"
After thinking the matter over, he said, one afternoon when his
employer came in while he was occupied at the accounts,--
"I have not seen anything of a stock-book, Captain Dave. Everything
else is now straight, and balanced up to to-day. Here is the book of
goods sold, the book of goods received, and the ledger with the
accounts; but there is no stock-book such as I find in almost all the
other places where I work."
"What do I want with a stock-book?" Captain Dave asked.
"You cannot know how you stand without it," Cyril replied. "You know
how much you have paid, and how much you have received during the
year; but unless you have a stock-book you do not know whether the
difference between the receipts and expenditure represents profit,
for the stock may have so fallen in value during the year that you
may really have made a loss while seeming to make a profit."
"How can that be?" Captain Dave asked. "I get a fair profit on every
article."
"There ought to be a profit, of course," Cyril said; "but sometimes
it is found not to be so. Moreover, if there is a stock-book you can
tell at any time, without the trouble of opening bins and weighing
metal, how much stock you have of each article you sell, and can
order your goods accordingly."
"How would you do that?"
"It is very simple, Captain Dave," Cyril said. "After taking stock of
the whole of the goods, I should have a ledger in which each article
would have a page or more to itself, and every day I should enter
from John Wilkes's sales-book a list of the goods that have gone out,
each under its own heading.
Pages:
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63