To get a proper perspective of the development of accounting in any country one must understand the institutions, the characteristics of the people, and the peculiarities of their business practice. In France and Germany as in other European countries they have many hundreds of years behind them. Their institutions are the result of growth through many generations. Society in the United States is not as static and there is more freedom of movement between people in different walks of life. The French business man does not have the proper attitude towards the accountant. The accountant is a necessary evil. The accounting department is regarded as an expense rather than as a part of the organization that aids in the development of efficiency and as an important factor in the success of any large business. Without doubt French law has had some influence on the development of accounting in France. The French accountants have not organized themselves into strong professional societies. Instead of a few strong organizations they have many loosely joined.

Journal Article Comparative Costs in the Worsted-cloth Manufacture, American and Foreign Get access Arthur H. Cole Arthur H. Cole Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 43, Issue 3, May 1929, Pages 550–561, https://doi.org/10.2307/1885925 Published: 01 May 1929

Journal Article The Relation between Normal Working Time and Hourly and Weekly Earnings Get access H. LaRue Frain H. LaRue Frain Industrial Research Department, University of Pennsylvania Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 43, Issue 3, May 1929, Pages 544–550, https://doi.org/10.2307/1885924 Published: 01 May 1929

I. Dubious notions suggested by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century conceptions of the “laws of nature” are being discarded from natural sciences, and should be discarded from economics, 1. — II. Evolution of the idea of natural laws, since the seventeenth century; in the natural sciences, “mechanical philosophy,” belief in harmonious Order of Nature, fatalism, and the modern view that scientific laws may be only statistical laws, 6. — III. Corresponding evolution in economic thought. Eighteenth-century moral sciences mechanistic, but not rigidly deterministic. Economic optimism and fatalism. Modern view of the nature of economic laws, 16. — IV. Economic tendencies are toward adjustment, but not necessarily any ideal adjustment. Social welfare depends on human motives and on institutions. This was recognized in eighteenth-century philosophy of the moral “Law of Nature” (jus Naturae), accepted by Physiocrats and Adam Smith, 34.

I. The situation down to 1920. — The effects of pre-war immigration, 393. — The effects of the war, 395. — The failure of post-war changes in the labor market to end the interest of business men in industrial good will, 396. — II. The post-war dread of labor trouble, 398. — The inability or unwillingness of employers to reduce wages in proportion to the drop in wholesale prices, 400. — The better appreciation by managers of the relationship between morale and efficiency, 401. — III. The methods by which enterprises have attempted to make labor more efficient and more contented: Helping employees acquire property, 404. — Helping them acquire a "stake" in the business, 408. — Protecting the magainst arbitrary treatment, 411. — Rewarding continuity of service, 414. — Giving them opportunity to advance, 416. — Giving them security, 419. — Other methods, 421. — IV. The effect of the new personnel policies upon the present labor situation. — Their effect upon productivity per worker, 424 .— Their effect upon union membership, 426. — Their effect upon the number of industrial disputes, 428. — Their effect upon the rate of turnover, 429. — V. The effect of the new labor policies upon labor's bargaining power and upon the spread of unionism, 431.

The problem stated and limited, 63. — The result when sellers consider only their direct influence upon price and adjust amounts (Cournot), 66. — The same when prices are adjusted (Bertrand, Marshall, Pareto, Edgeworth, Pigou), 69. — The result when sellers consider their total influence upon price, 83. — The factor of uncertainty as to what the other seller will do, 87. — The effects of '#|201C;friction,” 89. — Summary, 91. Mathematical Appendix, 93. — Cournot, 93. — Pareto, 95. — Amoroso, 97. — Evans, 97> — Bowley, 98.

