We give below a tabular statement of profits which have been declared this year, with the figures for two preceding years added so as to show their true significance. Some are gross and others net profits, but in this we have simply followed the methods adopted by the directors in their reports, that being in practice the only way of showing how the comparison stands. In some cases the capital has been increased during the three years, but the extent to which that has occurred does not affect the tables if they are regarded comprehensively. Some did very badly in the first few months of the war, and the profits they declared in 1915 look very small in comparison with those in the first column of the tables. In those cases the third column will act as a corrective, for in the main it shows the companies' normal earnings. It will be noticed that some 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 Possibly it was over-capitalised, or over-weighted with debentures, or its plant was out of date, or it could not get sufficient business to make full use of its productive capacity.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.