ABSTRACT
Although Iraq is potentially rich and though she has no public debt burden there is chronic difficulty in balancing the budget. The root of the difficulty is that the huge war-expenditure by Britain in Iraq and the boom that followed the peace treaties put Iraq’s outgoings and revenues upon a swollen basis. The country had small purchasing power in the days before the war. The fellahin and coolie classes live on less than a penny a day per head. The rent of the average reed-hut if set up on private lands varies between a shilling and eighteenpence per month. It is only on festivals and such occasions that new clothes are bought, and then only of the cheapest sort. There are probably two million people in the country living on such standards, and it can be imagined what purchasing power they possess and what revenue they can raise. Clerks skilled neither as accountants nor stenographers make at the most the equivalent of £5 a month. They must buy neat clothes of the European style, shoes, collars and so on. Skilled artisans may possibly make £2 a week, but under £1 is much nearer the average. The merchant-class, many of whom retain the simple Arab garb, are all worth more than they will admit, especially to the income-tax authorities, but they hoard rather than spend and their purchasing-power is only a fraction of what it might be.
