Rates

“ These ordinary or average rates may be called the natural rates of wages, profit, and rent, at the time and place in which they commonly prevail.
When the price of any commodity is neither more nor less than what is sufficient to pay the rent of the land, the wages of the labor, and the profits of the stock employed in raising, preparing, and bringing it to market, according to their natural rates, the commodity is then sold for what may be called its natural price. ”

“ When rates are in controversy, it would seem to be necessary to find a basis for a division of the total value of the property independently of revenue, and this must be found in the use that is made of the property. That is, there should be assigned to each business that proportion of the total value of the property which will correspond to the extent of its employment in that business. ”

“ What would be the consequence of this difference in the rates of profit for capitals employed in the different branches of industry? Why, the consequence that generally obtains whenever, from whatever reason, the average rate of profit comes to differ in the different spheres of production. ”

“ Raising rates is invariably accompanied by a wave of indignation. However, it is apparent that a series of rates based on an annual current price valuation of the property would average exactly the same, during a term of years, as though the property were valued once for all on the basis of the average prices of labor and material for the same term of years, and the rate based on the one valuation thus determined.
If the object of the valuation is to afford data for taxation, the same argument applies as in a case of fixing rates. ”

“ At certain times and in certain businesses the prevailing rate of exchange on the actual day, or the monthly average of daily rates, may need to be used to secure satisfactory results. With the use of the fixed average rate, as above, the totals of foreign sales and sales returns journals are converted into home currency and carried respectively as debits and credits to Accounts Receivable control, and credits and debits to Sales. ”

“ Believing that there may be some ground for the claim that rates as a whole should be thus fixed, and that the return should not be unreasonable, let us consider how what is reasonable may be determined. ”

“ Suppose, for instance, that we wish to measure changes in the general level of prices of capital goods,*26—railways, ships, real estate, etc.,—and also to measure the relative changes in the amounts of those goods. The prices of some kinds of capital may have increased, and of others decreased, and some may have increased at different rates from others. ”

“ While, also, the rates for the low-value articles may not cover every item in the so-called cost of service, they do contribute to the revenue an amount which might otherwise have to be made good by the fixing of higher rates on goods in other classes. ”

“ Taking into consideration the fact that rates must be reasonable, either by virtue of present laws or laws which may become effective at any time, perhaps in the immediate future, going value may well be defined as the present worth of the amount by which the anticipated profits of a going plant, operating at reasonable rates, exceed the present worth of the anticipated profits of a similar hypothetical starting plant, operating at those same rates. ”

“ When a through rate is made by combination of rates for intermediate distances, the rate for the later link in the shipment is, when lower than the local, spoken of as a proportional rate.' Atchison, T. & S.F.R. v. ”

“ The general or comprehensive system of interdependent and fairly related rates, each so equitably adjusted to the others that any local change must of necessity throw the whole out of balance, is declared to exist only in imagination,-to be a fiction constructed in disregard of the facts of rate-making, and without attention to the inconsistencies shown by the schedules which had been in force. ”

“ The policy of the Government, national and state, during the last twenty-five years seems to have been to decide rate questions in the great majority of cases in such a way that rates were rarely advanced and generally were reduced, and to introduce rules, regulations, and methods that increased expenses. ”

“ To construe the phrase 'current rate of wages' as meaning either the lowest rate or the highest rate, or any intermediate rate, or, if it were possible to determine the various factors to be considered, an average of all rates, would be as likely to defeat the purpose of the Legislature as to promote it. ”

“ The question of rates is a practical question, to be governed by the conditions of the time and of production; the ruling and uncompromising principle is the protection and development of American labor and industry. ”

“ This rate structure is known as the class or 'paper rate.' Since the channels of commercial traffic are regular and well defined in accordance with the stability of trade, large commercial shippers seldom use the class rate but negotiate rates with the carriers known as 'commercial rates,' which are peculiarly suited and adapted to the requirements of the commerce involved. ”

“ In making the rates, all articles of commerce are divided into several classes, and a certain standard rate per hundred pounds of each class is fixed between two important points, as New York and Chicago. ”

“ Rates of discount everywhere, interest on government loans except in America, and on mortgage loans in Europe, have on the whole advanced, the minimum average rates having been reached, after twenty-five years of gradual reduction, in 1897. ”

“ By tracing the usual course of interest rates and of business conditions throughout one of these cycles, a general idea can be formed of the way in which the joint influences operate to produce price movements. To what extent the course of interest rates is a cause as well as a result of changing business conditions, we shall not attempt here to estimate, but will be content to note carefully the general course which rates for money pursue throughout the cycles. Immediately after a financial crisis, which usually closes an era of great business prosperity, money rates become abnormally easy. ”

“ Whenever they have put their prices above the competitive rates existing just before the combination, it may mean that they have put their prices back to rates that will allow medium profits instead of losses, and not above rates that would be normal in the case of small competitors. ”

“ Considering, then, the purely temporary nature of the rise in price the Board agreed to accept an advance of five per cent.—two and a half on basis rates under the usual conditions, and, with the view of meeting the exceptional circumstances, a temporary advance of two and a half for six pays. ”

“ This curve expresses, in terms of value, the idea of proportionality which is an essential part of the quantity theory. Put in terms of the money market, we have a demand-curve for money, not for the long-time possession of money, but for its temporary use—a rental, rather than a capital value, is expressed in the price which this curve helps to determine. This curve is highly elastic. When money-rates are low, transactions will be undertaken which will not be undertaken when the rate is a little higher. ”

