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Principles of Managerial Finance Brief Gitman 7th Edition Solutions Manual
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Chapter 1
The Role of Managerial Finance
◼ Instructor’s Resources
Overview
This chapter introduces the students to the field of finance and explores career opportunities in both financial services
and managerial finance. The three basic legal forms of business organization (sole proprietorship, partnership, and
corporation) and their strengths and weaknesses are described. The managerial finance function is defined and
differentiated from economics and accounting. A discussion of the financial manager’s goals—maximizing
shareholder wealth and preserving stakeholder wealth—and the role of ethics in meeting these goals is presented.
The chapter then summarizes the three key activities of the financial manager: financial analysis and planning,
making investment decisions, and making financing decisions. The chapter includes discussion of the agency
problem—the conflict that exists between managers and owners in a large corporation.
This chapter, and all that follow, emphasizes how the chapter content plays a vital role in the student’s professional
and personal life. Each chapter includes an early discussion of the relevance of the topic to majors in accounting,
information systems, management, marketing, and operations. Throughout each chapter are detailed examples of
how the chapter’s topic relates to the student's financial life. These pedagogic tools should motivate students to
grasp quickly an understanding of the chapter content and employ it in both their professional and personal lives.
◼ Answers to Review Questions
1. Finance is the art and science of managing money. Finance affects all individuals, businesses, and
governments in the process of the transfer of money through institutions, markets, and instruments. At the
personal level, finance is concerned with an individual’s decisions regarding the spending and investing of
income. Businesses also have to determine how to raise money from investors, how to invest money in an
attempt to earn a profit, and how to reinvest profits in the business or distribute them back to investors.
2. Financial services is the area of finance concerned with the design and delivery of advice and financial
products to individuals, businesses, and governments. It involves a variety of interesting career opportunities
within the areas of banking, personal financial planning, investments, real estate, and insurance. Managerial
finance is concerned with the duties of the financial manager working in a business. Managerial finance
encompasses the functions of budgeting, financial forecasting, credit administration, investment analysis, and
funds procurement for a firm. Managerial finance is the management of the firm’s funds within the firm. This
field offers many career opportunities, including financial analyst, capital budgeting analyst, and cash
manager. (Note: Other answers are possible.)
3. Sole proprietorships are the most common form of business organization, while corporations are responsible
for the majority of business revenues. The majority of sole proprietorships operate in the wholesale, retail,
service, and construction industries. Although corporations engage in all types of businesses, manufacturing
firms account for the largest portion of corporate business receipts and net profits.
4 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
4. Stockholders are the owners of a corporation, whose ownership, or equity, takes the form of common stock
or, less frequently, preferred stock. They elect the board of directors, which has the ultimate authority to
guide corporate affairs and set general policy. The board is usually composed of key corporate personnel and
outside directors. The president or chief executive officer (CEO) reports to the board. He or she is responsible
for day-to-day operations and carrying out the policies established by the board. The owners of the
corporation do not have a direct relationship with management but give their input through the election of board
members and voting on major charter issues. The owners of the firm are compensated through the receipt of
dividends paid by the firm or by realizing capital gains through increases in the price of their common stock
shares.
5. The most popular form of limited liability organizations other than corporations are:
• Limited partnerships—A partnership with at least one general partner with unlimited liability and one or
more limited partners who have limited liability. In return for the limited liability, the limited partners are
prohibited from active management of the partnership.
• S corporation—If certain requirements are met, the S corporation can be taxed as a partnership but
receive most of the benefits of the corporate form of organization.
• Limited liability company (LLC)—This form of organization is like an S corporation in that it is taxed as
a partnership but primarily functions like a corporation. The LLC differs from the S corporation in that it
is allowed to own other corporations and be owned by other corporations, partnerships, and non-U.S.
residents.
• Limited liability partnership (LLP)—A partnership form authorized by many states that gives the partners
limited liability from the acts of other partners, but not from personal individual acts of malpractice. The
LLP is taxed as a partnership. This form is most frequently used by legal and accounting professionals.
These firms generally do not have large numbers of owners. Most typically they have fewer than
100 owners.
6. Virtually every function within a firm is in some way connected with the receipt or disbursement of cash. The
cash relationship may be associated with the generation of sales through the marketing department, the
incurring of raw material costs through purchasing, or the earnings of production workers. Because finance
deals primarily with management of cash for operation of the firm, every person within the firm needs to be
knowledgeable of finance to work effectively with employees of the financial departments.
Individuals plan, monitor, and assess the financial aspects of their activities over a given period through the
consideration of cash inflows and outflows.
7. The goal of a firm, and therefore of all managers, is to maximize shareholder wealth. This goal is measured
by share price; an increasing price per share of common stock relative to the stock market as a whole
indicates achievement of this goal.
8. Profit maximization is not consistent with wealth maximization due to: (1) the timing, (2) earnings that do not
represent cash flows available to stockholders, and (3) a failure to consider risk.
9. Risk is the chance that actual outcomes may differ from expected outcomes. Financial managers must
consider both risk and return because of their inverse effect on the share price of the firm. Increased risk may
decrease the share price, while increased return is likely to increase the share price.
10. In recent years, the magnitude and severity of “white collar crime” has increased dramatically, with a
corresponding emphasis on prosecution by government authorities. As a result, the actions of all corporations
and their executives have been subjected to closer scrutiny. The increased scrutiny of this type of crime has
resulted in many firms establishing corporate ethics guidelines and policies to cover employee actions in
dealing with all corporate constituents. The adoption of high ethical standards by a corporation strengthens its
competitive position by reducing the potential for litigation, maintaining a positive corporate image, and
Chapter 1: The Role of Managerial Finance 5
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
building shareholder confidence. The result is enhancement of long-term value and a positive effect on share
price.
11. The treasurer or the chief financial manager typically manages a firm’s cash, investing surplus funds when
available and securing outside financing when needed. The treasurer also oversees a firm’s pension plans and
manages critical risks related to movements in foreign currency values, interest rates, and commodity prices.
The treasurer in a mature firm must make decisions with respect to handling financial planning, acquisition of
fixed assets, obtaining funds to finance fixed assets, managing working capital needs, managing the pension
fund, managing foreign exchange, and distribution of corporate earnings to owners.
12. Finance is often considered a form of applied economics. Firms operate within the economy and must be
aware of the economic principles, changes in economic activity, and economic policy. Principles developed
in economic theory are applied to specific areas in finance. The primary economic principle used in
managerial finance is marginal cost–benefit analysis, the principle that financial decisions should be made
and actions taken only when the added benefits exceed the added costs. Nearly, all financial decisions
ultimately come down to an assessment of their marginal benefits and marginal costs.
13. Accountants operate on an accrual basis, recognizing revenues at the point of sale and expenses when
incurred. The financial manager focuses on the actual inflows and outflows of cash, recognizing revenues
when actually received and expenses when actually paid.
Accountants primarily collect and present financial data; financial managers devote attention primarily to
decision making through analysis of financial data.
14. The two key activities of the financial manager as related to a firm’s balance sheet are
a. Making investment decisions: Determining both the most efficient level and the best mix of assets; and
b. Making financing decisions: Establishing and maintaining the proper mix of short- and long-term
financing and raising needed financing in the most economical fashion.
Investment decisions generally refer to the items that appear on the left-hand side of the balance sheet
(current and fixed assets). Financing decisions deal with the items that appear on the right-hand side of the
balance sheet (current liabilities, long-term debt, and stockholders’ equity).
15. Corporate governance refers to a system of organizational control that is used to define and establish lines of
responsibility and accountability among major participants in a corporation. These participants include the
shareholders, board of directors, officers and managers of the corporations, and other stakeholders. A
company’s organizational chart is an example of a broad arrangement of corporate governance. More detailed
responsibilities would be established within each branch of the organizational chart.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is directed toward reducing the apparent conflicts of interest that exist in
many corporate structures. The act has many provisions, but the major thrust of the act is to reduce the
number of situations in which a conflict of interest can arise and to hold management more accountable for
the financial and operating information they communicate to the public.
16. Agency problems arise when managers deviate from the goal of maximization of shareholder wealth by
placing their personal goals ahead of the goals of shareholders. These problems in turn give rise to agency
costs. Agency costs are costs borne by shareholders due to the presence or avoidance of agency problems, and
in either case represent a loss of shareholder wealth. For example, shareholders incur agency costs when
managers fail to make the best investment decision or when managers have to be monitored to ensure that the
best investment decision is made, because either situation is likely to result in a lower stock price.
The agency problem and the associated agency costs can be reduced by a properly constructed and followed
corporate governance structure. The structure of the governance system should be designed to institute a
system of checks and balances to reduce the ability and incentives of management to deviate from the goal of
shareholder wealth maximization.
6 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
17. Structuring expenditures are currently the most popular way to deal with the agency problem—and also the
most powerful and expensive. Compensation plans can be either incentive or performance plans. Incentive
plans tie management performance to share price. Managers may receive stock options giving them the right
to purchase stock at a set price. This provides the incentive to take actions that maximize stock. This form of
compensation plan is not favorable because of market behavior, which has a significant effect on share price
and is not under management’s control. As a result, performance plans are more popular today. With these,
compensation is based on performance measures, such as earnings per share (EPS), EPS growth, or other
return ratios. Managers may receive performance shares and/or cash bonuses when stated performance goals
are reached.
In practice, recent studies have been unable to document any significant correlation between CEO
compensation and share price.
18. Market forces—for example, shareholder activism from large institutional investors—can reduce or avoid the
agency problem because these groups can use their voting power to elect new directors who support their
objectives and will act to replace poorly performing managers. In this way, these groups place pressure on
management to take actions that maximize shareholder wealth.
The threat of hostile takeovers also acts as a deterrent to the agency problem. Hostile takeovers occur when a
company or group not supported by existing management attempts to acquire the firm. Because the acquirer
looks for companies that are poorly managed and undervalued, this threat motivates managers to act in the
best interests of the firm’s owners.
Institutional investors are a powerful source of shareholder involvement in the monitoring of managers to
reduce the agency problem. Institutions hold large quantities of shares in many of the corporations in their
portfolio. Managers of these institutions should be active in the monitoring of management and vote their
shares for the benefit of the shareholders. The power of institutional investors far exceeds the voting power of
individual investors.
◼ Suggested Answer to Focus on Ethics Box: Critics See Ethical
Dilemmas in Google Glass
Is the goal of maximization of shareholder wealth necessarily ethical or unethical?
It is not the goal that makes maximization of shareholder wealth ethical or unethical; it is actions of financial
managers in pursuit of this goal.
What responsibility, if any, does Google have to protect the privacy of those who interact with other people
wearing Glass?
Google has a responsibility to ensure that its products and users of its product protect the privacy of those who
interact with the users of Google’s products. Google Glass poses an ethical challenge as users could seemingly
videotape or photograph others without their knowledge. It is Google’s responsibility to ensure that its devices
cannot be used to capture images of people inconspicuously. For example, in some countries like Germany, it is
legally prohibited to photograph a person in certain circumstances without the consent of the concerned person.
Google glass raise an ethical and legal concern as it allows for shooting pictures secretly in violations of law.
Chapter 1: The Role of Managerial Finance 7
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
◼ Answers to Warm-Up Exercises
E1-1. Comparison of advantages and disadvantages of a partnership versus incorporation.
Answer: While Jack and Ann disagree over whether or not their firm should incorporate or remain as a
partnership, each form of business organization has its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage
of a partnership is that income is taxed at each partner’s individual tax rate that includes 10%, 15%,
25%, and higher rates up to a top rate of 35%, while corporate rates are 15%, 25%, and 34% with a top
rate of 39%. The corporation is allowed to retain accumulated taxable income, but for a personal
service corporation such as Jack and Ann’s tax preparation service, there is an additional tax, called an
accumulated earnings tax, of 15% for accumulated taxable income in excess of $150,000. If corporate
earnings are paid out as salary, Jack and Ann will pay their individual rates as they do on their
partnership earnings. If some of the income is paid out in the form of dividends, it will be taxed twice,
first as corporate income and then as dividend income (generally 5% or 15% depending upon the
individual’s tax bracket).
While taxation of income is a key factor in deciding which form of business organization to select, two
other factors are also important. In a partnership, each partner has unlimited liability and may have to
cover debts of other partners, while corporate owners have limited liability that guarantees that they
cannot lose more than they have invested in the corporation. The third major consideration is ease of
transfer of the business. Partnerships are harder to transfer and are technically dissolved when a
partner dies, while a corporation can have a very long life with ownership readily transferred through
the sale of stock.
If a third party was asked to decide which legal form of business A&J Tax Preparation should take, it
would be useful to have the following information:
• Marital status and tax situation of each partner
• Expectation of the longevity of the firm
• Age of the current owners
• Current plan of succession
• Risk tolerance of the owners
• Expectation of future tax law changes
• Capital needs of the firm
• Growth prospects of the firm
• Reasons for each partner’s view of the preferred form of ownership
E1-2 Timings of cash flows
Answer: Based on the information provided, the choice is not obvious. Even though the second project is expected
to provide the larger overall increase in earnings and, therefore, is the more profitable project, the goal of
the firm is to maximize value so timing, cash flow, and risk have to be considered to determine which
project is superior. Although it is often the case that profit maximization leads to value maximization, it is
definitely not always the case.
E1-3. Cash flow vs. accrued profits
Answer: It is not unusual for a firm to be profitable yet experience a cash crunch. The most common cause is when
expenses have a shorter due date than expected revenue. In such cases, the firm must arrange short-
term financing to meet its debt obligations before the revenue arrives. If the forthcoming cash crunch is
not a new situation for this firm, management should probably consider going ahead with the year-end
party if it is important for employee morale and the future success of the firm, as long as adequate
short-term funding can be arranged. On the other hand, if the firm has not experienced such a cash
crunch before, there may be larger problems looming ahead, and it would be unseemly to spend cash
on a party that would be better spent meeting the debt obligations of the firm.
8 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
E1-4. Sunk costs
Answer: Marginal cost-benefit analysis ignores sunk costs, so the $2.5 million dollars is irrelevant to the current
decision that must be made. At this point there are two questions that must be answered. First, will the
$10,000 additional investment generate a PV of expected revenue that will exceed the $10,000
investment? In other words, will the project generate a positive net present value? If it does, the project
must be considered further to see if it is the best use of capital. If the firm has a need to ration capital,
the project must then be compared to other projects competing for the limited capital to see if it is
viable. The fact that the project’s technology has been surpassed by new technology does not
immediately disqualify the project because new technology does not ensure a positive cost-benefit
result. In this case, a small $10,000 investment might avoid a heavy expenditure in new technology.
