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A Mathematical Theory of Investment

February 18, 2010

PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR

This book has been written for the use of students of business and public affairs. The fact that, with a few notable exceptions, colleges and universities have hitherto made no provision for courses in mathematics adapted to meet the needs of students trained for commercial careers and for the public service, is due in no small measure to the lack of a suitable textbook. In recent years the closer study of business methods and the extension of governmental control over many forms of industrial and financial activity have greatly emphasized the value, to students of finance, of a knowledge of what the Germans call ” political arithmetic.”

In an attempt to meet the need for a book covering this field, some of the more important topics relating to the theory of interest and its application to the larger affairs of modem everyday life have been brought together. The following pages contain, in somewhat elaborated form, the substance of a course of lectures given annually for the last five years to the students in the coarse in commerce in the University of Wisconsin.

While I have tried to make the book practical throughout, I have sought to make it a book of first principles rather than a guide to detailed practice. I trust that the reader will find the treatment adapted to present-day conditions and needs. I shall be gratified if I have in any way contributed to the more efficient training, in principles of sound finance, of the splendid body of young men who are going out from our courses in commerce to become leaders in the business world.

In selecting topics for consideration, an effort has been made to avoid those that are still the subject of controversy. If this rule has been departed from in devoting some space to depreciation, it is on account of the great importance of the subject. The public-utility commission seeking to make an equitable adjustment of rates must make some sort of quantitative determination of depreciation, even though neither the exact meaning of the term nor the method of treating the subject has been agreed upon. It is believed that the discussion in §§ 56-58 follows logically from the definitions therein proposed. It might be added that it is in substantial agreement with the practice of the Wisconsin Railroad Commission.

ERNEST B. SKINNER
The University of Wisconsin
July, 1913

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