed, it is thus that great for- tunes, startling fortunes, are made, the only difference being that aa they are usually accumulated by the men who found them, the process of accumulation only becomes geometric when the City man is too old to reap the full benefit of his world-wide
knowledge. Be it remembered we started from a figure lower than we need have done, for there are men worth more, and have imagined but one man continuously applying himself to a task such as thousands of men apply themselves to every day,—a task quite as enticing as most of those to which men devote them- selves, quite as alluring, for example, as that of managing the statistics of any ordinary kingdom, or keeping down expenditure in a hostile House of Commons.
What could that man's heir do with that accumulation? The Phi- losophers all say "Nothing at all," but we doubt very much whether they are right, any more than the novelists, several of whom have touched upon the theme. Godwin wrote a long and somewhat tedious story to prove that he could accomplish nothing but mischief, but his hero, Leon, was rather a goose, and Godwin wanted to prove some economic theories. Edgar Poe imagined such a man delibe- rately surrounding himself with unimaginable luxury, in very de- spair of doing anything else more practical ; but Edgar Poe always forgot some of the conditions of his problem, and in this story he has overlooked the impossibility of purchasing complete pleasure. If Adam ever had toothache Eden wearied him till it was over, and to men with nothing to achieve ennui is mental toothache. A writer whose story we have not seen for twenty years, but whose name was, we think, Urquhart, tried to explain how enormous wealth might be turned into power ; but he assumed impossible conditions, such as that mankind had accepted the sacredness of property as an article in their creed, an idea which man has as yet shown little disposition to adopt. If we mistake not, his hero, old " Crabs," became Premier of federated Europe, by artfully using, yet concealing, his wealth ; his son turned tyrant, and was destroyed, with his army, by a new discovery in electricity. These are dreams to divines and philosophers, but they, though wiser than the novelists, limit the action of the rich man too much by presupposing that he would wish to be happy, and talking about apples turning to ashes in his mouth. Very likely he might not wish to be happy, and might consider ashes tooth-powder. Men want to fill their lives, rather than to make them happy, and from the time of Socrates downwards have found in the greatness of their work quite sufficient compensation for the absence of pleasure. People are very bad, no doubt ; but we back ourselves to find a hundred men in a day who, if certain of thereby extinguishing pauperism in England, would endure gout till they died. Our own impression is that a man thus wealthy, who set himself one great but men- surable task, would really accomplish it, and make himself a decently happy life into the bargain. He would be worried and pestered, no doubt, but he would not be more worried and pestered than most Prime Ministers ; he could keep secretaries for his letters, and admit no one unscrutinized within. his park gates. Thus protected, he could venture on really big things of very varied kinds. We will say nothing of political power, though he could gain that, because political power acquired by money is almost invariably misused. Still, we should like to ask the suc- cessor to Mr. Coppock, whoever he is, whether such a man could not, by paying the expenses, say, of two hundred working candi- dates, have altered the face of this Election ? whether any man who would subscribe £2,000 to each county election in Great Britain, claiming only a veto on candidates, would not hold enormous political power? whether finance ministers would not quake before a man who could increase or decrease the Bank's Reserve by ten millions at will ? Let us confine ourselves to more beneficial uses of wealth. A man as wealthy as Earl Grosvenor might become could rebuild East London, for instance, rebuild it on a sound plan, without enormous difficulty, for long before he was half-way through the Legislature would sweep legal difficulties from before his path. The man or government who pulled down East London block by block, rebuilt each block on an intelligent plan, and sold each block with a Parliamentary title, would certainly not lose more than double the sum Hausa- mann's enemies say he has lost for Paris,—namely, tweoty mil- lions,—which Paris and the State will, they say, have one day to pay. We doubt ourselves if it is half as much, but we may let
that pass till we establish an with a seat in the Cabinet, when the Parisian Improvement Fund may possibly become a matter of vital political interest. Most men, main, have some interest in provincial cities,—interest of habitation, or neighbourhood, or representation, or family connection. Well, there is not a city in Great Britain, Glasgow included, which the expenditure of ten millions or so, directed by a single mind, would not turn into a model municipality, worthy to be lived in as well as visited. Or take another great object, Edu- cation. There are fifty-two counties in England. It would not
take two years' income of such a fortune as we have hinted at to found a University like that of Edinburgh in every county, with all tuition absolutely gratuitous ; and three years of it would add the needful succedaneum, eight hundred bursaries sufficient with rigid economy to keep a student alive. Just think for an instant if there were such Universities how in a generation the tone of Englishmen would be changed. A great fortune, not greater than many which exist, would keep theI louse of Commons pure by supply- ing funds for every prosecution, would establish free libraries in every town, would carry out sanitaryarrangements in half the minor boroughs, would render all local hospitals adequate to the popular need. There is hardly a limit to the work a really gigantic fortune such as may yet appear among us could not effect, and that through enterprises which would interest able men more than luxury, or splendour, or the pursuit of women, or art, or any of the occupa- tions, bad or indifferent, on which most of the makers of money waste their lives.
The power for evil of such a fortune would be at least equally great, and in the hands of a capricious, tyrannical, or secretly insane man might demand the interference of the State. We have, for example, personally known an instance of very considerable means steadily devoted to the purpose of ruining a thriving town, each house being bought as it came into the market and reduced to a ruin, but fortunately such cases are within the easy control of the community. It would not be necessary to raise the general question of the sacredness of property, but only to pass an Act declaring that the deliberate use of great wealth against the community should be considered prima facie evidence of lunacy, and that the property so used should pass to trustees for the benefit mainly of the lunatic's successors. It is in this form, however, that the right of accumulation will probably one day come up for judgment, and in England the resolve of Parliament is sufficiently shown in the celebrated Thellusson Act, the only direct blow ever levelled at accumulation, but a very effectual one. No attempt of the kind has ever, we believe, been made since, and no family has had the resolution to do what is still legal—form a reserve fund to accumulate for a century at compound interest. It is only necessary that three generations should persist in such a course, but Providence has kindly decreed that even three genera- tions should rarely pass among the wealthy without the birth of a fool.
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