Depending upon the industry, however, failure to keep up with competitors can be devastating. The key
may well lie in the description “the project has little chance to be viable,” which indicates that
approving the $10,000 is likely to be throwing good money after bad.
E1-5. Agency costs
Answer: Agency costs are the costs borne by stockholders to maintain a governance structure that ensures
against dishonest acts of management, and gives managers the financial incentive to maximize share
price. One example of agency costs is stock options, which are used to provide an incentive for
managers to work diligently for the benefit of the firm. Tips are similar to stock options in that they are
offered as rewards for good service much as stock options are used to reward managers, presumably
based on their good performance—which subsequently leads to a higher stock price. The Donut Shop,
Inc., example does not represent a clear case of agency costs because it is the management itself that
has instituted the “No tips” policy and the employees have responded with reduced performance. By
banning tips, the management has created a situation where an agency cost may be necessary to provide
an incentive for employees to resume their former level of performance.
One solution that may work for Donut Shop, Inc., is to institute a profit-sharing plan that reaches down to
the employee level where the slowdown and inefficiency are occurring. A profit-sharing plan is designed
to motivate the employees and could alleviate the aggravation caused by the no-tip policy, but must be
clearly identified as the replacement to tipping in order to be effective. A profit-sharing plan is usually
viewed by the employees as a reward for good performance, but does not have the immediacy of the
positive effect that an employee gets from a tip.
It is unclear from the case whether the new no-tip policy is a company-wide policy or simply the
actions of a few branch managers. However, the real solution here is to recognize that the no-tip policy
has created an unnecessary backlash that can be alleviated by reversing management’s position without
incurring the additional costs of revising the current employee benefit plan and paying out a portion of
corporate profits.
◼ Solutions to Problems
P1-1. Liability comparisons
LG 2; Basic
a. Ms. Harper has unlimited liability.
b. Ms. Harper has unlimited liability.
c. Ms. Harper has limited liability, which guarantees that she cannot lose more than she invested.
P1-2. Accrual income vs. cash flow for a period
LG 4; Basic
a. Sales $760,000
Cost of goods sold 300,000
Net profit $460,000
Chapter 1: The Role of Managerial Finance 9
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
b. Cash receipts $690,000
Cost of goods sold 300,000
Net cash flow $390,000
c. The cash flow statement is more useful to the financial manager. The accounting net income includes
amounts that will not be collected and, as a result, do not contribute to the wealth of the owners.
P1-3. Cash flow statement
LG 4; Intermediate
a. Total cash inflow: $450 + $4,500 = $4,950
Total cash outflow: $1,000 + $500 + $800 + $355 + $280 + $1,200 + $222 = $4,357
b. Net cash flow: Total cash inflows – Total cash outflows = $4,950 − $4,357 = $593
c. If Jane is facing a shortage, she could cut back on some of her discretionary items, including clothing,
dining out, and gas (i.e., travel less).
d. If Jane has a surplus in August, she should compare these cash flows to those of other months and
verify that August’s cash flows are typical. She may, for instance, observe the existence of large
automobile insurance bills or tendency to spend more during the Christmas holiday season. If she has
such needs, Jane will want to save the $593 in a money market security, where she is unlikely to face a
decline in investment. If her August net cash flow is not needed to pay anticipated bills, she should
invest in a diversified portfolio.
P1-4. Marginal cost-benefit analysis and the goal of the firm
PG 3, 5; Challenge
a. Marginal benefits of new robotics − Marginal benefits of original robotics = Marginal benefits of
proposed robotics
$560,000 − $400,000 = $160,000
b. Marginal cost of new robotics – Sales price of current robotics = Marginal cost of proposed robotics
$220,000 − $70,000 = $150,000
c. Net benefits of new robotics = Marginal benefits of proposed robotics − Marginal cost of proposed
robotics
$160,000 − $150,000 = $10,000
d. Ken Allen should recommend the new robotics be used on the heavy truck gear line. The marginal
benefits exceed the marginal costs.
e. Ken Allen should determine whether there will be additional training necessary with the new robotics,
possibility of availability of better robotics in a short while, and the energy consumption of the new
robotics.
P1-5. Identifying agency problems, costs, and resolutions
LG 4; Intermediate
a. In this case the employee is being compensated for unproductive time. The company must pay
someone to take her place during her absence. Installation of a time clock that must be punched by the
receptionist every time she leaves work and returns would result in either: (1) her returning on time or
(2) reducing the cost to the firm by reducing her pay for the lost work.
b. The costs to the firm are in the form of opportunity costs. Money budgeted to cover the inflated costs
of this project proposal is not available to fund other projects that may help to increase shareholder
wealth. Make the management reward system based on how close the manager’s estimates come to
the actual cost rather than having them come in below cost.
10 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
c. The manager may negotiate a deal with the merging competitor that is extremely beneficial to the
executive and then sell the firm for less than its fair market value. A good way to reduce the loss of
shareholder wealth would be to open the firm up for purchase bids from other firms once the manager
makes it known that the firm is willing to merge. If the price offered by the competitor is too low,
other firms will raise the price closer to its fair market value.
d. Generally, part-time or temporary workers are not as productive as full-time employees. These workers
have not been on the job as long to increase their work efficiency. Also, the better employees generally
need to be highly compensated for their skills. This manager is getting rid of the highest-cost employees
to increase profits. One approach to reducing the problem would be to give the manager performance
shares if he or she meets certain stated goals. Implementing a stock incentive plan tying management
compensation to share price would also encourage the manager to retain quality employees.
P1-6. Ethics Problem
LG 3; Intermediate
The phrase “ethical constraints” is quite broad. The company may be referring to legal issues, and the fact
that it will comply with laws. For example, it may be implying that it will not be using illegal immigrants and
paying them a reduced salary. It may refer to the use of substandard materials, which are less likely to hold
up over an extended period of time. Sometimes the use of substandard manufacturing facilities will
increase the chance of harm to employees or worse, as witnessed by the BP Gulf oil spill in April 2010.
◼ Case
Case studies are available on www.myfinancelab.com.
Assessing the Goal of Sports Products, Inc.
a. Maximization of shareholder wealth, which means maximization of share price, should be the primary goal of
the firm. Unlike profit maximization, this goal considers timing, cash flows, and risk. It also reflects the worth
of the owners’ investment in the firm at any time. It is the value they can realize should they decide to sell their
shares.
b. Yes, there appears to be an agency problem. Although compensation for management is tied to profits, it is not
directly linked to share price. In addition, management’s actions with regard to pollution controls suggest a
profit-maximization focus, which would maximize their earnings, rather than an attempt to maximize share
price.
c. The firm’s approach to pollution control seems to be questionable ethically. While it is unclear whether their acts
were intentional or accidental, it is clear that they are violating the law—an illegal act potentially leading to
litigation costs—and as a result are damaging the environment, an immoral and unfair act that has potential
negative consequences for society in general. Clearly, Sports Products has not only broken the law but also
established poor standards of conduct and moral judgment.
d. From the information given there appears to be a weak corporate governance system. The fact
that management is able to measure and reward their performance on profits indicates that no one
is watching out for the shareholders. Loren and Dale’s concerns indicate that employees apparently have an
interest in the long-run success of the firm. Allowing the continuation of pollution violations is also
apparently escaping the interest and control ability of others who should be monitoring the firm.
e. Some specific recommendations for the firm include:
• Tie management, and possibly employee, compensation to share price or a performance-based measure and
make sure that all involved own stock and have a stake in the firm. Being compensated partially on the basis of
share price or another performance measure and owning stock in the firm will more closely link the wealth
of managers and employees to the firm’s performance.
Chapter 1: The Role of Managerial Finance 11
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
• Comply with all federal and state laws as well as accepted standards of conduct or moral judgment.
• Establish a corporate ethics policy, to be read and signed by all employees.
• Set up a corporate governance system that has as its basis the oversight and welfare of all the stakeholders
in the firm.
(Other answers are, of course, possible.)
◼ Spreadsheet Exercise
The answer to Chapter 1’s Monsanto spreadsheet problem is located on the Instructor’s Resource Center
at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc under the Instructor’s Manual.
◼ Group Exercise
Group exercises are available on www.myfinancelab.com.
Notes for Adopters
The motivation for these group exercises is to place the learning goals of each chapter within the context of a
fictitious firm while giving students a valuable set of teamwork skills. Creativity is encouraged, while the strong
links of each assignment to a real-world, shadow firm should ground each group’s work in reality. Any of these
assignments and their deliverables can be modified to better fit within an adopter’s course goals as they were
designed with an eye toward flexibility of use. The learning through these exercises should be something students
enjoy, being both applicable to the real world and less confining than traditional homework.
The first issue for adopters to address is group composition and size. Should students self-separate or be divided by
their instructor? How big should the groups be? This is a semester-long assignment and students will need to get
along with their fellow group members. If students choose their own groups it may, though not always, reduce the
incidence of intra-group squabbles. Diversity within the groups might then be sacrificed, however. One strategy is
to ask students to first pair-off. The instructor can then join the pairs into groups of four. This pairing of the pairs
could be done randomly through a number-in-the-hat selection process, as could the entire group setup.
Group size does matter and these exercises were designed for a workload spread across a minimum of three
students. Larger groups would lessen the homework load; however, the issue of free-riding is often more prevalent
in larger groups, where slackers can hide. Management of larger groups is also more challenging for the
participants. The suggested group size is between three and five students.
Group leadership is another issue. The best situation might be rotating the CEO/leader, where each group member
has several opportunities to be in charge. Last, these exercises were designed to allow students freedom but with
the responsibility of working somewhat independently of their instructor. In this vein, the instructions for each
assignment have been written to be relatively self-explanatory.
Chapter 1
This first chapter asks students to name their fictitious firm and describe its business. As this firm is going public,
students are asked to explain why it is appropriate for them to go public and also discuss different managerial roles
within the corporation. The group must choose a shadow firm to follow that is publicly held, allowing them to
gather a substantial amount of information about it on the Internet. This publicly traded firm should be in an
industry related to their fictitious firm.
12 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition
© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
The most important counsel students could get at the outset is to spend time making these initial decisions. Later
work is going to build on these choices, and careful choosing is paramount. For example, in choosing the shadow
firm, students should pick a well-established firm whose information, including financials, will be easily found.
This also impacts their decisions regarding their own fictitious firm. Throughout many of the subsequent chapters,
students will be taking real-world information from their shadow firm and applying it to their fictitious firm;
dressing their own firm with the clothes of the shadow firm. Students should feel comfortable in these clothes, so
encouraging them to choose industries they’re familiar with, or interested in, is helpful.
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Economical Application of Yeast.
It frequently happens, in the summer season, that the brewers, in
order to render their beer less liable to spoil, use more hops than
usual; the consequence of which is, that the yeast becomes very
bitter, and gives a disagreeable flavour to the bread. To obviate this
inconvenience, Mr. Stone has recommended the following method of
raising a bushel of flour with only a tea-spoonful of yeast.
Suppose a bushel of flour be put it into the kneading trough, then
take about three quarters of a pint of warm water, and one tea-
spoonful of yeast. Stir it in till it is thoroughly mixed with the water;
and make a hole in the middle of the flour, large enough to contain
two gallons of water. Pour in the yeast and add some of the flour
until it is a thick liquid paste; strew some of the dry flour over it, and
let it stand an hour. Then take a quart more of warm water, and
pour it in: in about an hour it will be seen that the small quantity of
yeast has raised the mixture so, that it will break through the dry
flour placed over it; and when the warm water has been added, take
a stick and stir in more flour until it is as thick as before; then shake
again some dry flour over it, and leave it for two hours more, the
mass will rise and break through the dry flour again; you may then
add three quarts or a gallon of water, and stir in the flour, and make
it into a soft paste, taking care to cover it with dry flour again, and
in about three or four hours more the dough may be mixed up, and
covered up warm; and in four or five hours more it may be made up
into loaves, and put in the oven; and in this manner may be
produced as light a bread as though a pint of yeast had been used.
It does not take above a quarter of an hour more than the usual way
of baking, for there is no time lost but that of adding the water at
three or four times. The author of this method assures us that he
constantly bakes in this way. In the morning, about six or seven
o’clock, he puts the flour in the trough, and mixes up the spoonful of
yeast with the warm water; in an hour’s time he adds more flour, in
two hours, again more, and about noon makes up the dough, and
about six in the evening it is put into the oven: he has always good
bread.
Economical Preparation of Yeast.
The following economical method of making yeast is
recommended by Dr. Lettsom.
Thicken two quarts of water with four ounces of fine flour, boil it
for half an hour, then sweeten it with three ounces of brown sugar;
when almost cold, pour it with four spoonfuls of baker’s yeast into
an earthen jug, deep enough for the fermentation to go on without
running over; place it for a day near the fire, then pour off the thin
liquor from the top, shake the remainder, and close it up for use,
first straining it through a sieve. To preserve it sweet, set it in a cool
cellar, or hang it some depth in a well. Keep always some of this to
make the next quantity of yeast that is wanted. Mr. I. Kerby
recommends the following method of obtaining yeast from potatoes.
Potatoe Yeast.
Boil potatoes of the mealy sort, till they are thoroughly soft, skin
and mash them very smooth, and put as much hot water on them as
will make a mash of the consistency of common beer yeast, but not
thicker. Add to every pound of potatoes, two ounces of treacle, and
when just warm, stir in for every pound of potatoes, two large
spoonfuls of yeast. Keep it warm till it has done fermenting, and in
twenty-four hours it will be fit for use. A pound of potatoes will make
near a quart of yeast, which has been found to answer the purpose
so well, as not to be able to distinguish the bread made with it, from
bread made with brewer’s yeast.
Method of Preserving Yeast.
When yeast is plentiful, take a quantity and work it well with a
whisk until it becomes thin; then procure a large wooden dish or
platter, clean and dry, and with a soft brush lay a thin layer of yeast
on the dish, and turn the top downwards to keep out the dust, but
not the air, which is to dry it. When the first coat is dry, lay on
another, and let that dry, and so continue till the quantity is
sufficient; by this means it may soon be made two or three inches
thick, when it may be preserved in dry tin canisters or stopped
bottles, for a long time, good. When used for baking, cut a piece off
and dissolve it in warm water, when it will be fit for use.
FINIS.
C. GREEN, LEICESTER STREET,
LEICESTER SQUARE.
NOTICE.
The Public are respectfully informed, that a new Edition,
considerably enlarged (price 9s.), has lately been published,
OF
ACCUM’S
Treatise on Adulterations of Food,
AND CULINARY POISONS;
Exhibiting the fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine,
Spirituous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, Cream, Confectionary,
Vinegar, Mustard, Pepper, Cheese, Olive Oil,
Pickles, and other Articles employed in
Domestic Economy; and Method
of detecting them.
