England's 562 Millionaires

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 490, 20 October 1928, Page 24

England's 562 Millionaires

£112,124,367 Paid in Taxes Over 4-Year Period.

TE fortune of £10,000,000 left by the late Sir George Wills, whose will has just been proved, is' a reminder of the great increase of wealth in

Great Britain in recent years. According to the latest official returns of the income-tax authorities, there were at the beginning of this year 562 millionaires living in Great Britain. In 1906 there were only 19. These are the people given in the official list as those in receipt of an income of more than £50,000 a year. Assuming the average yield of capital to be 5 per cent., each one of these must have been worth at least £1,000,000. A still more remarkable comparison is afforded by the fact that in 1906 there were only 2,913 people in Great Britain with incomes of £2,000 a year or more; now there are 92,865. Great Britain's 562 millionaires last year had a combined income of £55,812,673—m0re than £99,000 a year each on the average. £IOO,OOO a Year Incomes Many of them individually were much richer. No fewer than 138 of them had incomes of more than £IOO,OOO a year, and must therefore have been worth at least £2,000,0u0 each. The combined income of these multi-millionaires was £27,812,673 and the average £127,000 a year each. In the last four years the number of millionaires has not varied greatly, the totals officially recorded being 541, 583, 584, and 562 respectively. There had for several years been a steady rise until the peak total of 584, which showed the effects of the post-war trade boom. Similarly the fall now occurring is undoubtedly the effect of the trade depression following the coal strike. Taxation on all incomes over

£30,000 a year is approximately ten shillings in the £, so that in four years British millionaires have paid to the State £112,124,367, or half their total income, apart from death and other duties. Last year alone they paid nearly £28,000,000, or roughly one-tenth of the total revenue from income and super taxes. The average individual payment was £50,000. Foundations of Fortunes Banking, landed estates, shipping, coal, tobacco, spirits, beer, oil, artificial silk, cotton, chemicals, meat, and groceries have all laid the foundations of vast fortunes, and of these artificial silk is to-day the most prolific. In Leicester alone there are said to be at least eight millionaires whose names are little known to the general public. The Wills, Coats, Rothschild, and Joel families all include more than one millionaire, and in the Peerage there are at least a score of them with well-known names. Four notable women possess at least £l,ooo,ooo—Lady Rhondda, who inherited most of her fortune from her father. Lady Houston, and Lady Dalziel, whose fortunes were left by their husbands, and Lady Louis Mountbatten, who received a fortune on the death of her grandfather, Sir Ernest Cassel. Lady Rhondda is still active in the management of the business in which her father made his money. Government’s Millionaires In the Government there are four reputed millionaires Sir Samuel Hoare and Sir Philip Sassoon, Secretary and Under-Secretary for Air respectively, both of whom derive their fortunes from banking; Mr. Wilfrid A3hley, the Minister of Transport, whose money is similarly derived; and the Duke of Sutherland, who represents the Scottish Office in the House of Lords. The Dukes of Westminster. Northumberland, and Portland are all millionaires by inheritance. So, too, among well-known Peers, are the Earl of Derby and the Marquess of Bute. Millionaire M P.’s include, in addition to the Ministers already meh-

tioned, Mr. Samuel Samuel, who made his money out of Shell oil; Major J. S. Courtauld (artificial silk), Mr. Edward Grenfell (banking), and Colonel Gretton (Bass’s beer). The aggregate wealth of the House of Commons is, however, much less than it was a few years ago, when it was computed that the first Coalition Parliament after the war could be capitalised for at least £500,000,000. Banking has made millionaires of Lord Revelstoke, the head of Baring Brothers, and of Lord Rothschild, and four other piembers of his family. Lord Glendyne is a successful broker. Gold and diamond mines were the foundations of the fortunes of the Joel brothers—Mr. Jack Barnato Joel and Mr. Solomon Barnato Joel. Shipping has made millionaires of several men, of whom the best known are Lord Kylsant, Lord Inchcape and Sir John Ellerman. Whisky has made fortunes for Lord Dewar and Lord Woolavington (formerly Sir J. Buchanan), and Guinness stout for Lord Iveagh. Lord Glentanar is the head of the millionaire Coats family, whose fortune has been made in a hundred years out of cotton thread. The fortune of Sir George Wills, of the Wills family, was obtained from the tobacco trade. Another tobacco millionaire is Mr. Bernhard Baron. Commerce also has its representative millionaires in Lord Bearsted (oil), Lord Vestey (frozen meat and shipping), and Lord Melchett (formerly Sir Alfred Mond (chemicals). Lord Cowdray and Lord Inverforth are great contractors, heads of the firms of Weetman Pearson and Andrew Weir respectively. Sir Joseph Duveen, the great art dealer, is a reputed millionaire, and others with well-known names include the Aga Khan, Lord Howard de V.'alden, Lord Ashton, and Lord Fitzwilliam. Lord Rothschild, Mr. Samuel Samuel and Sir Philip Sassoon are said to be the wealthiest unmarried millionaires Their ages—for the benefit of matchmaking mammas—are 60, 73, and 39 respectively.