登陆注册
14723100000080

第80章

However, experience has already furnished the most important clues for this. According to Lardner, the subsequent labour required during the early life of a railway for example "ought not to be denominated repairs, but should be considered as an essential part of the construction of the railway, and in the financial accounts should be debited to capital, and not to revenue, not being expenses due to wear and tear, or to the legitimate operation of the traffic, but to the original and inevitable incompleteness of the construction of the line." (Lardner, loc. cit., p. 40.) "The only sound way is to charge each year's revenue with the depreciation necessarily suffered to earn the revenue, whether the amount is actually spent or not."(Captain Fitzmaurice, "Committee of Inquiry on Caledonian Railway," published in Money Market Review , 1867.)The separation of the replacement and maintenance of fixed capital become practically impossible and purposeless in agriculture, at least when not operated by steam. According to Kirchhof ( Handbuch de landwirtschaftlichen Betriebslehre , Dresden, 1852, p. 137), "wherever there is a complete, though not excessive, supply of implements (of agricultural and other implements and farm appliances of every description) it is the custom to estimate the annual wear and tear and maintenance of the implements, according to the different existing conditions, at a general average of 15 to 25 per cent of the original stock."In the case of the rolling stock of a railway, repairs and replacement cannot be separated at all. "We maintain our stock by number. Whatever number of engines we have we maintain that. If one is destroyed by age, and it is better to build a new one, we build it at the expense of revenue, of course, taking credit for the materials of the old one as far as they go . . . there is a great deal left; there are the wheels, the axles, the boilers, and in fact a great deal of the old engine is left." (T. Gooch, Chairman of Great Western Railway Co., R. C. on Railways, p. 858, Nos.

17327-17329.) ". . .Repairing means renewing; I do not believe in the word replacement . . .; once a railway company has bought a vehicle or an engine, it ought to be repaired, and in that way admit of going on for ever." (No.

17784.) ". . .The engines are maintained for ever out of this 8 1/2 d.

We rebuild our engines. If you purchase an engine entirely it would be spending more money than is necessary . . . yet there is always a pair of wheels or an axle or some portion of the engine which comes in, and hence it cheapens the cost of producing a practically new engine." (No.

17790.) "I am at this moment turning out a new engine every week, or practically a new engine, for it has a new boiler, cylinder, or framing." (No. 17823.

Archibald Sturrock, Locomotive Superintendent of Great Northern Railway, in R. C., 1867.)The same with coaches: "In the course of time the stock of engines and vehicles is continually repaired. New wheels are put on at one time, and a new body at another. The different moving parts most subject to wear are gradually renewed; and the engines and vehicles may be conceived even to be subject to such a succession of repairs, that in many of them not a vestige of the original materials remains. . . . Even in this case, however, the old materials of coaches or engines are more or less worked up into other vehicles or engines, and never totally disappear from the road. The movable capital therefore may be considered to be in a state of continual reproduction; and that which, in the case of the permanent way, must take place altogether at a future epoch, when the entire road will have to be relaid, takes place in the rolling stock gradually from year to year. Its existence is perennial, and it is in a constant state of rejuvenescence."(Lardner, op. cit. , pp. 115-16.)

This process, which Lardner here describes relative to a railway, does not fit the case of an individual factory, but may well serve as an illustration of continuous, partial reproduction of fixed capital intermingled with repairs within an entire branch of industry or even within the aggregate production considered on a social scale.

Here is proof of the lengths to which adroit boards of directors may go in manipulating the terms repairs and replacement for the purpose of extracting dividends. According to the above-quoted paper read by R.

P. Williams, various English railway companies wrote off the following sums from the revenue account, as averages over a number of years, for repairs and maintenance of the permanent way and buildings (per English mile of track annually).

These differences arise only to a very minor degree from differences in the actual expenses; they are due almost exclusively to different methods of calculation, according to whether items of expenses are debited to the capital or the revenue account. Williams says so in so many words that a lesser charge is booked because this is necessary for a good dividend, and a higher charge is booked because there is a greater revenue which can bear it.

