The article focuses on defining the concept of goodwill. Initially goodwill was defined as nothing more than the probability of old customers returning to the old place. In one instance, goodwill has been defined as an intangible property which, in the nature of things, can have no existence apart from a business of some sort that has been established and carried on at a particular place. Goodwill is the favor which the management of a business wins from the public and the probability that all customers will continue their patronage. It is the general public patronage and encouragement which a business receives from its customers on account of its local position; that is the subject of value and price and of bargain and sale, though intangible. In this definition, the patronage concept is dominant, although its dependence upon location is still mentioned. In general, it may be stated that the emphasis upon the local aspect of goodwill has declined gradually, although there has been considerable overlapping of views in point of time.

The article asserts that the general law governing the value of capital goods has been known for some time. It may be stated briefly by saying that any capital good may be bought or sold for the present value of all future services expected from it. This rule is continuously being applied in practice by bond-traders and all bond tables are based upon it. Nevertheless, apparently no one has made systematic use of it to explain the formation of common stock values. Discussions upon the subject are frequent, but they seldom clear the hurdle of terminological difficulties. To review this preliminary difficulty, the article discusses the behavior of fair market value and yield of common stock. It highlights that when the earning rate equals the money rate, the expansion rate and the horizon lose their significance. The fair market value of the investment will equal the book value and the yield will equal the money rate. Moreover, when the money rate is very low, the fair market value of investments is very high, and their yields correspond closely to their expansion rates.

I. Importance of the problem, 1. — What marketing textbooks call "orderly distribution" not the principle to follow, 3. — Statistical price studies have done little to clarify the general principles involved, 5. — II. The principle of equalized marginal returns, 6. — III. Even or uneven sales from year to year, 9. — IV. Allocation of supplies between two independent markets, 13. — V. Allocation of supplies among several independent markets, 18. — VI. Discriminative marketing and the general welfare, 32. — VII. Conditions for maximum net returns, 37.

Reviews the book "Capital Surplus and Corporate Net Worth," by Raymond P. Marple.