A MONG few statistical series pertaining to American banking experience which have hitherto escaped adequate analysis are those revealing condition of New York City banks in forties and fifties, and that showing volume of clearings in New York City itself after I853. Of these series, former are result of governmental supervision which, after disasters of period I83 7-42, grew in ever-increasing thoroughness; and latter is a by-product of that growing spirit of co6peration which in end led to acceptance of Federal Reserve System. Supervision of banking in New York State began relatively early when, by law of I829, a Board of Bank Commissioners was set up, which collected certain information from State banks. Then in April I843, this Board of Commissioners was abolished, and a substitute was provided in form of quarterly reports from all banks, whether operating under safety-fund law or not reports which were to be called for and published by Comptroller of State. No regular system of summarizing and presenting these data seems to have been set up, especially with reference to a differentiation between those of New York City and those for State as a whole; but occasionally material on New York City banks was separated from rest and, accordingly, we have discontinuous data for New York City banks in period subsequent to I843. Supervision was made more effective by a law of December I847, according to which it became the duty of Comptroller, Secretary of State, and Treasurer, on or before first Tuesday of January, April, July, and October in each year to fix upon and determine some Saturday in quarter of year then ended in respect to which every incorporated bank, banking association, and individual banker in State shall make a report of character specified in act. Such reports were duly required, pertaining usually to last or next-to-last Saturday in each quarter. data relative to New York City banks were, it seems, brought together independently by editor of Hiunt's Aferchants' Magazine, summarized, and presented as aggregates for benefit of his readers.' At any rate, substantially regular quarterly data on various indicia of banking conditions in New York City are procurable after middle of 1848. Beginning with I853, still better information is available. By a law of that year, which seems to reflect growing importance of New York City as a banking center, each bank in City of New York was required to publish on morning of every Tuesday, in a newspaper printed in said City, a statement, under oath of President or Cashier, showing amount of loans and discounts, specie, deposits, and circulation, for next preceding week. Two months after this law went into effect, August i, I853, New York clearing house was organized; and, under its direction, reports of individual banks were consolidated to form aggregates for City institutions as a group. These consolidated statements, together with its own new data upon volume of clearings for City banks, were given to public press, and they were duly published in newspapers and in successive numbers of Hunt's Merchants' Magazine.2 Other series are available which in divers ways supplement those on varying circumstances of New York City banks. Material may be secured on a monthly basis concerning movement of specie into and out of port of New York and on course of discount rates in City; and weekly figures record fluctuations of both foreign and domestic exchange rates. Allthese series are helpful, either in explaining phenomena of banking experience itself, or in 1 See, for example, Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, vol. 24 (I850), p. 604: As official summary of these statements will not appear for some time, we have compiled a summary presenting principal items . . . ; or again in vol. 25, p. 597: The returns from New York City banks have already been compiled (unofficially) and we present a summary. In fact, official returns even for these years, as given in State Documents, frequently fail to differentiate data on New York City banks from those for State as a whole. 2 I am much indebted to Dr. Homer B. Vanderblue for laying groundwork for this study. He first called my attention to weekly material on New York City banking conditions, secured its transcription, and made a beginning in its analysis. Only pressure of other work prevented him from completing investigation which he had thus launched.

notable for other features, particularly the sharp and decisive collapse of values which swept away in a few months the inflation of as many years. Yet, despite such allurements, little effort has hitherto been expended in the investigation of business conditions during these years; and the present study was originally undertaken in an endeavor to break ground. The interval under consideration may be stated more precisely to extend from the close of those troubled years, I836-43, to the commencement of Greenback inflation in I862. To supply an indispensable element in the analysis of these two decades, inquiry has been made into the course of commodity prices. Information previously available to historians concerning the movement of such values has been limited to annual indexes such as that prepared by Falkner as a part of the well-known Aldrich Report.' Adequate treatment, however, of the vicissitudes in American business during these

Reviews the book "Business First in Accountancy," by O. Wunderlich.

The attention of economists, accountant and business men has of late been directed more and more to the behavior of overhead costs, and in particular to those consequences which result from the fixed character of a large part of them. Everyone is familiar with the fact that an increased volume of output results in a decreased unit cost, as far as overhead is concerned. But another economists used the term differential costs to indicate those specific increments of expense which will accompany any specific increment in the output. Before analyzing this theory, or presenting any practical applications of it, the relation of differential costs to other economic concepts ought to be considered. Another economic concept which is related to differential costs, though inversely so, is the idea of quasi-rent. This term is employed to include all those extra earnings derived from the possession of rare natural abilities on the part of a business man. It follows that producers will be earning high quasirents when their production costs are low and low quasi-rents when their production costs are high, thus making an inverse ratio between quasi-rent and costs.