The Masters of Capital: A Chronicle of Wall Street (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from The Masters of Capital: A Chronicle of Wall Street

Naturally, this modern practice of preempting or capitalizing probabilities was overdone. Such a process inevitably invited speculation; and boom periods, with recurring lapses and setbacks, became characteristic of the times. Eventually, the capi talists learned that this new capital, which repre sented not only accumulated wealth and current earnings but the future possible earning power of the community generally, must be bolstered up and insured by some artificial process. So long as nor mal growth in population and industry continued.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In earlier days, under the crude methods then prevailing, a given manufacturing plant might earn, say, ten percent on its invested capital; but when power machinery and improved processes came into use and earnings increased, say, to twentyfive or forty per cent, the practice began of putting a valuation on this increased earning power, and the value of a given property, instead of being based on its original or replacement cost, came to be measured by its capacity to earn profits.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org