(Copied from the British Review, No. XXIX. p. 171.)
Mr. Accum seems determined that even the outside of his book
shall awaken our fears. The cover of our copy bears a death’s head
emblazoned upon a pall, and, underneath, the motto “there is death
in the pot.” The pall is supported by the point of a dart. Four other
darts support the four corners of the device. Twelve serpents, with
forked tongues and tails entwined, form a terrific wreath around;
while the middle is occupied with a large cobweb, delineated with
much attention to detail, in the centre of which a spider, full as large
as a moderate sized hazel nut, and so frightful that more than one
young lady of our acquaintance would think it necessary to scream
at the sight of it, holds in its envenomed fangs an ill-fated fly, which
is sinking under the loss of blood, and buzzing in the agonies of
death.
We are by no means desirous to raise or maintain a popular
clamour; but Mr. Accum certainly advances some weighty charges,
and his work comes with an advantage in bearing a name not
unknown to the scientific world. Of the adulterations specified, some
are deleterious, and others merely fraudulent. Accordingly, we shall
offer a few extracts, both from the original matter of Mr. Accum, and
from his citations drawn from previous authors.
“Among the number of substances used in domestic economy which
are now very generally found sophisticated, may be distinguished,—tea,
coffee, bread, beer, wine, spirituous liquors, salad oil, pepper, vinegar,
mustard, cream, and other articles of subsistence. Indeed it would be
difficult to mention a single article of food which is not to be met with in
an adulterated state. And there are some substances which are scarcely
ever to be procured genuine.” (P. 3.)
But we pass on from the general statements at the beginning of
the work to particulars.
Water, by standing in leaden reservoirs, acquires a highly
deleterious property.
In some particular cases, the consequences have been most fatal.
“‘A gentleman was the father of a numerous offspring, having had one
and twenty children, of whom eight died young, and thirteen survived
their parents. During their infancy, and indeed until they had quitted the
place of their usual residence, they were all remarkably unhealthy, being
particularly subject to disorders of the stomach and bowels. The father,
during many years, was paralytic; the mother, for a long time was subject
to cholics and bilious obstructions.’” (P. 78, 79.)
These effects were traced to a leaden pump, in the cylinder of
which there were found several perforations, while the cistern “was
reduced to the thinness of common brown paper, and was full of
holes like a sieve.” (P. 79.)
We now come to the adulteration of wine; to many of our readers,
probably, a far more interesting concern than that of water.
“All persons moderately conversant with the subject are aware, that a
portion of alum is added to young and meagre red wines, for the purpose
of brightening the colour; that Brazil-wood, or the husks of elderberries
and bilberries, are employed to impart a deep rich purple tint to red port
of a pale, feint colour; that gypsom is used to render cloudy white wines
transparent; that an additional astringency is imparted to immature red
wines by means of oak-wood sawdust, and the husks of filberts, and that
a mixture of spoiled foreign and home-made wines is converted into the
wretched compound frequently sold in this town by the name of genuine
old Port.... A nutty flavour is produced by bitter almonds; fictitious Port
wine is flavoured with a tincture drawn from the seeds of raisins, and the
ingredients employed to form the bouquet of high-flavoured wines, are
sweet brier, orris-root, clary, cherry-laurel-water, and elder flowers. The
flavouring ingredients used by manufacturers, may all be purchased by
those dealers in wine who are initiated in the mysteries of the trade. And
even a manuscript receipt-book for preparing them, and the whole
mystery of managing all sorts of wines, may be obtained on payment of
a considerable fee.” (P. 95, 97.)
“The particular and separate department in this factitious wine-trade,
called crusting, consists in lining the interior surface of empty wine
bottles, in part, with a red crust of super-tartrate of potash, by suffering
a saturated, hot solution of this salt, coloured with a decoction of Brazil-
wood, to chrystallize within them.” (P. 101, 102.)
But the crusting is not confined to the bottle.
“A correspondent operation is performed on the wooden cask; the
whole interior of which is stained artificially with a chrystalline crust of
super-tartrate of potash, artfully affixed in a manner precisely similar to
that before stated. Thus the wine-merchant, after bottling off a pipe of
wine, is enabled to impose on the understanding of his customers, by
taking to pieces the cask, and exhibiting the beautiful dark-coloured and
fine chrystalline crust, as an indubitable proof of the age of the wine; a
practice by no means uncommon to flatter the vanity of those who pride
themselves in their acute discrimination of wines.” (P. 103, 104)
This our readers will excuse, for it is pleasing to read of
impositions which are practised on the sagacious. But, says Mr.
Accum,
“Several well-authenticated facts have convinced me, that the
adulteration of wine with substances deleterious to health is certainly
practised oftener than is, perhaps, suspected.” (P. 104, 105.)
Presently follows the story of the passengers by the coach, who
dined at Newark. Half a bottle of port made them all ill, one
dangerously. Part of the other half caused the death of an inhabitant
of the place, on whom an inquest was held, and a verdict returned,
of—Died by poison.
A gentleman having been taken severely ill on two successive
days, after drinking each day a pint of Madeira from the same bottle,
his apothecary ordered that it should be examined.
“‘The bottle happened to slip out of the hand of the servant, disclosed
a row of shot wedged forcibly into the angular bent-up circumference of
it. On examining the beads of shot, they crumbled into dust, the outer
crust (defended by a coat of black lead with which the shot is glazed)
being alone unacted on, whilst the remainder of the metal was dissolved.
The wine, therefore, had become contaminated with lead and arsenic,
the shot being a compound of these metals, which no doubt had
produced the mischief.’” (P. 113, 114.)
For detecting the presence of lead or any other deleterious metal
in wine, Mr. Accum recommends the wine test.
We now come to that part of the subject, which, as some persons
have thought, is merely the business of ale-drinkers, and their
brethren, the porter-drinkers.
“The fraud of imparting to porter and ale an intoxicating quality by
narcotic substances, appears to have flourished during the period of the
late French war. For, if we examine the importation lists of drugs, it will
be noticed that the quantities of cocculus indicus imported in a given
time prior to that period, will bear no comparison with the quantity
imported in the same space of time during the war, although an
additional duty was laid upon this commodity. Such has been the amount
brought into this country in five years, that it far exceeds the quantity
imported during twelve years anterior to the above epoch. The price of
this drug has risen within these ten years from two shillings to seven
shillings the pound.... It was at the period to which we have alluded that
the preparation of an extract of cocculus indicus first appeared, as a new
saleable commodity, in the price-currents of brewers’ druggists. It was at
the same time also that a Mr. Jackson, of notorious memory, fell upon the
idea of brewing beer from various drugs, without any malt and hops. This
chemist did not turn brewer himself, but he struck out the more
profitable trade of teaching his mystery to the brewers for a handsome
fee. From that time forward, written directions and receipt books, for
using the chemical preparations to be substituted for malt and hops,
were respectively sold. And many adepts soon afterwards appeared every
where to instruct brewers in the nefarious practice first pointed out by Mr.
Jackson. From that time, also, the fraternity of brewers’ chemists took its
rise. They made it their chief business to send
travellers all over the country with lists and samples exhibiting the
price and quality of the articles manufactured by them for the use of
brewers only. Their trade spread far and wide, but it was amongst the
country brewers chiefly that they found the most customers. And it is
among them up to the present day, as I am assured by some of these
operators, on whose veracity I can rely, that the greatest quantities of
unlawful ingredients are sold.” (P. 157-160.)
Part of these evils the porter-drinkers bring upon themselves.
“One of the qualities of good porter, is, that it should bear a fine frothy
head, as it is technically termed: because professed judges of this
beverage, would not pronounce the liquor excellent, although it
possessed all other good qualities of porter, without this requisite.—To
impart to porter this property of frothing when poured from one vessel
into another, or to produce what is also termed a cauliflower head, the
mixture called beer-heading, composed of common green vitriol
(sulphate of iron) alum and salt, is added. This addition to the beer is
generally made by the publicans.” (P. 182, 183.) It is added in a note:
—”’Alum gives likewise a smack of age to beer, and is penetrating to the
palate.’—S. Child on Brewing, p. 18.” “The great London brewers, it
appears, believe that the publicans alone adulterate the beer.” (P. 211.)
“Capsicum and grains of paradise, two highly acrid substances, are
employed to give a pungent taste to weak insipid beer. Of late, a
concentrated tincture of these articles, to be used for a similar purpose,
and possessing a powerful effect, has appeared in the price-currents of
brewers’ druggists. Ginger root, coriander seed, and orange peels, are
employed as flavouring substances chiefly by the ale brewers.” (P. 184,
185.)
We find the following articles, in a list of illegal ingredients, seized
at various breweries and brewers’ druggists.
“Multum, 84 lbs.; cocculus indicus, 12 lbs.; colouring, 4 galls; honey,
about 180 lbs.; hartshorn shavings, 14 lbs.; Spanish juice, 46 lbs.;
orange powder, 17 lbs.; ginger, 56 lbs.; grains of paradise, 44 lbs.;
quassia, 10 lbs.; liquorice, 64 lbs.; carraway seeds, 40 lbs.; multum, 26
lbs.” “Capsicum, 88 lbs.; copperas, 310 lbs.; colouring and drugs, 84 lbs.;
mixed drugs, 240 lbs.; coriander seed, 2 lbs.; beer colouring, 24 gallons.”
(P. 186-189.) [The list which includes these articles is copied from the
minutes of the committee of the House of Commons.]
Some of the substances above enumerated may be thought
comparatively harmless. But others are absolutely poisonous.
“To increase the intoxicating quality of beer, the deleterious vegetable
substance, called cocculus indicus, and the extract of this poisonous
berry, technically called black extract, or by some, hard multum, are
employed. Opium, tobacco, nux vomica, and extracts of poppies, have
also been used.—This fraud constitutes by far the most censurable
offence committed by unprincipled brewers. And it is a lamentable
reflection to behold so great a number of brewers prosecuted, and
convicted of this crime. Nor is it less deplorable to find the names of
druggists, eminent in trade, implicated in the fraud, by selling the
unlawful ingredients to brewers for fraudulent purposes.” (P. 205, 206.)
Then follows a list of thirty-four convictions of brewers, for
receiving or using illegal ingredients.—We perfectly agree with the
following observations.
“That a minute portion of an unwholesome ingredient, daily taken in
beer, cannot fail to be productive of mischief, admits of no doubt: and
there is reason to believe that a small quantity of a narcotic substance
(and cocculus indicus is
a powerful narcotic), daily taken into the stomach, together with an
intoxicating liquor, is highly more efficacious than it would be without the
liquor. The effect may be gradual; and a strong constitution, especially if
it be assisted with constant and hard labour, may counteract the
destructive consequences perhaps for many years. But it never fails to
show its baneful effects at last.” (P. 209, 210.)
We now come to the business of another small portion of the
community, namely, the tea-drinkers. Perhaps the following
descriptions will assist them in forming a diagnosis.
“All the samples of spurious green tea (nineteen in number) which I
have examined, were coloured with carbonate of copper, (a poisonous
substance), and not by means of verdigrise, or copperas.” (P. 240.) “Mr.
Twining asserts, that ‘the leaves of spurious tea are boiled in a copper,
with copperas and sheep’s dung.’” (P. 240. Note.) “Tea rendered
poisonous by carbonate of copper, speedily imparts to liquid ammonia, a
fine sapphire blue tinge. It is only necessary to shake up in a stopped
vial, for a few minutes, a tea-spoonful of the suspected leaves, with
about two table-spoonsful of liquid ammonia, diluted with half its bulk of
water. The supernatant liquid will exhibit a fine blue colour, if the
minutest quantity of copper be present. Green tea, coloured with
carbonate of copper, when thrown into water impregnated with
sulphuretted hydrogen gas, immediately acquires a black colour. Genuine
green tea, suffers no change from the action of these tests.” (P. 241.)
The following extracts may perhaps prove interesting to brandy-
drinkers.
“‘It is a custom among retailing distillers, which I have not taken notice
of in this directory, to put one third or one fourth part of proof molasses
brandy, proportionably, to what rum they dispose of; which cannot be
distinguished, but by an extraordinary palate, and does not at all lessen
the body or proof of the goods; but makes them about two shillings a
gallon cheaper; and must be well mixed and incorporated together in
your retailing cask. But you should keep some of the best rum, not
adulterated, to please your customers, whose judgment and palate must
be humoured.—When you are to draw a sample of goods to show a
person that has judgment in the proof, do not draw your goods into a
phial to be tasted, or make experiment of the strength thereof that way,
because the proof will not hold except the goods be exceedingly strong.
But draw the pattern of goods either into a glass from the cock, to run
very small, or rather draw off a small quantity into a little pewter pot, and
pour it into your glass, extending your pot as high above the glass as you
can without wasting it, which makes the goods carry a better head
abundantly, than if the same goods were to be put and tried in a phial.—
You must be so prudent as to make a distinction of the persons you have
to deal with. What goods you sell to gentlemen for their own use, who
require a great deal of attendance, and as much for time of payment,
you must take a considerably greater price than of others; what goods
you sell to persons where you believe there is a manifest, or at least
some hazard of your money, you may safely sell for more than common
profit; what goods you sell to the poor, especially medicinally, (as many
of your goods are sanative), be as compassionate as the cases require.—
All brandies, whether French, Spanish, or English, being proof goods, will
admit of one pint of liquor‘ (water) ‘to each gallon, to be made up and
incorporated therewith in your cask, for retail, or selling smaller
quantities. And all persons that insist upon having proof goods, which not
one in twenty understand, you must supply out of what goods are not so
reduced, though at a higher price.’” (P. 267-270.)
Some of the adulterations of spirituous liquors are exceedingly
pernicious.
“Another method of fining spirituous liquors, consists in adding to it,
first, a solution of sub-acetate of lead, and then a solution of alum. This
practice is highly dangerous, because part of the sulphate of lead
produced, remains dissolved in the liquor, which it thus renders
poisonous.” (P. 284.) “The cordial called shrub frequently exhibits vestiges
of copper.” (P. 285.)
Gloucester Cheese has been found contaminated with red lead.
The article used in colouring cheese is anotto. In one instance, the
anotto, being inferior, had been coloured with vermilion; and the
vermilion adulterated by a druggist, (who little thought that it would
ever enter into the composition of cheese,) with red lead. The
account of the whole transaction as given by Mr. Accum, is worth
reading, but too long to be extracted.
Cayenne pepper, “is sometimes adulterated with red lead, to
prevent its becoming bleached on exposure to light.” (P. 305.) Pickles
“are sometimes intentionally coloured by means of copper.” (P. 306.)
