If a boot dealer charged 30s. for a pair of boots and said his profit was 50 per cent., most people would assume that the boots had cost the dealer £1, and that his profit amounted to 10s. As a matter of fact, however, the beots would have cost him 15s, and by selling them for 30s. his gross profit would be 15s.
The system of computing the percentage of profit in commerce was explained to a "Daily News" representative. There is no doubt a general impression that an article which is sold at double the price at which it was purchased yields a profit of 100 per cent., but the universal commercial systeni of computation fixes the profit percentage at 50.
An official of an association of manufacturers, explaining, said: "If an article costs £20 and is sold at £40, the gross profit is £20, the turnover is £40, and £20 is half of £40, so that the profit is 50 per cent. It is a very old bone of contention and is very
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.