Swift and Company originally had a nominal capital of $300,ooo, which has been increased at various times to $3,000,000, $5,000,000, $7,500,000, $15,000,000, $20,000,000, $25,000,000, $35,000,000, $50,000,000, $60,000,000, and finally $75,000,000.
Attention has already been called to the possibility of avoiding constant changes in capitalization which are always of an arbitrary nature by the use of shares without par value.
It would be theoretically possible to have no shares whatever outstanding, and there is one case on record of an English enterprise known as the Undertakers of the Aire and Calder Navigation and Steamship Company, which until 1895 had no shares. The capital was bought and sold at so many years'
Purchase of the dividends. The modern arrangement, however, is to have shares bearing no par value. A law authorizing the issue of shares without par value was adopted in New York State in 1912.
Capitalization of Public Service Companies The assumption which has been made throughout this chapter that capitalization may be rightfully adjusted to whatever figure within reason the organizers or directors of a corporation may think proper, applies to manufacturing and trading companies, but does not apply to financial companies or to most public utility companies. Financial companies are in this respect in a class by themselves, for the reason that they are themselves dealers in cash and in credit and it is essential that their financial position should be at all times clear and easily ascertainable; consequently, they do not enter good-will on their accounts, not because it does not frequently exist, but because to do so would involve questions of judgment and of motive which they cannot afford to have raised....
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