“Mrs. E. Raffald directs, ‘to render pickles green, boil them with
halfpence, or allow them to stand twenty-four hours in copper or
brass pans.’” (P. 309.) “Vinegar is sometimes largely adulterated with
sulphuric acid, to give it more acidity.” (P. 311.) “Red sugar drops are
usually coloured with the inferior kind of vermilion. This pigment is
generally adulterated with red lead. Other kinds of sweetmeats are
sometimes rendered poisonous by being coloured with preparations
of copper.” (P. 315, 316.) “The foreign conserves ... are frequently
impregnated with copper.” (P. 317.) “Quantities” of catsup “are daily
to be met with, which on a chemical examination, are found to
abound with copper.” (P. 319.) “The quantity of copper which we
have more than once detected in this sauce, used for seasoning, and
which, on account of its cheapness, is much resorted to by people in
the lower walks of life, has exceeded the proportion of lead to be
met with in other articles employed in domestic economy.” (P. 320.)
“The leaves of the cherry-laurel, prunus laurocerasus, a poisonous
plant,” are used to flavour custards, blanc-mange, and other
delicacies of the table. (P. 324.) An instance is given of the
dangerous consequences of this practice. (P. 325, 326.) “The water
distilled from cherry-laurel leaves is frequently mixed with brandy
and other spirituous liquors.” (P. 327.) Several samples of anchovy
sauce “have been found contaminated with lead.” (P. 328.) It is not
unusual to employ, in preparing this sauce, “a certain quantity of
Venetian red, added for the purpose of colouring it, which, if
genuine, is an innocent colouring substance. But instances have
occurred of this pigment having been adulterated with orange lead,
which is nothing else than a better kind of minimum or red oxid of
lead.” (P, 328, 329.) In lozenges, “the adulterating ingredient is
usually pipe-clay, of which a liberal portion is substituted for sugar.”
(P. 330.) Dr. T. Lloyd says, “‘I was informed,’” (at a respectable
chemist’s shop in the city) “‘that there were two kinds of ginger
lozenges kept for sale, the one at three-pence the once, and the
other at six-pence; and that the article furnished to me by mistake
was the cheaper commodity. The latter were distinguished by the
epithet verum, they being composed of sugar and ginger only. But
the former were manufactured partly of white Cornish clay, with a
portion of sugar only, with ginger and Guinea pepper. I was likewise
informed, that of Tolu lozenges, peppermint lozenges, and ginger
pearls, and several other sorts or lozenges, two kinds were kept;
that the reduced prices, as they were called, were manufactured for
those very clever persons in their own conceit, who are fond of
haggling, and insist on buying better bargains than other people,
shutting their eyes to the defects of an article, so that they can
enjoy the delight of getting it cheap: and, secondly, for those
persons, who being but bad paymasters, yet as the manufacturer,
for his own credit’s sake, cannot charge more than the usual price of
the article, he thinks himself therefore authorized to adulterate it in
value, to make up for the risk he runs, and the long credit he must
give.’” (P. 332, 333.)
Well—there is then some honesty left in the world. What a
pleasure it is to have to deal with a respectable man. But we return
to the practices of the knaves.
Olive oil “is sometimes contaminated with lead.” (P. 334.) The
dealers in this commodity assert that lead or pewter “prevents the
oil from becoming rancid. And hence some retailers often suffer a
pewter measure to remain immersed in the oil.” (P. 336.) “The
beverage called soda water is frequently contaminated both with
copper and lead.” (P. 351.) Mr. Johnston, of Greek Street, Soho, was
the first who pointed out the danger to the public. “Many kinds of
viands are frequently impregnated with copper, in consequence of
the employment of cooking utensels made of that metal. By the use
of such vessels in dressing food, we are daily liable to be poisoned.”
(P. 352.) “Mr. Thiery, who wrote a thesis on the noxious quality of
copper, observes that ‘our food receives its quantity of poison, in the
kitchen by the use of copper pans and dishes. The brewer mingles
poison in our beer, by boiling it in copper vessels. The sugar-baker
employs copper pans. The pastry-cook bakes our tarts in copper
moulds. The confectioner uses copper vessels. The oilman boils his
pickles in copper or brass vessels, and verdigrise is plentifully formed
by the action of the vinegar upon the metal.’” (P. 353, 354.)
Moreover, “various kinds of food, used in domestic economy, are
liable to become impregnated with lead.” (P. 359.)
Mr. Accum, speaking on the subject of Beer, says,
“It will be noticed that some of the sophistications are comparatively
harmless, whilst others are affected by substances deleterious to health.”
(P. 185.)
We think, however, that the candour of Mr. Accum leads him to make
too much allowance for this consideration throughout. Surely, though
many articles of food be not absolutely poisonous, a diet consisting of
drugs and chemical compounds and articles never intended by nature to
be eaten or drunk, articles for which, presented simple, the hungriest
stomach would feel no appetite or inclination, cannot be wholesome.
Brick and mortar are not poison; yet we cannot, like the dragon of
Wantley, swallow a church, and pick our teeth with the steeple. Many can
eat oysters, but few could manage the oyster-knife. Even the Welshman
of King Arthur’s court, fond as he was of toasted cheese, would inevitably
have been choked by the mouse that ran down his throat to eat it, had
he not “pulled him out by the tail.”
We could give farther extracts; but must refer the reader to the
work itself, which contains much interesting matter, besides what we
have selected. THE MONEY THAT IS OFTEN LAID OUT IN THE
PURCHASE OF COOKERY BOOKS, WHICH TEACH THE ART OF
EXCITING DISEASE AND PAIN BY DUBIOUS COMBINATIONS AND
CULINARY POISONS, MIGHT, WE THINK, BE MUCH BETTER
EXPENDED UPON A BOOK LIKE THE PRESENT; EVERY PAGE OF
WHICH GIVES WARNING OF SOME DANGER, OF WHICH WE OUGHT
ALL TO BE AWARE.
A
Treatise on Adulterated Provisions.
By FREDRICK ACCUM.
THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT.
II. KINGS—CHAP. VI. VERSE XI.
(From Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, No. XXXV. Page 542.)
Mr. Accum, it appears, is one of those very good-natured friends,
who is quite resolved not to allow us to be cheated and poisoned as
our fathers were before us, and our children will be after us, without
cackling to us of our danger, and opening our eyes to abysses of
fraud and imposition, of the very existence of which we had until
now the good fortune to be entirely ignorant. His book is a perfect
death’s head, a memento mori, the perusal of any single chapter of
which is enough to throw any man into the blue devils for a
fortnight. Mr. Accum puts us something in mind of an officious
blockhead, who, instead of comforting his dying friend, is continually
jogging him on the elbow with such cheering assurances as the
following. “I am sorry there is no hope; my dear fellow, you must
kick the bucket soon. Your liver is diseased, your lungs gone, your
bowels as impenetrable as marble, your legs swelled like door-posts,
your face as yellow as a guinea, and the doctor just now assured me
you could not live a week.”
Mr. Accum’s work is evidently written in the same spirit of dark
and melancholy anticipation, which pervades Dr. Robison’s
celebrated “Proofs of a Conspiracy, &c. against all the crowned
heads of Europe.” The conspiracy disclosed by Mr. Accum is certainly
of a still more dreadful nature, and is even more widely ramified
than that which excited so much horror in the worthy professor. It is
a conspiracy of brewers, bakers, grocers, wine-merchants,
confectioners, apothecaries, and cooks, against the lives of all and
every one of his majesty’s liege subjects. It is easy to see that Mr.
Accum’s nerves are considerably agitated, that—
“Sad forebodings shake him as he writes.”
Not only at the festive board is he haunted by chimeras dire of
danger—not only does he tremble over the tureen—and faint over
the flesh-pot: but even in his chintz night-gown, and red morocco
slippers, he is not secure. An imaginary sexton is continually jogging
his elbow as he writes, a death’s head and cross bones rise on his
library table; and at the end of his sofa he beholds a visionary tomb-
stone of the best granite—
ON WHICH ARE INSCRIBED THE DREADFUL WORDS—
Hic Jacet,
FREDRICK ACCUM,
Operative Chemist,
OLD COMPTON STREET,
SOHO.
Since we read his book, our appetite has visibly decreased. At the
Celtic club, yesterday, we dined almost entirely on roast beef; Mr.
Oman’s London-particular Madeira lost all its relish, and we turned
pale in the act of eating a custard, when we recollected the dreadful
punishment inflicted on custard-eaters, in page 326 of the present
work. We beg to assure our friends, therefore, that at the present
moment they may invite us to dinner with the greatest impunity.—
Our diet is at present quite similar to that of Parnel’s hermit,
“Our food the fruits, our drink the crystal well;”
though we trust a few days will recover us from our panic, and
enable us to resume our former habits of life. Those of our friends,
therefore, who have any intention of pasturing us, had better not
lose the present opportunity of doing so. So favourable a
combination of circumstances must have been quite unhoped for on
their part, and most probably will never occur again.[24]
V. S.
24. To save some trouble, we may announce that we are already engaged to
dinner, on the 23d, 27th, and 28th of this month, and to evening parties, on
the 22d, 23d, 26th, 28th, and 29th, and 3d of March.
Since, by the publication of Mr. Accum’s book, an end has been for
ever put to our former blessed state of ignorance, let us arm
ourselves with philosophy, and boldly venture to look our danger in
the face; or, as the poet beautifully expresses it, in language
singularly applicable,
“Come, Christopher, and leave all meaner things,
To low ambition and the pride of kings;
Let us, since life can little else supply;
Than just to swallow poison and to die;
Expatiate free o’er all this dreadful field,
Try what the brewer, what the baker yield;
Explore the druggists’ shop, the butchers’ stall;
Expose their roguery, and—damn them all!”
Pope.
Melancholy as the details are, there is something almost ludicrous,
we think, in the very extent to which the deceptions are carried. So
inextricably are we all immersed in this mighty labyrinth of fraud,
that even the venders of poison themselves are forced, by a sort of
retributive justice, to swallow it in their turn.—Thus the apothecary,
who sells the poisonous ingredients to the brewer, chuckles over his
roguery, and swallows his own drugs in his daily copious exhibitions
of Brown stout. The brewer in his turn, is poisoned by the baker, the
wine-merchant, and the grocer. And, whenever the baker’s stomach
fails him, he meets his coup de grace in the adulterated drugs of his
friend the apothecary, whose health he has been gradually
contributing to undermine, by feeding him every morning on chalk
and alum, in the shape of hot rolls.
Our readers will now, we think, be able to form a general idea of
the perils to which they are exposed by every meal.
Mr. Accum’s details on the adulteration of wine are extremely
ample, and so interesting, that we regret our limits prevent our
making more copious extracts, and oblige us to refer our readers for
farther information to the work itself.
Having thus laid open to our view the arcana of the cellar, Mr.
Accum next treats us with an expose of the secrets of the brew-
house. Verily, the wine-merchant and brewer are par nobile fratrum;
and after the following disclosures, it will henceforth be a matter of
the greatest indifference to us, whether we drink Perry or
Champaigne, Hermitage or Brown stout. Latet anguis in poculo,
there is disease and death in them all, and one is only preferable to
the other, because it will poison us at about one-tenth of the
expense.
“Malt liquors, and particularly porter, the favourite beverage of the
inhabitants of London and of other large towns, is amongst those
articles, in the manufacture of which the greatest frauds are frequently
committed.
“The practice of adulterating beer appears to be of early date. To shew
that they have augmented in our own days, we shall exhibit an abstract
from documents laid lately before Parliament.
“Mr. Accum not only amply proves, that unwholesome ingredients are
used by fraudulent brewers, and that very deleterious substances are
also vended both to brewers and publicans for adulterating beer, but that
the ingredients mixed up in the brewer’s enchanting cauldron are placed
above all competition, even with the potent charms of Macbeth’s witches:
‘Root of hemlock, digg’d i’ the dark,
* * * *
* * * *
For a charm of pow’rful trouble.
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble;
Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.’
Mr. Accum very properly gives us a list of those miscreants who
have been convicted of adulterating their porter with poisonous
ingredients, and want of room alone prevents us from damning them
to everlasting fame, by inserting their names along with that of the
Rev. Sennacherib Terrot, in the imperishable pages of this miscellany.
Mr. Accum gives us a long dissertation on counterfeit tea, and
another on spurious coffee; but as these are impositions by which
we are little affected, we shall not allow them to detain us. The
leaves of the sloe-thorn are substituted for the former, and roasted
horse beans for the latter. These frauds, it appears, are carried to a
very great extent.
We must now draw our extracts to a close; but we can assure our
readers, that we have not yet introduced them to one tythe of the
poisonous articles in common use, detected by Mr. Accum. We shall
give the titles of a few to satisfy the curious:—Poisonous
confectionary, poisonous pickles, poisonous cayenne pepper,
poisonous custards, poisonous anchovy sauce, poisonous lozenges,
poisonous lemon acid, poisonous mushrooms, poisonous ketchup,
and poisonous soda water! Read this, and wonder how you live!
While we thus suffer under accumulated miseries brought upon us
by the unprincipled avarice and cupidity of others, it is surely
incumbent on us not wantonly to increase the catalogue by any
negligence or follies of our own. Will it be believed, that in the
cookery book, which forms the prevailing oracle of the kitchens in
this part of the island, there is an express injunction to “boil greens
with halfpence in order to improve their colour?”—That our puddings
are frequently seasoned with laurel leaves, and our sweetmeats
almost uniformly prepared in copper vessels? Why are we thus
compelled to swallow a supererogatorary quantity of poison which
may so easily be avoided? And why are we constantly made to run
the risk of our lives by participating in custards, trifles, and
blancmanges, seasoned by a most deadly poison extracted from the
prunus lauro-cerasus? Verily, while our present detestable system of
cookery remains, we may exclaim with the sacred historian, that
there is indeed “Death in the Pot.”
A Treatise on Adulterations of Food,
AND CULINARY POISONS,
Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine,
Spirituous Liquors, &c. and Methods of detecting them.
By FREDRICK ACCUM.
(From the Edinburgh Review, No. LXV. Page 131.)
It is curious to see how vice varies its forms, and maintains its
substance, in all conditions of society;—and how certainly those
changes, or improvements as we call them, which diminish one class
of offences, aggravate or give birth to another.—In rude and simple
communities, most crimes take the shape of violence and outrage—
in polished and refined ones, of Fraud. Men sin from their animal
propensities in the first case, and from their intellectual depravation
in the second. The one state of things is prolific of murders,
batteries, rapines, and burnings—the other of forgeries, swindlings,
defamations, and seductions. The sum of evil is probably pretty
much the same in both—though probably greatest in the civilized
and enlightened stages; the sharpening of the intellect, and the
spread of knowledge, giving prodigious force and activity to all
criminal propensities.