“ And the system of making rates by special bargain almost always led to differences between individuals, where favors were too often given to those who needed or deserved them least. The fluctuation of rates was first taken advantage of by the unscrupulous speculator. ”

“ Here something more than vague general statements are needed; it is incumbent on those who call for a great change to produce facts justifying an expectation that, consistently with a reasonable dividend, a considerable reduction can be made in the rates for merchandise. ”

“ N. B.—The above are the average rates of each class of men as detailed, and the rates given are the amount paid in pence and in fractions or decimals of pence per hour. Fifty-one hours constitute a working week. ”

“ These advanced credit prices, and consequently the high interest rates, may be paid not only upon food, clothing, and other personal goods, but also, occasionally, upon tools, farming implements, fertilizers, and work animals. ”

“ A. The rates of duty in rate columns numbered 1 and 2 for items 155.20 and 155.30 of Subpart A, Part 10, Schedule 1 of the TSUS, are modified, and the following rates are established:
155.20 ..... 2.98125 cents per lb. less 0.0421875 cents per lb. for each degree under 100 degrees (and fractions of a degree in proportion) but not less than 1.9265625 cents per lb. ”

“ The complex of rates of interest would simply be an expression of the terms on which the banking system is prepared to acquire or part with debts; and the quantity of money would be the amount which can find a home in the possession of individuals who3⁄4after taking account of all relevant circumstances3⁄4prefer the control of liquid cash to parting with it in exchange for a debt on the terms indicated by the market rate of interest. ”

“ Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Ry., supra, 12 I.C.C. at 421. 'Stability and equality of rates are more important to commercial interests than reduced rates.' Id., at 422. 'Occasional hardships may result from any inelastic rule of general application. ”

“ Rise of prices generates rise of prices, and continues to do so as long as the interest rate lags behind its normal figure.
§ 3 IV.11 The expansion of deposit currency indicated in this cumulative movement abnormally increases the ratio of M' to M. This is evident if the rise of prices begins in a change in some element or elements in the equation other than the quantity of money; for if M remains constant and M' increases, the ratio M' to M must increase also. If M increases in any ratio, M' will increase in a greater ratio. ”

“ In comparing therefore the value of the same commodity, at different periods of time, the consideration of the comparative skill and intensity of labour, required for that particular commodity, needs scarcely to be attended to, as it operates equally at both pe14riods. ”

“ Where a rate has been established and maintained for a considerable period, for the purpose of developing a particular industry, and with full knowledge that the industry could not be developed without it, and where, under the influence of such rate, large amounts of money have been invested in property the value of which must be seriously impaired by an advance of the rate, that fact is an important consideration in passing upon the reasonableness of such advance. ”

“ X.12 We choose, then, as one of the best index numbers of prices, the average price of the goods sold, those goods being measured in units worth a dollar in the base year; in other words, the ratio of the value of sales at actual prices to the value of the same sales if made at base prices; in still other words, the weighted arithmetical average of all price ratios, each ratio being weighted according to the values sold, reckoned at base prices. ”

“ For, as is now well established by economic theory and reinforced by the observations of practical men, while any increase in the supply of loanable funds on the call-money market temporarily [Pg 642] reduces the "money rate," an increase in the general supply of standard money in the community, on the contrary, raises not only the price level of all commodities, but the price for the use of capital, which we call the general rate of interest. The increase of money as the standard of value inevitably tends to increase the general rate of interest. ”

“ If the industrial, commercial and leisure classes of the population are collectively considered, total income and aggregate prices are subject to similar concurrent changes. It is a truism, often overlooked, that the sum of prices paid constitutes the total of wages, interest, rents and profits which compose the money-income of society and, per se, the direct means of acquiring the necessities and comforts of life. The measuring and estimating of changes in the cost of living, therefore, is resolved into a comparative study of incomes and expenditures. ”

“ Credit and Prices.—The general level of prices depends upon the value of money. The price of a thing is merely its value expressed in terms of money. To say that prices have gone up is to say exactly the same thing as that the value of money has gone down. [208] The general level of prices, to put the matter in another way, is determined by the demand for goods on the one hand and the supply of goods on the other. The demand for goods, however, is represented by the amount of gold currency available plus the amount of credit which is built upon 444this gold. ”

“ Other things being the same, an increase of the money in circulation raises prices, a diminution lowers them. If more money is thrown into circulation than the quantity which can circulate at a value conformable to its cost of production, the value of money, so long as the excess lasts, will remain below the standard of cost of production, and general prices will be sustained above the natural rate. ”

“ There is nothing more difficult in economical inquiries than the attempt to ascertain what was the actual rate of wages at any given period. The fluctuations in the value of money enter into this question, more or less, at every period of our history. We find the nominal rate of wages constantly increasing, from one generation to another, but we cannot at all be certain that the real rate is increasing. That nominal rate always requires to be compared with the prices of the necessaries of life. What pertains to wages pertains to all fixed money-payments. ”

“ Nevertheless there is evidence of a tendency towards a single rate, which, for want of a better term, is called the gold rate—as though gold or money of gold is or has a rate—as though money of credit has a rate at which alone it is equivalent to gold—an attempt at a definition, which, however unsuccessful, is evidence of the tendency. ”