同类推荐
  • 明神宗宝训

    明神宗宝训

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 题东山子李適碑阴二

    题东山子李適碑阴二

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佛说三品弟子经

    佛说三品弟子经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 延寿命经

    延寿命经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Old Friends

    Old Friends

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • tfboys与她的水晶恋

    tfboys与她的水晶恋

    当一个失去母亲,生活在悲痛绝望的13岁女孩,14岁为了学费而凭着自己音乐创造的天赋为公司出唱片,而偶遇tfboys又会磨出怎样的火花?让我们拭目以待。
  • 契约交易:总裁霸身妻

    契约交易:总裁霸身妻

    为了父亲的手术费,而不得不卖身与他。那一夜,他说"你自认为,你昨晚,值十万么。"将她唯一的自尊心撕的粉碎。二度重逢,他却仿佛不认识她,对着父亲所在的医院说"我要把这里炸平。"当她在找上门来,他说:"你连出去卖的资格都不具备"。当她第一次感受到他的温情之后,他说"别妄想我会爱上你"让她看清现实。当想要离开,他紧抓不放,当她怀上他的孩子,他却又亲手流掉。她恨,想要逃离,他却将她囚禁,让她连父亲死前的最后一面都没能见到。他,是恶魔,到底要折磨她到什么时候?
  • 神奇红包群

    神奇红包群

    太上老君发红包了!恭喜你,抢到仙丹一瓶!紫霞仙子发红包了!恭喜你,抢到月光宝盒一个!齐天大圣孙悟空也发红包啦!我去,猴哥你怎么把如意金箍棒都给发了?这样真的好吗?王大波得意的拿着手机,脸上已经乐开了花。自从有了这个神奇的红包群,哥想低调都不行啊!
  • 西泠

    西泠

    月阑风浅,妙手琴音,岂料痴心错付;清茶淡酒,醉中真意,不知少年何故;路遥马倦,人倚天涯,难测惊鸿归处;狂歌?浅笑?生命的曲线,但求自由自在,随心所欲;每一次绚丽的回眸,每一次轻敲柴扉时耳边想起的曲调,就留作记忆中那最美好的事。
  • 龙虎拜碎锋

    龙虎拜碎锋

    不知从何时起,远古的记忆再度苏醒,一种叫做星魂的东西在人类的生命中苏醒,从星魂苏醒的那一刻起,人类便迎来了新纪元。几千年的时光,星魂已经不是某些人特有的东西了,几乎所有的人在降生的时候都会伴随着星魂的诞生。而星魂在这样一个特别而不特殊的少年身上却出现了不可预知的变化,从此,本就不平静的世界再度因为这位少年的粉墨登场而变得更加精彩。
  • 漫天樱花之公主戏凡尘

    漫天樱花之公主戏凡尘

    漫天的樱花飞舞着,只为她而生——柳若伊,一个穿越而来的少女,在异时空,她创建了自己的商业帝国,一个单纯的少女因为穿越变成了天界的公主,因为穿越,她找到了他,一个深爱自己的白马王子...
  • 故寻

    故寻

    年年月月的时光辗转,留恋彷徨的人觉得累了,回到记忆中熟悉的街巷,熟不知,在渐渐错过的年华,那里已经改变了曾经刻骨的模样。岁月变迁,沧海桑田。回首,是陌生的风景,还是梦里的故人。再遇见——原来,我回来,你还在。
  • 中国梦青年读本

    中国梦青年读本

    中国梦必将成为未来几十年中国的时代主题,符合这个主题的社会思想将大放光彩,顺应这个潮流的政治力量将大有所为,而违逆这个主题的事物将会被时代和人民所淘汰。
  • 异域霸途

    异域霸途

    世界本身没有想象那么简单,而这一切的秘密都需要探索。