Among the offences which are peculiar to a refined and
enlightened society, and owe their birth, indeed, to its science and
refinement, are those skilful and dexterous adulterations of the
manifold objects of its luxurious consumption, to which their value
and variety, and the delicacy of their preparation, hold out so many
temptations; while the very skill and knowledge which are requisite
in their formation, furnish such facilities for their sophistication. The
very industry and busy activity of such a society, exposes it more
and more to such impostures;—and by the division of labour which
takes place, and confines every man to his own separate task, brings
him into a complete dependence on the industry of others for a
supply of the most necessary articles.
The honesty of the dealer, and of the original manufacturer, is the
only security to the public for the genuineness of the article in which
he deals. The consumer can in general know nothing of their
component parts; he must take them as he finds them; and, even if
he is dissatisfied, he has in general no effectual means of redress.
It will be found, that as crimes of violence decrease with the
progress of society, frauds are multiplied; and there springs up in
every prosperous country a race of degenerate traders and
manufacturers, whose business is to cheat and to deceive; who
pervert their talents to the most dishonest purposes, prefering the
illicit gains thus acquired to the fair profits of honorable dealing; and
counter-working, by their sinister arts, the general improvement of
society.
In almost every branch of manufacture, there are fraudulent
dealers, who are instigated by the thirst of gain, to debase the
articles which they vend to the public, and to exact a high price for
what is comparatively cheap and worthless. After pointing out
various deceptions of this nature, Mr. Accum, the ingenious author of
the work before us, proceeds in his account of those frauds, in the
following terms.
‘Soap used in house-keeping is frequently adulterated with a
considerable portion of fine white clay, brought from St. Stephen’s in
Cornwall. In the manufacture of printing paper, a large quantity of plaster
of Paris is added to the paper stuff, to increase the weight of the
manufactured article. The selvage of cloth is often dyed with a
permanent colour, and artfully stitched to the edge of cloth dyed with a
fugitive dye. The frauds committed in the tanning of skins, and in the
manufacture of cutlery, and jewellery, exceed belief.’ pp. 27-29.
What is infinitely worse, however, than any of those frauds,
sophistications, we are informed, are carried on to an equal extent in
all the essential articles of subsistence or comfort. So long as our
dishonest dealers do not intermeddle with these things, their
deceptions are comparatively harmless; the evil in all such cases
amounting only to so much pecuniary damage. But when they begin
to tamper with food, or with articles connected with the table, their
frauds are most pernicious: in all cases the nutritive quality of the
food is injured, by the artificial ingredients intermixed with it; and
when these ingredients, as frequently happens, are of a poisonous
quality, they endanger the health and even the life of all to whom
they are vended. We cannot conceive any thing more diabolical than
those contrivances; and we consider their authors in a far worse
light than ordinary felons, who, being known, can be duly guarded
against. But those fraudulent dealers conceal themselves under the
fair show of a reputable traffic—they contrive in this manner to
escape the infamy which justly belongs to them—and, under the
disguise of wealth, credit, and character, to lurk in the bosom of
society, wounding the hand that cherishes them, and scattering
around them poison and death.
It is chiefly for the purpose of laying open the dishonest artifices
of this class of dealers, that Mr. Accum has published the present
very interesting and popular work; and he gives a most fearful view
of the various and extensive frauds which are daily practised on the
unsuspecting public.
‘Among the number of substances used in domestic economy, which
are now very generally found sophisticated, may be distinguished—tea,
coffee, bread, beer, wine, spirituous liquors, salad oil, pepper, vinegar,
mustard, cream, and other articles of subsistence.—Indeed, it would be
difficult to mention a single article of food which is not to be met with in
an adulterated state; and there are some substances which are scarcely
ever to be procured genuine.—Some of these spurious compounds are
comparatively harmless when used as food; and as, in these cases,
merely substances of inferior value are substituted for more costly and
genuine ingredients, the sophistication, though it may affect our purse,
does not injure our health. Of this kind are the manufacture of factitious
pepper, the adulterations of mustard, vinegar, cream, &c. Others,
however, are highly deleterious; and to this class belong the adulterations
of beer, wines, spirituous liquors, pickles, salad oil, and many others.’ pp.
2-4.
There are, it appears, particular chemists who make it their sole
employment to supply the unprincipled brewer of porter and ale with
drugs, and other deleterious preparations; while others perform the
same office to the wine and spirit merchant, as well as to the grocer
and oilman—and these illicit pursuits have assumed all the order and
method of a regular trade.
‘The eager and insatiable thirst for gain’ (Mr. Accum justly observes),
which seems to be a leading characteristic of the times, calls into action
every human faculty, and gives an irresistible impulse to the power of
invention; and where lucre becomes the reigning principle, the possible
sacrifice of a fellow-creature’s life is a secondary consideration.’
Mr. Accum having exhibited this general view of his subject,
proceeds to enter into an examination of the articles most commonly
counterfeited, and to explain the nature of the ingredients used in
sophisticating them. He commences with a dissertation on the
qualities of good water, in which he briefly points out the dangerous
sophistications to which it is liable, from the administration of foreign
ingredients.
But in the case of water, the adulteration is purely accidental,
which cannot be said of the other articles specified by Mr. Accum. In
the making of Bread, more especially in London, various ingredients
are occasionally mingled with the dough. To suit the caprice of his
customers, the baker is obliged to have his bread light and porous,
and of a pure white. It is impossible to produce this sort of bread
from flour alone, unless it be of the finest quality. The best flour,
however, being mostly used by the biscuit-bakers and pastry-cooks,
it is only from the inferior sorts that bread is made; and it becomes
necessary, in order to have it of that light and porous quality, and of
a fine white, to mix alum with the dough. Without this ingredient,
the flour used by the London bakers would not yield so white a
bread as that sold in the metropolis.
Wine appears to be a subject for the most extensive and
pernicious frauds.
‘All persons (Mr. Accum observes) moderately conversant with the
subject, are aware, that a portion of alum is added to young and meagre
red wines, for the purpose of brightening their colour; that Brazil wood,
or the husks of elderberries and bilberries, which are imported from
Germany, under the fallacious name of berry-dye, are employed to impart
a deep rich purple tint to red port of a pale colour; that gypsum is used
to render cloudy white wines transparent; that an additional astringency
is imparted to immature red wines by means of oak-wood and sawdust,
and the husks of filberts; and that a mixture of spoiled foreign and home-
made wines is converted into the wretched compound frequently sold in
the metropolis by the name genuine old Port.’
Other expedients are resorted to, in order to give flavour to insipid
wines. For this purpose bitter almonds are occasionally employed;
factitious port wine is also flavoured with a tincture drawn from the
seeds of raisins; and other ingredients are frequently used, such as
sweet brier, orris root, clary, cherry-laurel water, and elder flowers.
In London, the sophistication of wine is carried to an enormous
extent, as well as the art of manufacturing spurious wine, which has
become a regular trade, in which a large capital is invested; and it is
well known that many thousand pipes of spoiled cider are annually
sent to the metropolis for the purpose of being converted into an
imitation of port wine.
Innumerable are the tricks practised to deceive the unwary, by
giving to weak, thin, and spoiled wines, all the characteristic marks
of age, and also of flavour and strength. In carrying on these illicit
occupations, the division of labour has been completely established;
each has his own task assigned him in the confederate work of
iniquity; and thus they acquire dexterity for the execution of their
mischievous purposes. To one class is allotted the task of crusting,
which consists in lining the interior surface of empty wine bottles
with a red crust. This is accomplished by suffering a saturated hot
solution of super-tartrate of potash, coloured red with a decoction of
Brazil wood to chrystallize within them. A similar operation is
frequently performed on the wooden cask which is to hold the wine,
and which, in the same manner as the bottle, is artificially stained
with a red crust; and on some occasions, the lower extremities of
the corks in wine bottles are also stained red, in order to give them
the appearance of having been long in contact with the wine. It is
the business of a particular class of wine-coopers, by means of an
astringent extract mixed with home-made and foreign wines, to
produce ‘genuine old port,’ or to give an artificial flavour and colour
to weak wine; while the mellowing and restoring of spoiled white
wines is the occupation of another class called refiners of wine.
Other deceptions are practised by fraudulent dealers, which are still
more culpable. The most dangerous of these is where wine is
adulterated by an admixture of lead.
Mr. Accum justly observes, that the ‘merchant or dealer who
practises this dangerous sophistication, adds the crime of murder to
that of fraud, and deliberately scatters the seeds of disease and
death among those customers who contribute to his emolument.’
Spirituous liquors, which in this country form one of the chief
articles of consumption, are subjects of equally extensive fraud with
wine. The deceptions which are practised by the dealers in this
article, are chiefly confined to fraudulent imitations of the peculiar
flavour of different sorts of spirits; and as this flavour constitutes,
along with the strength, the value of the spirit, the profit of the
dealer consists in imitating this quality at a cheaper rate than it is
produced in the genuine spirit. The flavour of French brandy is
imitated, by distilling British molasses spirit over wine lees; previous
to which, however, the spirit is deprived of its peculiar disagreeable
flavour, by rectification over fresh-burnt charcoal and quicklime. This
operation is performed by those who are called brewers’ druggists,
and forms the article in the prices-current called Spirit Flavour. Wine
lees are imported into this country for the purpose, and they pay the
same duty as foreign wines. Another method of imitating the flavour
of brandy, which is adopted by brandy merchants, is by means of a
spirit obtained from raisin wine, after it has begun to become
somewhat sour. ‘Oak sawdust,’ (Mr. Accum observes), ‘and a
spirituous tincture of raisin stones, are likewise used to impart to
new brandy and rum a ripe taste, resembling brandy or rum long
kept in oaken casks, and a somewhat oily consistence, so as to form
a durable froth at its surface, when strongly agitated in a vial. The
colouring substances are burnt sugar, or molasses; the latter gives to
imitative brandy a luscious taste, and fulness in the mouth.’ Gin,
which is sold in small quantities to those who judge of the strength
by the taste, is made up for sale by fraudulent dealers with water
and sugar; and this admixture rendering the liquor turbid, several
expedients are resorted to, in order to clarify it; some of which are
harmless, while others are criminal. A mixture of alum with
subcarbonate of potash, is sometimes employed for this purpose;
but more frequently, in place of this, a solution of subacetate of
lead, and then a solution of alum,—a practice reprobated by Mr.
Accum as highly dangerous, owing to the admixture of the lead with
the spirit, which thereby becomes poisonous. After this operation, it
is usual to give a false appearance of strength to the spirit by mixing
with it grains of paradise, guinea pepper, capsicum, and other acrid
and aromatic substances.
In the manufacture of malt liquors, a wide field is opened for the
operations of fraud. The immense quantity of the article consumed,
presents an irresistible temptation to the unprincipled dealer; while
the vegetable substances with which beer is adulterated, are in all
cases difficult to be detected, and are frequently beyond the reach
of chemical analysis. There is, accordingly, no article which is the
subject of such varied and extensive frauds. These are committed in
the first instance by the brewer, during the process of manufacture,
and afterwards by the dealer, who deteriorates, by fraudulent
intermixtures, the liquor which he sells to the consumer. ‘The
intoxicating qualities of porter (he continues) are to be ascribed to
the various drugs intermixed with it;’ and, as some sorts of porter
are more heady than others, the difference arises, according to this
author, ‘from the greater or less quantity of stupifying ingredients’
contained in it. These consist of various substances, some of which
are highly deleterious. Thus, the extract disguised under the name
of black extract, and ostensibly destined for the use of tanners and
dyers, is obtained by boiling the berries of the cocculus indicus in
water, and converting, by a subsequent evaporation, this decoction
into a stiff black tenacious mass, possessing in a high degree the
narcotic and intoxicating quality of the poisonous berry from which it
is prepared. Quassia is another substance employed in place of
hops, to give the beer a bitter taste; and the shavings of this wood
are sold in a half torrified and ground state, in order to prevent its
being recognised.
Not only is the use of all these deleterious substances strictly
prohibited to the brewer under severe penalties, but all druggists or
grocers convicted of supplying him with any of them, or who have
them in their possession, are liable to severe penalties; and Mr.
Accum gives a list of twenty-nine convictions for this offence, from
the year 1812 to 1819. From the year 1813 to 1819, the number of
brewers prosecuted and convicted of using illegal ingredients in their
breweries, amounts to thirty-four. Numerous seizures have also been
made during the same period at various breweries, and in the
warehouses of brewers’-druggists, of illegal ingredients, to be used
in the brewing of beer, some of them highly deleterious.
Malt liquors, after they are delivered by the brewer to the retail-
dealer, are still destined to undergo various mutations before they
reach the consumer. It is a common practice with the retailers of
beer, though it be contrary to law, to mix table-beer with strong
beer; and, to disguise this fraud, recourse is had to various
expedients. It is a well known property of genuine beer, that when
poured from one vessel into another, it bears a strong white froth,
without which professed judges would not pronounce the liquor
good. This property is lost, however, when table-beer is mixed with
strong beer; and to restore it, a mixture of what is called beer-
heading is added, composed of common green vitriol, alum, and
salt. To give a pungent taste to weak insipid beer, capsicum and
grains of paradise, two highly acrid substances, are employed; and,
of date, a concentrated tincture of these articles has appeared for
sale in the prices-current of brewers’-druggists. To bring beer
forward, as it is technically called, or to make it hard, a portion of
sulphuric acid is mixed with it, which, in an instant, produces an
imitation of the age of eighteen months; and stale, half-spoiled, or
sour beer, is converted into mild beer, by the simple admixture of an
alkali or an alkaline earth; oyster-shell powder, and subcarbonate of
potash, or soda, being usually employed for that purpose. In order
to show that these deceptions are not imaginary, Mr. Accum refers to
the frequent convictions of brewers for those fraudulent practices,
and to the seizures which have been made at different breweries of
illegal ingredients—a list of which, and of the proprietors of the
breweries where they were seized, he has extracted from the
Minutes of the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to
Inquire into the Price and Quality of Beer. It may be observed, that
while some of the sophistications of beer appear to be perfectly
harmless, other substances are frequently employed for this purpose
which are highly deleterious, and which must gradually undermine
the health of those by whom they are used.
Many other of the most ordinary articles of consumption are
mentioned by our author as being the object of the most disgusting
and pernicious frauds. Tea, it is well known, from the numerous
convictions which have lately taken place, has been counterfeited to
an enormous extent; and copper, in one form or another, is the chief
ingredient made use of for effecting the imitation.
