“REASONABLE PROFITS.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2101, 11 March 1920, Page 2

“REASONABLE PROFITS.”

THE recent order issued by tho British Board of Trade, as a guide to the tribunals dealing with profiteering, was quoted at the Dominion conference of drapers in Auckland recently. Those present considered that this order conceded what traders laid all along confirmed was a just principle to take into consideration when defining what was “a reasonable profit.” The pronouncement is as follows: — “Focal committees are being informed that in deciding whether the price charged for any particular article is reasonable, regard must be paid to all the circumstances of the ease, including not only the initial cost price of the article in question, but the current market price of similar articles. It is appreciated that if a commodity purchased some months iigo at a certain price tails in value, the retailer is compelled, by the ordinary principles of trade, to sell (he article a.I the current market price, notwithstanding the fact that suedi price may be considerably less than the price originally paid for (he article, and in these circumstances local committees are being informed Unit it is not considered unreasonable that regard should be had to, the converse ease, and Unit it a retailer by force of circumstances is compelled to sell al a loss goods which have fallen in value, il would appear to be only reasonable that he should reap some advantage from a .corresponding increase in price. The local committees are also being informed that a retailer who Ims laid goods in stock for some lime Ims had his capital locked up in such goods, and therefore idle, and that in some cases, no douhl, expenditure will have been incurred in the storage of the goods.”