THE CONTROL OF MONEY 167

other documents which require a stamp to make them legal;
they give some indication of the volume of business being done
in the country. The National Defence Contribution was first
introduced in 1937: its purpose is to make businesses, whose
profits are rising, contribute to the cost of armaments. Customs
Duties are paid on imported articles, and Excise on goods and
services produced at home. This indirect taxation fills on all
classes, but naturally, makes a bigger proportionate hole in the
pocket of the poorer man. If everyone paid direct taxes, the
number of forms to be filled up and enquiries to be made would
be enormous; and if all taxation were indirect, it would have to
fall on a great many articles, so that the problems of collection
and supervision would be formidable. The British system
therefore aims at collecting large sums by direct taxation of the
limited number of rich and middle-class people; the rest of
the mtion are drawn into the net by indirect taxation, the bulk
of which comes from duties laid on a few articles of widespread
consumption. So everyone becomes a taxpayer ;x indeed, -a married
man with three children, earning £100 a year, has to pay about
one-ninth of his income, one earning £500 about one-fourteenth,
and one earning £1,000 about one-sixth.

Estimated Expenditure for 1938-1939.

Interest and Management of National Debt . 230,000,000
Other Consolidated Fund Services . . 12,100,000

TOTAL CONSOLIDATED FUND SERVICES . , 242,100,000
Supply Services :—
Defence:—

Army...... 77,373,000

Navy . . . . . 83,810,000

Air Force..... 72,976,000

Pensions for Armed Forces . . . 19,089,000

TOTAL DEFENCE . . . . . . 253,248,000