The practice of adulterating coffee, has also been carried on for a
long time, and to a considerable extent, while black and white
pepper, Cayenne pepper, mustard, pickles of all sorts, have been all
of them debased by an admixture of baser, and, in many cases,
poisonous ingredients. Ground pepper is frequently sophisticated by
an admixture from the sweepings of the pepper warehouses. These
sweepings are purchased in the market under the initials P. D.,
signifying pepper dust. ‘An inferior sort of this vile refuse (Mr. Accum
observes), or the sweepings of P. D., is distinguished among venders
by the abbreviation of D. P. D., denoting dust, or dirt of pepper dust.’
Of those various frauds so ably exposed in Mr. Accum’s work, and
which are so much the more dangerous, as they are committed
under the disguise of an honourable trade, it is impossible to speak
in terms of too strong reprobation; and in the first impulse of our
indignation, we were inclined to avenge such iniquitous practices by
some signal punishment. We naturally reflect, that such offences, in
whatever light they are viewed, are of a far deeper dye than many
of those for which our sanguinary code awards the penalty of death
—and we wonder that the punishment hitherto inflicted, has been
limited to a fine. If we turn our view, however, from the moral
turpitude of the act, to a calm consideration of that important
question, namely,—What is the most effectual method of protecting
the community from those frauds?—we will then see strong reasons
for preferring the lighter punishment. We do not find from
experience, that offences are prevented by severe punishments. On
the contrary, the crime of forgery, under the most unrelenting
execution of the severe law against it, has grown more frequent. As
those, therefore, by whom the offence of adulterating articles of
provision is committed, are generally creditable and wealthy
individuals, the infliction of a heavy fine, accompanied by public
disgrace, seems a very suitable punishment: and if it be duly and
reasonably applied, there is little doubt that it will be found effectual
to check, and finally to root out, those disgraceful frauds.
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Principles of Managerial Finance Brief Gitman 7th Edition Solutions Manual

  • 1. Principles of Managerial Finance Brief Gitman 7th Edition Solutions Manual download https://testbankmall.com/product/principles-of-managerial- finance-brief-gitman-7th-edition-solutions-manual/ Find test banks or solution manuals at testbankmall.com today!
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  • 6. © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1 The Role of Managerial Finance ◼ Instructor’s Resources Overview This chapter introduces the students to the field of finance and explores career opportunities in both financial services and managerial finance. The three basic legal forms of business organization (sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation) and their strengths and weaknesses are described. The managerial finance function is defined and differentiated from economics and accounting. A discussion of the financial manager’s goals—maximizing shareholder wealth and preserving stakeholder wealth—and the role of ethics in meeting these goals is presented. The chapter then summarizes the three key activities of the financial manager: financial analysis and planning, making investment decisions, and making financing decisions. The chapter includes discussion of the agency problem—the conflict that exists between managers and owners in a large corporation. This chapter, and all that follow, emphasizes how the chapter content plays a vital role in the student’s professional and personal life. Each chapter includes an early discussion of the relevance of the topic to majors in accounting, information systems, management, marketing, and operations. Throughout each chapter are detailed examples of how the chapter’s topic relates to the student's financial life. These pedagogic tools should motivate students to grasp quickly an understanding of the chapter content and employ it in both their professional and personal lives. ◼ Answers to Review Questions 1. Finance is the art and science of managing money. Finance affects all individuals, businesses, and governments in the process of the transfer of money through institutions, markets, and instruments. At the personal level, finance is concerned with an individual’s decisions regarding the spending and investing of income. Businesses also have to determine how to raise money from investors, how to invest money in an attempt to earn a profit, and how to reinvest profits in the business or distribute them back to investors. 2. Financial services is the area of finance concerned with the design and delivery of advice and financial products to individuals, businesses, and governments. It involves a variety of interesting career opportunities within the areas of banking, personal financial planning, investments, real estate, and insurance. Managerial finance is concerned with the duties of the financial manager working in a business. Managerial finance encompasses the functions of budgeting, financial forecasting, credit administration, investment analysis, and funds procurement for a firm. Managerial finance is the management of the firm’s funds within the firm. This field offers many career opportunities, including financial analyst, capital budgeting analyst, and cash manager. (Note: Other answers are possible.) 3. Sole proprietorships are the most common form of business organization, while corporations are responsible for the majority of business revenues. The majority of sole proprietorships operate in the wholesale, retail, service, and construction industries. Although corporations engage in all types of businesses, manufacturing firms account for the largest portion of corporate business receipts and net profits.
  • 7. 4 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 4. Stockholders are the owners of a corporation, whose ownership, or equity, takes the form of common stock or, less frequently, preferred stock. They elect the board of directors, which has the ultimate authority to guide corporate affairs and set general policy. The board is usually composed of key corporate personnel and outside directors. The president or chief executive officer (CEO) reports to the board. He or she is responsible for day-to-day operations and carrying out the policies established by the board. The owners of the corporation do not have a direct relationship with management but give their input through the election of board members and voting on major charter issues. The owners of the firm are compensated through the receipt of dividends paid by the firm or by realizing capital gains through increases in the price of their common stock shares. 5. The most popular form of limited liability organizations other than corporations are: • Limited partnerships—A partnership with at least one general partner with unlimited liability and one or more limited partners who have limited liability. In return for the limited liability, the limited partners are prohibited from active management of the partnership. • S corporation—If certain requirements are met, the S corporation can be taxed as a partnership but receive most of the benefits of the corporate form of organization. • Limited liability company (LLC)—This form of organization is like an S corporation in that it is taxed as a partnership but primarily functions like a corporation. The LLC differs from the S corporation in that it is allowed to own other corporations and be owned by other corporations, partnerships, and non-U.S. residents. • Limited liability partnership (LLP)—A partnership form authorized by many states that gives the partners limited liability from the acts of other partners, but not from personal individual acts of malpractice. The LLP is taxed as a partnership. This form is most frequently used by legal and accounting professionals. These firms generally do not have large numbers of owners. Most typically they have fewer than 100 owners. 6. Virtually every function within a firm is in some way connected with the receipt or disbursement of cash. The cash relationship may be associated with the generation of sales through the marketing department, the incurring of raw material costs through purchasing, or the earnings of production workers. Because finance deals primarily with management of cash for operation of the firm, every person within the firm needs to be knowledgeable of finance to work effectively with employees of the financial departments. Individuals plan, monitor, and assess the financial aspects of their activities over a given period through the consideration of cash inflows and outflows. 7. The goal of a firm, and therefore of all managers, is to maximize shareholder wealth. This goal is measured by share price; an increasing price per share of common stock relative to the stock market as a whole indicates achievement of this goal. 8. Profit maximization is not consistent with wealth maximization due to: (1) the timing, (2) earnings that do not represent cash flows available to stockholders, and (3) a failure to consider risk. 9. Risk is the chance that actual outcomes may differ from expected outcomes. Financial managers must consider both risk and return because of their inverse effect on the share price of the firm. Increased risk may decrease the share price, while increased return is likely to increase the share price. 10. In recent years, the magnitude and severity of “white collar crime” has increased dramatically, with a corresponding emphasis on prosecution by government authorities. As a result, the actions of all corporations and their executives have been subjected to closer scrutiny. The increased scrutiny of this type of crime has resulted in many firms establishing corporate ethics guidelines and policies to cover employee actions in dealing with all corporate constituents. The adoption of high ethical standards by a corporation strengthens its competitive position by reducing the potential for litigation, maintaining a positive corporate image, and
  • 8. Chapter 1: The Role of Managerial Finance 5 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. building shareholder confidence. The result is enhancement of long-term value and a positive effect on share price. 11. The treasurer or the chief financial manager typically manages a firm’s cash, investing surplus funds when available and securing outside financing when needed. The treasurer also oversees a firm’s pension plans and manages critical risks related to movements in foreign currency values, interest rates, and commodity prices. The treasurer in a mature firm must make decisions with respect to handling financial planning, acquisition of fixed assets, obtaining funds to finance fixed assets, managing working capital needs, managing the pension fund, managing foreign exchange, and distribution of corporate earnings to owners. 12. Finance is often considered a form of applied economics. Firms operate within the economy and must be aware of the economic principles, changes in economic activity, and economic policy. Principles developed in economic theory are applied to specific areas in finance. The primary economic principle used in managerial finance is marginal cost–benefit analysis, the principle that financial decisions should be made and actions taken only when the added benefits exceed the added costs. Nearly, all financial decisions ultimately come down to an assessment of their marginal benefits and marginal costs. 13. Accountants operate on an accrual basis, recognizing revenues at the point of sale and expenses when incurred. The financial manager focuses on the actual inflows and outflows of cash, recognizing revenues when actually received and expenses when actually paid. Accountants primarily collect and present financial data; financial managers devote attention primarily to decision making through analysis of financial data. 14. The two key activities of the financial manager as related to a firm’s balance sheet are a. Making investment decisions: Determining both the most efficient level and the best mix of assets; and b. Making financing decisions: Establishing and maintaining the proper mix of short- and long-term financing and raising needed financing in the most economical fashion. Investment decisions generally refer to the items that appear on the left-hand side of the balance sheet (current and fixed assets). Financing decisions deal with the items that appear on the right-hand side of the balance sheet (current liabilities, long-term debt, and stockholders’ equity). 15. Corporate governance refers to a system of organizational control that is used to define and establish lines of responsibility and accountability among major participants in a corporation. These participants include the shareholders, board of directors, officers and managers of the corporations, and other stakeholders. A company’s organizational chart is an example of a broad arrangement of corporate governance. More detailed responsibilities would be established within each branch of the organizational chart. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is directed toward reducing the apparent conflicts of interest that exist in many corporate structures. The act has many provisions, but the major thrust of the act is to reduce the number of situations in which a conflict of interest can arise and to hold management more accountable for the financial and operating information they communicate to the public. 16. Agency problems arise when managers deviate from the goal of maximization of shareholder wealth by placing their personal goals ahead of the goals of shareholders. These problems in turn give rise to agency costs. Agency costs are costs borne by shareholders due to the presence or avoidance of agency problems, and in either case represent a loss of shareholder wealth. For example, shareholders incur agency costs when managers fail to make the best investment decision or when managers have to be monitored to ensure that the best investment decision is made, because either situation is likely to result in a lower stock price. The agency problem and the associated agency costs can be reduced by a properly constructed and followed corporate governance structure. The structure of the governance system should be designed to institute a system of checks and balances to reduce the ability and incentives of management to deviate from the goal of shareholder wealth maximization.
  • 9. 6 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 17. Structuring expenditures are currently the most popular way to deal with the agency problem—and also the most powerful and expensive. Compensation plans can be either incentive or performance plans. Incentive plans tie management performance to share price. Managers may receive stock options giving them the right to purchase stock at a set price. This provides the incentive to take actions that maximize stock. This form of compensation plan is not favorable because of market behavior, which has a significant effect on share price and is not under management’s control. As a result, performance plans are more popular today. With these, compensation is based on performance measures, such as earnings per share (EPS), EPS growth, or other return ratios. Managers may receive performance shares and/or cash bonuses when stated performance goals are reached. In practice, recent studies have been unable to document any significant correlation between CEO compensation and share price. 18. Market forces—for example, shareholder activism from large institutional investors—can reduce or avoid the agency problem because these groups can use their voting power to elect new directors who support their objectives and will act to replace poorly performing managers. In this way, these groups place pressure on management to take actions that maximize shareholder wealth. The threat of hostile takeovers also acts as a deterrent to the agency problem. Hostile takeovers occur when a company or group not supported by existing management attempts to acquire the firm. Because the acquirer looks for companies that are poorly managed and undervalued, this threat motivates managers to act in the best interests of the firm’s owners. Institutional investors are a powerful source of shareholder involvement in the monitoring of managers to reduce the agency problem. Institutions hold large quantities of shares in many of the corporations in their portfolio. Managers of these institutions should be active in the monitoring of management and vote their shares for the benefit of the shareholders. The power of institutional investors far exceeds the voting power of individual investors. ◼ Suggested Answer to Focus on Ethics Box: Critics See Ethical Dilemmas in Google Glass Is the goal of maximization of shareholder wealth necessarily ethical or unethical? It is not the goal that makes maximization of shareholder wealth ethical or unethical; it is actions of financial managers in pursuit of this goal. What responsibility, if any, does Google have to protect the privacy of those who interact with other people wearing Glass? Google has a responsibility to ensure that its products and users of its product protect the privacy of those who interact with the users of Google’s products. Google Glass poses an ethical challenge as users could seemingly videotape or photograph others without their knowledge. It is Google’s responsibility to ensure that its devices cannot be used to capture images of people inconspicuously. For example, in some countries like Germany, it is legally prohibited to photograph a person in certain circumstances without the consent of the concerned person. Google glass raise an ethical and legal concern as it allows for shooting pictures secretly in violations of law.
  • 10. Chapter 1: The Role of Managerial Finance 7 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. ◼ Answers to Warm-Up Exercises E1-1. Comparison of advantages and disadvantages of a partnership versus incorporation. Answer: While Jack and Ann disagree over whether or not their firm should incorporate or remain as a partnership, each form of business organization has its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of a partnership is that income is taxed at each partner’s individual tax rate that includes 10%, 15%, 25%, and higher rates up to a top rate of 35%, while corporate rates are 15%, 25%, and 34% with a top rate of 39%. The corporation is allowed to retain accumulated taxable income, but for a personal service corporation such as Jack and Ann’s tax preparation service, there is an additional tax, called an accumulated earnings tax, of 15% for accumulated taxable income in excess of $150,000. If corporate earnings are paid out as salary, Jack and Ann will pay their individual rates as they do on their partnership earnings. If some of the income is paid out in the form of dividends, it will be taxed twice, first as corporate income and then as dividend income (generally 5% or 15% depending upon the individual’s tax bracket). While taxation of income is a key factor in deciding which form of business organization to select, two other factors are also important. In a partnership, each partner has unlimited liability and may have to cover debts of other partners, while corporate owners have limited liability that guarantees that they cannot lose more than they have invested in the corporation. The third major consideration is ease of transfer of the business. Partnerships are harder to transfer and are technically dissolved when a partner dies, while a corporation can have a very long life with ownership readily transferred through the sale of stock. If a third party was asked to decide which legal form of business A&J Tax Preparation should take, it would be useful to have the following information: • Marital status and tax situation of each partner • Expectation of the longevity of the firm • Age of the current owners • Current plan of succession • Risk tolerance of the owners • Expectation of future tax law changes • Capital needs of the firm • Growth prospects of the firm • Reasons for each partner’s view of the preferred form of ownership E1-2 Timings of cash flows Answer: Based on the information provided, the choice is not obvious. Even though the second project is expected to provide the larger overall increase in earnings and, therefore, is the more profitable project, the goal of the firm is to maximize value so timing, cash flow, and risk have to be considered to determine which project is superior. Although it is often the case that profit maximization leads to value maximization, it is definitely not always the case. E1-3. Cash flow vs. accrued profits Answer: It is not unusual for a firm to be profitable yet experience a cash crunch. The most common cause is when expenses have a shorter due date than expected revenue. In such cases, the firm must arrange short- term financing to meet its debt obligations before the revenue arrives. If the forthcoming cash crunch is not a new situation for this firm, management should probably consider going ahead with the year-end party if it is important for employee morale and the future success of the firm, as long as adequate short-term funding can be arranged. On the other hand, if the firm has not experienced such a cash crunch before, there may be larger problems looming ahead, and it would be unseemly to spend cash on a party that would be better spent meeting the debt obligations of the firm.
