THE DECLINE IN BUSINESS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In the Spectator of the 25th ult., referring to a state- Ment of mine that the amount of capital belonging to new Companies registered has declined from 2340,000,000 in 1888 to £94,000,000 in 1892, you proceed to give reasons which point to the conclusion that the diminution of the nominal capital of the Companies registered bears strongly on the re- ported decline of business in Great Britain. May not Mr. Goschen's legislation, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, have much more to do with the falling-off in the amount of nominal Capital registered, seeing that the number of new Companies registered in 1888 (2,346) was considerably smaller than the number of Companies registered in 1892 (2,371)? I beg to draw your attention to this qualifying circumstance, because promoters used formerly to pay apparently but little regard to the nominal amount of capital, if a judgment may be formed by comparing the objects of many undertakings registered with the nominal amount of capital inserted in the
Previous page
