Company News and Views

in the transaction of its business
A corporation must have a name by which it shall be known in law and
in the transaction of its business. The name is given to it in its
charter or articles of association and must be adhered to. The
necessity for the use of the corporate name in the transaction of
business follows from the fact that in corporate affairs the law knows
the corporation as an individual and takes no notice of the
constituent members.

Britain is not wholly due to natural causes, or even to ordinary
causes
The commercial supremacy attained by many of the large cities of
Britain is not wholly due to natural causes, or even to ordinary
causes. Much of it is due to extraordinary enterprise and forethought
on the part of their citizens. London, for example, is the centre of
the wool trade of Britain. The woollen manufacturers of Britain use
about 250,000 tons of wool annually, and three fourths of this is
imported. Other cities that lie near the seats of the great woollen
manufactures–Liverpool, for example–have tried to secure a share of
this vast importation of wool, but London, because of the special
attention it gives to this trade, manages to keep almost the whole of
the trade in its own hands. Similarly, London almost wholly
monopolises the trade of England with Arabia, India, the East Indies,
China, and Japan. It is therefore the great emporium for tea, coffee,
sugar, spices, indigo, and raw silk. It also enjoys the bulk of
Britain”s trade in fruits (oranges, lemons, currants, raisins, figs,
dates, etc.) and in wines, olive oil, and madder, with the countries
that lie about the Mediterranean. By virtue partly of its situation,
but largely because of the enterprise of its merchants, it absorbs
nearly the whole of Britain”s French trade, and of England”s trade
with Germany, Belgium, Holland, and Denmark. This includes principally
wines (from France), and butter, eggs, and vegetables. Another great
branch of its trade is that with the ports of the Baltic, including
those of Russia, the imports comprising, besides wheat and wool,
tallow, timber, hemp, and linseed. The tobacco imported from Virginia
into England goes almost wholly to London; so does almost the whole of
the Central American and South American trade in fine woods,
dye-stuffs, drugs, sugar, hides, india-rubber, coffee, and diamonds.
Quite a large share of the trade of Britain with Canada is
concentrated in London; also, more than one half of the trade of
England with the West Indies, the imports from the latter country
comprising principally sugar, molasses, fruit, rum, coffee, cocoa,
fine woods, and ginger.

called an _acceptance_
An accepted draft is really a promissory note, though it is more often
called an _acceptance_. When a man pays or accepts a draft he is said
to _honour_ it. In the foregoing illustration A is not obliged either
to pay or to accept the draft. It is not binding upon him any more
than a letter would be. He can refuse payment just as easily and as
readily as he could decline to pay a collector who calls for payment
of a bill. Of course, if a man habitually refuses to honour legitimate
drafts it may injure his credit with banks and business houses.

DIVIDENDS. The directors of the company, after paying the expenses and
laying by a certain amount for contingencies, divide the profits among
the shareholders. These profits are called dividends, and in
successful concerns such dividends as are declared quarterly,
semiannually, or annually usually amount to good interest on the
shareholders” investments.

companies, etc
RECEIVER”S CERTIFICATES are issued by receivers of corporations,
companies, etc., in financial difficulties, to secure operating
capital; they are granted first rights upon the property and are
placed above prior lien and first mortgage bonds.

record made in previous dealings
When former customers apply for credit the merchant is guided by the
record made in previous dealings. A business man”s ledger is a very
valuable history of credits. It is his compass in a sea of doubt. If
upon the inspection of an old account it be discovered that in former
years the customer paid cash and discounted his bills, and that later
his method of payment was by promissory notes, and that on several
occasions he asked for special favours, such as dating bills ahead or
the privilege of renewal of notes, one is able to read a certain
unmistakable sign of degeneracy in the customer”s credit. New orders
from such a customer will bear scrutiny; and a closer attention to the
present condition of the account may save the firm from some bad
debts.

12. Do not write any unnecessary information on the back of your
cheque. A story is told of a woman who received a cheque from
her husband, and when cashing it wrote ‘Your loving wife’ above
her name on the back.

purchased
The law supposes or assumes that a person will always pay for a thing
purchased. If I should go into a store, inquire the price of a book,
and, after learning the price, should say to the salesman, ‘I will
take the book,’ and he should wrap it up and give it to me and I
should then walk out with the book under my arm, he doubtless would
come to me and say in his politest manner: ‘Why, sir, you have
forgotten to pay me for it.’ Suppose I should say: ‘Oh, yes; but I
will come in to-morrow and pay.’ But if I happened to be a stranger,
and especially if there was a suspicious look about me, and he should
say they did not give credit in that store, and I was still inclined
to walk out with my book, he could insist that there had been no sale
and that I must give the book to him. The law would protect him in
taking it from me if he did not use undue force. The law assumes,
unless some different rule exists, that the buyer will always pay for
the thing purchased, yet in law there is no sale unless the purchase
money is actually paid.

which take a sort of middle ground between the commercial bank and the
savings bank, so far as their service to the public is concerned
There has grown up in this country a class of financial institutions
which take a sort of middle ground between the commercial bank and the
savings bank, so far as their service to the public is concerned.
These are what are known as trust companies. National banks are
prohibited by law from making loans on real estate, and though State
banks are not hedged in this way, as a matter of good banking they
usually avoid loans of this character. The policy of commercial banks
is to make a great many comparatively small loans on short-time paper,
while that of the trust company is to make large loans on long-time
securities. The deposits of trust companies consist largely of
undisturbed sums such as might be set aside by administrators,
executors, trustees, committees, societies, or from private estates.
They are such as are not likely to fluctuate greatly in amount. From
the very nature of their deposits trust companies find it convenient
and profitable to make larger loans and at longer periods than do
ordinary banks. Trust companies not only receive moneys upon deposit
subject to cheque and for savings, and loan money on commercial paper
and other securities, as do commercial banks; but they also act as
agents, trustees, executors, administrators, assignees, receivers for
individual properties, and corporations. They frequently assist as
promoters or reorganisers of corporations and in the sale of stocks,
bonds, and securities. They act also as agents for the payment of
obligations maturing at future dates, such as the premiums on
insurance, interest on mortgages and bonds, etc. Trust companies are
organised under the laws of the State in which they exist and are
usually subject to all the supervision required in the case of State
banks.