  • 11. 8 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. E1-4. Sunk costs Answer: Marginal cost-benefit analysis ignores sunk costs, so the $2.5 million dollars is irrelevant to the current decision that must be made. At this point there are two questions that must be answered. First, will the $10,000 additional investment generate a PV of expected revenue that will exceed the $10,000 investment? In other words, will the project generate a positive net present value? If it does, the project must be considered further to see if it is the best use of capital. If the firm has a need to ration capital, the project must then be compared to other projects competing for the limited capital to see if it is viable. The fact that the project’s technology has been surpassed by new technology does not immediately disqualify the project because new technology does not ensure a positive cost-benefit result. In this case, a small $10,000 investment might avoid a heavy expenditure in new technology. Depending upon the industry, however, failure to keep up with competitors can be devastating. The key may well lie in the description “the project has little chance to be viable,” which indicates that approving the $10,000 is likely to be throwing good money after bad. E1-5. Agency costs Answer: Agency costs are the costs borne by stockholders to maintain a governance structure that ensures against dishonest acts of management, and gives managers the financial incentive to maximize share price. One example of agency costs is stock options, which are used to provide an incentive for managers to work diligently for the benefit of the firm. Tips are similar to stock options in that they are offered as rewards for good service much as stock options are used to reward managers, presumably based on their good performance—which subsequently leads to a higher stock price. The Donut Shop, Inc., example does not represent a clear case of agency costs because it is the management itself that has instituted the “No tips” policy and the employees have responded with reduced performance. By banning tips, the management has created a situation where an agency cost may be necessary to provide an incentive for employees to resume their former level of performance. One solution that may work for Donut Shop, Inc., is to institute a profit-sharing plan that reaches down to the employee level where the slowdown and inefficiency are occurring. A profit-sharing plan is designed to motivate the employees and could alleviate the aggravation caused by the no-tip policy, but must be clearly identified as the replacement to tipping in order to be effective. A profit-sharing plan is usually viewed by the employees as a reward for good performance, but does not have the immediacy of the positive effect that an employee gets from a tip. It is unclear from the case whether the new no-tip policy is a company-wide policy or simply the actions of a few branch managers. However, the real solution here is to recognize that the no-tip policy has created an unnecessary backlash that can be alleviated by reversing management’s position without incurring the additional costs of revising the current employee benefit plan and paying out a portion of corporate profits. ◼ Solutions to Problems P1-1. Liability comparisons LG 2; Basic a. Ms. Harper has unlimited liability. b. Ms. Harper has unlimited liability. c. Ms. Harper has limited liability, which guarantees that she cannot lose more than she invested. P1-2. Accrual income vs. cash flow for a period LG 4; Basic a. Sales $760,000 Cost of goods sold 300,000 Net profit $460,000
  • 12. Chapter 1: The Role of Managerial Finance 9 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. b. Cash receipts $690,000 Cost of goods sold 300,000 Net cash flow $390,000 c. The cash flow statement is more useful to the financial manager. The accounting net income includes amounts that will not be collected and, as a result, do not contribute to the wealth of the owners. P1-3. Cash flow statement LG 4; Intermediate a. Total cash inflow: $450 + $4,500 = $4,950 Total cash outflow: $1,000 + $500 + $800 + $355 + $280 + $1,200 + $222 = $4,357 b. Net cash flow: Total cash inflows – Total cash outflows = $4,950 − $4,357 = $593 c. If Jane is facing a shortage, she could cut back on some of her discretionary items, including clothing, dining out, and gas (i.e., travel less). d. If Jane has a surplus in August, she should compare these cash flows to those of other months and verify that August’s cash flows are typical. She may, for instance, observe the existence of large automobile insurance bills or tendency to spend more during the Christmas holiday season. If she has such needs, Jane will want to save the $593 in a money market security, where she is unlikely to face a decline in investment. If her August net cash flow is not needed to pay anticipated bills, she should invest in a diversified portfolio. P1-4. Marginal cost-benefit analysis and the goal of the firm PG 3, 5; Challenge a. Marginal benefits of new robotics − Marginal benefits of original robotics = Marginal benefits of proposed robotics $560,000 − $400,000 = $160,000 b. Marginal cost of new robotics – Sales price of current robotics = Marginal cost of proposed robotics $220,000 − $70,000 = $150,000 c. Net benefits of new robotics = Marginal benefits of proposed robotics − Marginal cost of proposed robotics $160,000 − $150,000 = $10,000 d. Ken Allen should recommend the new robotics be used on the heavy truck gear line. The marginal benefits exceed the marginal costs. e. Ken Allen should determine whether there will be additional training necessary with the new robotics, possibility of availability of better robotics in a short while, and the energy consumption of the new robotics. P1-5. Identifying agency problems, costs, and resolutions LG 4; Intermediate a. In this case the employee is being compensated for unproductive time. The company must pay someone to take her place during her absence. Installation of a time clock that must be punched by the receptionist every time she leaves work and returns would result in either: (1) her returning on time or (2) reducing the cost to the firm by reducing her pay for the lost work. b. The costs to the firm are in the form of opportunity costs. Money budgeted to cover the inflated costs of this project proposal is not available to fund other projects that may help to increase shareholder wealth. Make the management reward system based on how close the manager’s estimates come to the actual cost rather than having them come in below cost.
  • 13. 10 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. c. The manager may negotiate a deal with the merging competitor that is extremely beneficial to the executive and then sell the firm for less than its fair market value. A good way to reduce the loss of shareholder wealth would be to open the firm up for purchase bids from other firms once the manager makes it known that the firm is willing to merge. If the price offered by the competitor is too low, other firms will raise the price closer to its fair market value. d. Generally, part-time or temporary workers are not as productive as full-time employees. These workers have not been on the job as long to increase their work efficiency. Also, the better employees generally need to be highly compensated for their skills. This manager is getting rid of the highest-cost employees to increase profits. One approach to reducing the problem would be to give the manager performance shares if he or she meets certain stated goals. Implementing a stock incentive plan tying management compensation to share price would also encourage the manager to retain quality employees. P1-6. Ethics Problem LG 3; Intermediate The phrase “ethical constraints” is quite broad. The company may be referring to legal issues, and the fact that it will comply with laws. For example, it may be implying that it will not be using illegal immigrants and paying them a reduced salary. It may refer to the use of substandard materials, which are less likely to hold up over an extended period of time. Sometimes the use of substandard manufacturing facilities will increase the chance of harm to employees or worse, as witnessed by the BP Gulf oil spill in April 2010. ◼ Case Case studies are available on www.myfinancelab.com. Assessing the Goal of Sports Products, Inc. a. Maximization of shareholder wealth, which means maximization of share price, should be the primary goal of the firm. Unlike profit maximization, this goal considers timing, cash flows, and risk. It also reflects the worth of the owners’ investment in the firm at any time. It is the value they can realize should they decide to sell their shares. b. Yes, there appears to be an agency problem. Although compensation for management is tied to profits, it is not directly linked to share price. In addition, management’s actions with regard to pollution controls suggest a profit-maximization focus, which would maximize their earnings, rather than an attempt to maximize share price. c. The firm’s approach to pollution control seems to be questionable ethically. While it is unclear whether their acts were intentional or accidental, it is clear that they are violating the law—an illegal act potentially leading to litigation costs—and as a result are damaging the environment, an immoral and unfair act that has potential negative consequences for society in general. Clearly, Sports Products has not only broken the law but also established poor standards of conduct and moral judgment. d. From the information given there appears to be a weak corporate governance system. The fact that management is able to measure and reward their performance on profits indicates that no one is watching out for the shareholders. Loren and Dale’s concerns indicate that employees apparently have an interest in the long-run success of the firm. Allowing the continuation of pollution violations is also apparently escaping the interest and control ability of others who should be monitoring the firm. e. Some specific recommendations for the firm include: • Tie management, and possibly employee, compensation to share price or a performance-based measure and make sure that all involved own stock and have a stake in the firm. Being compensated partially on the basis of share price or another performance measure and owning stock in the firm will more closely link the wealth of managers and employees to the firm’s performance.
  • 14. Chapter 1: The Role of Managerial Finance 11 © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. • Comply with all federal and state laws as well as accepted standards of conduct or moral judgment. • Establish a corporate ethics policy, to be read and signed by all employees. • Set up a corporate governance system that has as its basis the oversight and welfare of all the stakeholders in the firm. (Other answers are, of course, possible.) ◼ Spreadsheet Exercise The answer to Chapter 1’s Monsanto spreadsheet problem is located on the Instructor’s Resource Center at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc under the Instructor’s Manual. ◼ Group Exercise Group exercises are available on www.myfinancelab.com. Notes for Adopters The motivation for these group exercises is to place the learning goals of each chapter within the context of a fictitious firm while giving students a valuable set of teamwork skills. Creativity is encouraged, while the strong links of each assignment to a real-world, shadow firm should ground each group’s work in reality. Any of these assignments and their deliverables can be modified to better fit within an adopter’s course goals as they were designed with an eye toward flexibility of use. The learning through these exercises should be something students enjoy, being both applicable to the real world and less confining than traditional homework. The first issue for adopters to address is group composition and size. Should students self-separate or be divided by their instructor? How big should the groups be? This is a semester-long assignment and students will need to get along with their fellow group members. If students choose their own groups it may, though not always, reduce the incidence of intra-group squabbles. Diversity within the groups might then be sacrificed, however. One strategy is to ask students to first pair-off. The instructor can then join the pairs into groups of four. This pairing of the pairs could be done randomly through a number-in-the-hat selection process, as could the entire group setup. Group size does matter and these exercises were designed for a workload spread across a minimum of three students. Larger groups would lessen the homework load; however, the issue of free-riding is often more prevalent in larger groups, where slackers can hide. Management of larger groups is also more challenging for the participants. The suggested group size is between three and five students. Group leadership is another issue. The best situation might be rotating the CEO/leader, where each group member has several opportunities to be in charge. Last, these exercises were designed to allow students freedom but with the responsibility of working somewhat independently of their instructor. In this vein, the instructions for each assignment have been written to be relatively self-explanatory. Chapter 1 This first chapter asks students to name their fictitious firm and describe its business. As this firm is going public, students are asked to explain why it is appropriate for them to go public and also discuss different managerial roles within the corporation. The group must choose a shadow firm to follow that is publicly held, allowing them to gather a substantial amount of information about it on the Internet. This publicly traded firm should be in an industry related to their fictitious firm.
  • 15. 12 Gitman/Zutter Principles of Managerial Finance, Brief, Seventh Edition © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. The most important counsel students could get at the outset is to spend time making these initial decisions. Later work is going to build on these choices, and careful choosing is paramount. For example, in choosing the shadow firm, students should pick a well-established firm whose information, including financials, will be easily found. This also impacts their decisions regarding their own fictitious firm. Throughout many of the subsequent chapters, students will be taking real-world information from their shadow firm and applying it to their fictitious firm; dressing their own firm with the clothes of the shadow firm. Students should feel comfortable in these clothes, so encouraging them to choose industries they’re familiar with, or interested in, is helpful.
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  • 17. Economical Application of Yeast. It frequently happens, in the summer season, that the brewers, in order to render their beer less liable to spoil, use more hops than usual; the consequence of which is, that the yeast becomes very bitter, and gives a disagreeable flavour to the bread. To obviate this inconvenience, Mr. Stone has recommended the following method of raising a bushel of flour with only a tea-spoonful of yeast. Suppose a bushel of flour be put it into the kneading trough, then take about three quarters of a pint of warm water, and one tea- spoonful of yeast. Stir it in till it is thoroughly mixed with the water; and make a hole in the middle of the flour, large enough to contain two gallons of water. Pour in the yeast and add some of the flour until it is a thick liquid paste; strew some of the dry flour over it, and let it stand an hour. Then take a quart more of warm water, and pour it in: in about an hour it will be seen that the small quantity of yeast has raised the mixture so, that it will break through the dry flour placed over it; and when the warm water has been added, take a stick and stir in more flour until it is as thick as before; then shake again some dry flour over it, and leave it for two hours more, the mass will rise and break through the dry flour again; you may then add three quarts or a gallon of water, and stir in the flour, and make it into a soft paste, taking care to cover it with dry flour again, and in about three or four hours more the dough may be mixed up, and covered up warm; and in four or five hours more it may be made up into loaves, and put in the oven; and in this manner may be produced as light a bread as though a pint of yeast had been used. It does not take above a quarter of an hour more than the usual way of baking, for there is no time lost but that of adding the water at three or four times. The author of this method assures us that he constantly bakes in this way. In the morning, about six or seven o’clock, he puts the flour in the trough, and mixes up the spoonful of yeast with the warm water; in an hour’s time he adds more flour, in
  • 18. two hours, again more, and about noon makes up the dough, and about six in the evening it is put into the oven: he has always good bread.
  • 19. Economical Preparation of Yeast. The following economical method of making yeast is recommended by Dr. Lettsom. Thicken two quarts of water with four ounces of fine flour, boil it for half an hour, then sweeten it with three ounces of brown sugar; when almost cold, pour it with four spoonfuls of baker’s yeast into an earthen jug, deep enough for the fermentation to go on without running over; place it for a day near the fire, then pour off the thin liquor from the top, shake the remainder, and close it up for use, first straining it through a sieve. To preserve it sweet, set it in a cool cellar, or hang it some depth in a well. Keep always some of this to make the next quantity of yeast that is wanted. Mr. I. Kerby recommends the following method of obtaining yeast from potatoes.
  • 20. Potatoe Yeast. Boil potatoes of the mealy sort, till they are thoroughly soft, skin and mash them very smooth, and put as much hot water on them as will make a mash of the consistency of common beer yeast, but not thicker. Add to every pound of potatoes, two ounces of treacle, and when just warm, stir in for every pound of potatoes, two large spoonfuls of yeast. Keep it warm till it has done fermenting, and in twenty-four hours it will be fit for use. A pound of potatoes will make near a quart of yeast, which has been found to answer the purpose so well, as not to be able to distinguish the bread made with it, from bread made with brewer’s yeast.
