Capital Exports, and Investment in Building in Britain and the U.S.A. 1856-1914

Abstract

SOME years ago, Dr. A. K. Cairncross' commented on the slightness of our knowledge of the history of the building industry. Its statistics, he said, were unassembled, its organisation practically unknown. Dr. Cairncross believed that the statistics for Glasgow were probably more complete than those for any other town in Britain. They are to be found in his article. The Glasgow statistics are a result of the Corporation's requirement that building permits must be obtained for all new work. Such a licensing system, operating in connection with building regulations, is the most probable source, for periods before the present century, of a useful annual record of building in any town or city. But for London also there are fortunately available two series of figures, one beginning in I856, and the other in I87I. The longer series is constituted by the annual reports of the Superintending Architect of the Metropolitan Board of Works (from I889 the London County Council). The shorter series is derived from the annual reports of the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police. Under the Metropolitan Building Act of I855, the District Surveyors (some fifty-six in number) appointed to enforce the building regulations were to make monthly returns to the Superintending Architect, of new buildings and works of alteration completed, and the fees received for surveying these works. The Superintending Architect, in turn, reported the annual totals of buildings, alterations, and fees in respect of the two kinds of work, and gave also details of fees received in arrears, fees abated, or lost through bankruptcy, and a cumulative total of fees due, together with the numbers of works to which these amounts related. Early in the present century the secondary details (of arrears, abatements, etc.) ceased to appear in the reports in their original form. But the major information about numbers of new buildings, works of alteration, and the fees in respect of these two kinds of work is available in a constant form from i856. The fees chargeable by the District Surveyors were laid down in the Act of I855, and do not seem to have been altered in any important respect until I92I. The Building Act of I894 provided that a lower fee than had previously been charged should apply to buildings not more than 30 square feet in area, and io feet in height; that is, small