14 HOW TO PAY FOR THE WAR

reached from time to time by wages and prices.To avoid this complication the following figuresare all given in terms of pre-war prices.

In the year ending March 31, 1939, the valueof our output, measured at cost, including invisibleexports, was about £4,800 million. Of this amount

£3,710 million was the current cost (inclusive of the costof maintaining plant) of the consumption ofthe public;

£850 million was the current cost (inclusive of the cost ofmaintenance) of the services provided by theGovernment, excluding "transfer" paymentsto pensioners and holders of the nationaldebt, etc., since these are merely out of onepocket into another, but including capitalexpenditure;

£290 million was devoted to increasing our privatelyowned capital equipment in the shape ofbuildings, plant and transport.

£4,850 million

This output can be increased (1) by absorbinga considerable proportion of the 12f per cent ofinsured workers who were unemployed in that year,(2) by bringing into employment workers from out-side the insured population, including boys, womenand retired or unoccupied persons, and (3) by moreintensive work and overtime (a lengthening ofworking hours by half an hour would, for example,yield an increase of about 7£ per cent). On theother hand, there will be a loss of efficiency fromwithdrawals to the armed forces (whose out-put should be measured, if it is to tally withthe other side of the balance-sheet, by the cost