◆¹ But before proceeding to this inquiry, there is a preliminary question to be disposed of. What is the maximum increase which any conceivable legislation could conceivably secure for them out of the existing resources of the country? Not only unscrupulous agitators, but many conscientious reformers, speak of the results to be hoped for from a better distribution of riches, in terms so exaggerated as to have no relation to facts; and ideas of the wildest kind are very widely diffused as to the degree of opulence which it would be possible to secure for all. The consequence is that at the present moment popular cupidity has no rational standard. It will therefore be well, before we go further, to reduce these ideas—I do not say to the limits which facts will warrant—but to the limits which facts set on what is theoretically and conceivably possible. [Sidenote ◆1 An ascertainable limit is placed to this amount by circumstances.] [Sidenote ◆2 And this amount would be obtainable only under certain conditions,] ◆¹ Let me then call attention to the self-evident truth, that the largest income which could possibly be secured for everybody, could not be more than an equal share of the actual gross income enjoyed by the entire nation. Now it happens that we know with substantial accuracy what the gross amount of the income of the nation now is, and I will presently show what is the utmost which each individual could hope for from the most successful attempt at a redistribution of everything. ◆² But the mere pecuniary results of a revolution of this kind are not the only results of which we must take account. There are others which it will be well to glance at before proceeding to our figures. [Sidenote ◆1 One of which would entirely change the existing character of wealth.] ◆¹ Though an equal division of wealth would, as we soon shall see, bring a large addition to the income of a considerable majority of the nation, the advantages which the recipients would gain from this addition, would be very different from the advantages which an individual would gain now, from the same annual sum coming to him from invested capital. In other words, if wealth were equally distributed, it would, from the very necessity of the case, lose half the qualities for which it is at present most coveted. [Sidenote ◆1 Were wealth equally distributed, nobody would have an independence.]