rendered in starting the enterprise; but this is a complication that need not detain us. The stock or shares have been issued against "value received "or thought to have been received, and so their owners are part proprietors of the company to whom it has to account for the sums credited to them.
After this preliminary survey let us look at the details of a comparatively simple balance-sheet and see how much it tells us that would be a trustworthy guide to a shareholder or to anybody who was considering a purchase of part of its debt or share capital. Here is the slightly simplified balance-sheet, as on June 30, 1925, of Messrs. Bass Ratcliff and Gretton, famed as brewers wherever the English language is spoken, and in a few other places besides:—
| Liabilities | Assets | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Creditors | £1,923,348 | Cash | £585,350 |
| 4½% Deb. Stock | 1,360,000 | Investments | 1,823,926 |
| 3½% Deb. Stock | 560,000 | Bills receivable | 5,674 |
| 5% Pref. Stock | 1,360,000 | Debtors on Trade Account | 1,308,064 |
| Ord. Shares | 2,040,000 | Stocks of Hops, Ale, etc., and movable plant | 1,406,198 |
| Reserve Fund | 950,000 | Freehold breweries, etc., and fixed plant | 1,160,514 |
| Profit and Loss | 420,097 | Licensed properties and trade loans | 1,523,719 |
| £8,613,445 | Goodwill | 800,000 | |
| £8,613,445 | |||
