ABSTRACT
The chapter opens with a homely illustration of the extent of progress within a single lifetime from the misery of the mid-nineteenth century agricultural worker to the qualified poverty of the present day. The comparatively rapid advance in productivity which took place between 1850 and 1900 was showing unmistakeable signs of slowing down in the first years of the twentieth century. After the War the average real output per person in work in 1924 was found to be higher than in 1913, in spite of the reduction of working hours, and since then has maintained a rate of increase quite as rapid as in the nineteenth century. Much of this increased productivity, however, has been thrown away in the form of a steady increase in the general level of unemployment. It may be some slight consolation to us to learn that the great increase in average productivity (accompanied by an improvement in the terms of trade) which took place between the 'seventies and the 'eighties was also accompanied by increasing unemplovment.
The fundamental factors governing the rate of economic growth remain unknown. But at any rate it is possible to reach the negative conclusion, that the accumulation of capital is not the limiting factor.
