CENSUS OF MILLIONAIRES.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 293, 20 June 1929, Page 3

CENSUS OF MILLIONAIRES.

GERMANY’S RICH MEN. For the first time since the war a comprehensive view of Germany’s millionaires has been issued by the financial department of the official statistical office. The time appears opportune, in view of the discussion in Paris of Germany’s ability to pay her reparations debt. The pessimists here are having it all their own way, presuming, as one may safely do, that these figures are correct. Taxes on capital are assessed very carefully, and rise automatically with the market value of land, the price of mortgages, or decontrol of rents. The German millionaire ■was, of course, a poor thing at the best of times, compared with the dollar millionaire, and that most envied of capitalists, the very rich man is England. He can achieve the proud title with a capital of £50,000. The taxation figures for this and large fortunes are extraordinarily illuminating. It is claimed officially that there are in Germany to-day 2235 people ■with a capital of £50,000 and over | (pre-war figure 15,549). Of these ! there are thirty-three capitalists owning more than £50,000 (pre-war 229;; 140 capitalists owning between £250,000 and £50,000; and 465 capitalists owning between £IOO,OOO and £250,COO. Berlin posesses the largest percentage sof millionaires, with 290 of

these £50,000 and higher fortunes among its taxpayers. Hamburg follows with 112. Leipzig is a bad third with 55. , Frankfurt and Cologne each possesses 48 rich men. Respectively Mun’ch has 42, Dresden 39, Dusseldorf 35, Stuttgart 26, Hanover 19, Essen 13, Breslau 12, and Wiesbaden 10.

This rather odd distribution of wealth is brought about by the fact that the rich industrialists rarely live on the spot where their money has been made. The Ruhr industrialist likes Dusseldorf, the Saxon manufacture loves Dhesdefti. The great shipping millionaires do not willingly leave the ports. But the largest fortunes of all were owned by the great Junker landed proprietors, who form a large percentage of the thirtythree multi-mark fortunes.

The figures that best go to prove that Germany’s private fortunes were lost during the depreciation of currency are those of the small man, the small tradesman who lost his working capital and was forced to start all over again; £750 is the average sum that the present-day tailor, butcher, baker, innkeeper, and shoemaker has put into his business.