ome of these were very small. Here and there the company
was in the development stage, but as a rule it may be taken that the
concern was not a very profitable one in peace times. Possibly it was
over-capitalised, or over-weighted with debentures, or its plant was out
of date, or it could not get sufficient business to make full use of its
productive capacity. We shall not attempt the invidious task of singling
out which come in these categories, but we call attention to the cases
in which small pre-war profits have been converted into large ones since
because they are really the most instructive of the whole series.

For very large increases upon profits which were already good the most
notable are the shipping companies. Our list is typical rather than
exhaustive. Some of the small concerns, with only one ship, or up to
half a dozen, have done better relatively than several of the big lines,
as they were more at liberty to take advantage of the big freight-rates
which were going. We have not set these out, however, because it does
not appear to be necessary. The dividends in virtually all cases have
been substantial, and in some cases very large indeed. It would be
useless, however, to show these in tables, as some of the leading
companies use reserves greatly exceeding their nominal capital, and
quite a number have devoted a larger proportion of their profits to
strengthening their position than to the payment of dividends. In the
case of the Moor line we are unable to give the amount of the profit
reported last year, as the balance-sheets are not issued publicly,
although we have been favoured with them occasionally.

Coal, iron, engineering companies and shipbuilding companies are
bracketed together because so many of them are concerned in at least two
of those fields of industry. As our table shows, they have had a great
revival, many having been used by the Government, while all have felt
the effect of the great demand for munitions. The miscellaneous list
offers an interesting field of study, and the rubber and tea companies'
results are in some respects more striking still. We have only given a
selection of these, but they suffice to show that rubber and tea have
been very profitable since the War began. An appeal was made some time
ago with a view to the "young" rubber companies being relieved of the
excess profits tax, but our list shows how unnecessary it was to make
any special concession to the industry th