QUESTIONS OF PRINCIPLE 59 



figure represents the price at which the article can be sold 

 to the consumer to give that margin of profit to the producer 

 necessary to retain him in the business, and to call it the 

 ' cost of production ' is either a misconception of fact or 

 an attempt to impose on the credulity of the public. In 

 the long run, of course, both these charges have to be 

 reckoned if supply is to be maintained, but since they are 

 not actual cash transactions, and there is no basis for assess- 

 ing them, they are not charges with which the costings- 

 clerk can deal. 