  • 21. Method of Preserving Yeast. When yeast is plentiful, take a quantity and work it well with a whisk until it becomes thin; then procure a large wooden dish or platter, clean and dry, and with a soft brush lay a thin layer of yeast on the dish, and turn the top downwards to keep out the dust, but not the air, which is to dry it. When the first coat is dry, lay on another, and let that dry, and so continue till the quantity is sufficient; by this means it may soon be made two or three inches thick, when it may be preserved in dry tin canisters or stopped bottles, for a long time, good. When used for baking, cut a piece off and dissolve it in warm water, when it will be fit for use. FINIS. C. GREEN, LEICESTER STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE.
  • 22. NOTICE. The Public are respectfully informed, that a new Edition, considerably enlarged (price 9s.), has lately been published, OF ACCUM’S Treatise on Adulterations of Food, AND CULINARY POISONS; Exhibiting the fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine, Spirituous Liquors, Tea, Coffee, Cream, Confectionary, Vinegar, Mustard, Pepper, Cheese, Olive Oil, Pickles, and other Articles employed in Domestic Economy; and Method of detecting them. (Copied from the British Review, No. XXIX. p. 171.) Mr. Accum seems determined that even the outside of his book shall awaken our fears. The cover of our copy bears a death’s head emblazoned upon a pall, and, underneath, the motto “there is death in the pot.” The pall is supported by the point of a dart. Four other darts support the four corners of the device. Twelve serpents, with forked tongues and tails entwined, form a terrific wreath around; while the middle is occupied with a large cobweb, delineated with much attention to detail, in the centre of which a spider, full as large as a moderate sized hazel nut, and so frightful that more than one young lady of our acquaintance would think it necessary to scream at the sight of it, holds in its envenomed fangs an ill-fated fly, which
  • 23. is sinking under the loss of blood, and buzzing in the agonies of death. We are by no means desirous to raise or maintain a popular clamour; but Mr. Accum certainly advances some weighty charges, and his work comes with an advantage in bearing a name not unknown to the scientific world. Of the adulterations specified, some are deleterious, and others merely fraudulent. Accordingly, we shall offer a few extracts, both from the original matter of Mr. Accum, and from his citations drawn from previous authors. “Among the number of substances used in domestic economy which are now very generally found sophisticated, may be distinguished,—tea, coffee, bread, beer, wine, spirituous liquors, salad oil, pepper, vinegar, mustard, cream, and other articles of subsistence. Indeed it would be difficult to mention a single article of food which is not to be met with in an adulterated state. And there are some substances which are scarcely ever to be procured genuine.” (P. 3.) But we pass on from the general statements at the beginning of the work to particulars. Water, by standing in leaden reservoirs, acquires a highly deleterious property. In some particular cases, the consequences have been most fatal. “‘A gentleman was the father of a numerous offspring, having had one and twenty children, of whom eight died young, and thirteen survived their parents. During their infancy, and indeed until they had quitted the place of their usual residence, they were all remarkably unhealthy, being particularly subject to disorders of the stomach and bowels. The father, during many years, was paralytic; the mother, for a long time was subject to cholics and bilious obstructions.’” (P. 78, 79.) These effects were traced to a leaden pump, in the cylinder of which there were found several perforations, while the cistern “was reduced to the thinness of common brown paper, and was full of holes like a sieve.” (P. 79.) We now come to the adulteration of wine; to many of our readers, probably, a far more interesting concern than that of water.
  • 24. “All persons moderately conversant with the subject are aware, that a portion of alum is added to young and meagre red wines, for the purpose of brightening the colour; that Brazil-wood, or the husks of elderberries and bilberries, are employed to impart a deep rich purple tint to red port of a pale, feint colour; that gypsom is used to render cloudy white wines transparent; that an additional astringency is imparted to immature red wines by means of oak-wood sawdust, and the husks of filberts, and that a mixture of spoiled foreign and home-made wines is converted into the wretched compound frequently sold in this town by the name of genuine old Port.... A nutty flavour is produced by bitter almonds; fictitious Port wine is flavoured with a tincture drawn from the seeds of raisins, and the ingredients employed to form the bouquet of high-flavoured wines, are sweet brier, orris-root, clary, cherry-laurel-water, and elder flowers. The flavouring ingredients used by manufacturers, may all be purchased by those dealers in wine who are initiated in the mysteries of the trade. And even a manuscript receipt-book for preparing them, and the whole mystery of managing all sorts of wines, may be obtained on payment of a considerable fee.” (P. 95, 97.) “The particular and separate department in this factitious wine-trade, called crusting, consists in lining the interior surface of empty wine bottles, in part, with a red crust of super-tartrate of potash, by suffering a saturated, hot solution of this salt, coloured with a decoction of Brazil- wood, to chrystallize within them.” (P. 101, 102.) But the crusting is not confined to the bottle. “A correspondent operation is performed on the wooden cask; the whole interior of which is stained artificially with a chrystalline crust of super-tartrate of potash, artfully affixed in a manner precisely similar to that before stated. Thus the wine-merchant, after bottling off a pipe of wine, is enabled to impose on the understanding of his customers, by taking to pieces the cask, and exhibiting the beautiful dark-coloured and fine chrystalline crust, as an indubitable proof of the age of the wine; a practice by no means uncommon to flatter the vanity of those who pride themselves in their acute discrimination of wines.” (P. 103, 104) This our readers will excuse, for it is pleasing to read of impositions which are practised on the sagacious. But, says Mr. Accum, “Several well-authenticated facts have convinced me, that the adulteration of wine with substances deleterious to health is certainly practised oftener than is, perhaps, suspected.” (P. 104, 105.)
  • 25. Presently follows the story of the passengers by the coach, who dined at Newark. Half a bottle of port made them all ill, one dangerously. Part of the other half caused the death of an inhabitant of the place, on whom an inquest was held, and a verdict returned, of—Died by poison. A gentleman having been taken severely ill on two successive days, after drinking each day a pint of Madeira from the same bottle, his apothecary ordered that it should be examined. “‘The bottle happened to slip out of the hand of the servant, disclosed a row of shot wedged forcibly into the angular bent-up circumference of it. On examining the beads of shot, they crumbled into dust, the outer crust (defended by a coat of black lead with which the shot is glazed) being alone unacted on, whilst the remainder of the metal was dissolved. The wine, therefore, had become contaminated with lead and arsenic, the shot being a compound of these metals, which no doubt had produced the mischief.’” (P. 113, 114.) For detecting the presence of lead or any other deleterious metal in wine, Mr. Accum recommends the wine test. We now come to that part of the subject, which, as some persons have thought, is merely the business of ale-drinkers, and their brethren, the porter-drinkers. “The fraud of imparting to porter and ale an intoxicating quality by narcotic substances, appears to have flourished during the period of the late French war. For, if we examine the importation lists of drugs, it will be noticed that the quantities of cocculus indicus imported in a given time prior to that period, will bear no comparison with the quantity imported in the same space of time during the war, although an additional duty was laid upon this commodity. Such has been the amount brought into this country in five years, that it far exceeds the quantity imported during twelve years anterior to the above epoch. The price of this drug has risen within these ten years from two shillings to seven shillings the pound.... It was at the period to which we have alluded that the preparation of an extract of cocculus indicus first appeared, as a new saleable commodity, in the price-currents of brewers’ druggists. It was at the same time also that a Mr. Jackson, of notorious memory, fell upon the idea of brewing beer from various drugs, without any malt and hops. This chemist did not turn brewer himself, but he struck out the more profitable trade of teaching his mystery to the brewers for a handsome
  • 26. fee. From that time forward, written directions and receipt books, for using the chemical preparations to be substituted for malt and hops, were respectively sold. And many adepts soon afterwards appeared every where to instruct brewers in the nefarious practice first pointed out by Mr. Jackson. From that time, also, the fraternity of brewers’ chemists took its rise. They made it their chief business to send travellers all over the country with lists and samples exhibiting the price and quality of the articles manufactured by them for the use of brewers only. Their trade spread far and wide, but it was amongst the country brewers chiefly that they found the most customers. And it is among them up to the present day, as I am assured by some of these operators, on whose veracity I can rely, that the greatest quantities of unlawful ingredients are sold.” (P. 157-160.) Part of these evils the porter-drinkers bring upon themselves. “One of the qualities of good porter, is, that it should bear a fine frothy head, as it is technically termed: because professed judges of this beverage, would not pronounce the liquor excellent, although it possessed all other good qualities of porter, without this requisite.—To impart to porter this property of frothing when poured from one vessel into another, or to produce what is also termed a cauliflower head, the mixture called beer-heading, composed of common green vitriol (sulphate of iron) alum and salt, is added. This addition to the beer is generally made by the publicans.” (P. 182, 183.) It is added in a note: —”’Alum gives likewise a smack of age to beer, and is penetrating to the palate.’—S. Child on Brewing, p. 18.” “The great London brewers, it appears, believe that the publicans alone adulterate the beer.” (P. 211.) “Capsicum and grains of paradise, two highly acrid substances, are employed to give a pungent taste to weak insipid beer. Of late, a concentrated tincture of these articles, to be used for a similar purpose, and possessing a powerful effect, has appeared in the price-currents of brewers’ druggists. Ginger root, coriander seed, and orange peels, are employed as flavouring substances chiefly by the ale brewers.” (P. 184, 185.) We find the following articles, in a list of illegal ingredients, seized at various breweries and brewers’ druggists. “Multum, 84 lbs.; cocculus indicus, 12 lbs.; colouring, 4 galls; honey, about 180 lbs.; hartshorn shavings, 14 lbs.; Spanish juice, 46 lbs.; orange powder, 17 lbs.; ginger, 56 lbs.; grains of paradise, 44 lbs.; quassia, 10 lbs.; liquorice, 64 lbs.; carraway seeds, 40 lbs.; multum, 26
  • 27. lbs.” “Capsicum, 88 lbs.; copperas, 310 lbs.; colouring and drugs, 84 lbs.; mixed drugs, 240 lbs.; coriander seed, 2 lbs.; beer colouring, 24 gallons.” (P. 186-189.) [The list which includes these articles is copied from the minutes of the committee of the House of Commons.] Some of the substances above enumerated may be thought comparatively harmless. But others are absolutely poisonous. “To increase the intoxicating quality of beer, the deleterious vegetable substance, called cocculus indicus, and the extract of this poisonous berry, technically called black extract, or by some, hard multum, are employed. Opium, tobacco, nux vomica, and extracts of poppies, have also been used.—This fraud constitutes by far the most censurable offence committed by unprincipled brewers. And it is a lamentable reflection to behold so great a number of brewers prosecuted, and convicted of this crime. Nor is it less deplorable to find the names of druggists, eminent in trade, implicated in the fraud, by selling the unlawful ingredients to brewers for fraudulent purposes.” (P. 205, 206.) Then follows a list of thirty-four convictions of brewers, for receiving or using illegal ingredients.—We perfectly agree with the following observations. “That a minute portion of an unwholesome ingredient, daily taken in beer, cannot fail to be productive of mischief, admits of no doubt: and there is reason to believe that a small quantity of a narcotic substance (and cocculus indicus is a powerful narcotic), daily taken into the stomach, together with an intoxicating liquor, is highly more efficacious than it would be without the liquor. The effect may be gradual; and a strong constitution, especially if it be assisted with constant and hard labour, may counteract the destructive consequences perhaps for many years. But it never fails to show its baneful effects at last.” (P. 209, 210.) We now come to the business of another small portion of the community, namely, the tea-drinkers. Perhaps the following descriptions will assist them in forming a diagnosis. “All the samples of spurious green tea (nineteen in number) which I have examined, were coloured with carbonate of copper, (a poisonous substance), and not by means of verdigrise, or copperas.” (P. 240.) “Mr. Twining asserts, that ‘the leaves of spurious tea are boiled in a copper, with copperas and sheep’s dung.’” (P. 240. Note.) “Tea rendered poisonous by carbonate of copper, speedily imparts to liquid ammonia, a
  • 28. fine sapphire blue tinge. It is only necessary to shake up in a stopped vial, for a few minutes, a tea-spoonful of the suspected leaves, with about two table-spoonsful of liquid ammonia, diluted with half its bulk of water. The supernatant liquid will exhibit a fine blue colour, if the minutest quantity of copper be present. Green tea, coloured with carbonate of copper, when thrown into water impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, immediately acquires a black colour. Genuine green tea, suffers no change from the action of these tests.” (P. 241.) The following extracts may perhaps prove interesting to brandy- drinkers. “‘It is a custom among retailing distillers, which I have not taken notice of in this directory, to put one third or one fourth part of proof molasses brandy, proportionably, to what rum they dispose of; which cannot be distinguished, but by an extraordinary palate, and does not at all lessen the body or proof of the goods; but makes them about two shillings a gallon cheaper; and must be well mixed and incorporated together in your retailing cask. But you should keep some of the best rum, not adulterated, to please your customers, whose judgment and palate must be humoured.—When you are to draw a sample of goods to show a person that has judgment in the proof, do not draw your goods into a phial to be tasted, or make experiment of the strength thereof that way, because the proof will not hold except the goods be exceedingly strong. But draw the pattern of goods either into a glass from the cock, to run very small, or rather draw off a small quantity into a little pewter pot, and pour it into your glass, extending your pot as high above the glass as you can without wasting it, which makes the goods carry a better head abundantly, than if the same goods were to be put and tried in a phial.— You must be so prudent as to make a distinction of the persons you have to deal with. What goods you sell to gentlemen for their own use, who require a great deal of attendance, and as much for time of payment, you must take a considerably greater price than of others; what goods you sell to persons where you believe there is a manifest, or at least some hazard of your money, you may safely sell for more than common profit; what goods you sell to the poor, especially medicinally, (as many of your goods are sanative), be as compassionate as the cases require.— All brandies, whether French, Spanish, or English, being proof goods, will admit of one pint of liquor‘ (water) ‘to each gallon, to be made up and incorporated therewith in your cask, for retail, or selling smaller quantities. And all persons that insist upon having proof goods, which not one in twenty understand, you must supply out of what goods are not so reduced, though at a higher price.’” (P. 267-270.)
  • 29. Some of the adulterations of spirituous liquors are exceedingly pernicious. “Another method of fining spirituous liquors, consists in adding to it, first, a solution of sub-acetate of lead, and then a solution of alum. This practice is highly dangerous, because part of the sulphate of lead produced, remains dissolved in the liquor, which it thus renders poisonous.” (P. 284.) “The cordial called shrub frequently exhibits vestiges of copper.” (P. 285.) Gloucester Cheese has been found contaminated with red lead. The article used in colouring cheese is anotto. In one instance, the anotto, being inferior, had been coloured with vermilion; and the vermilion adulterated by a druggist, (who little thought that it would ever enter into the composition of cheese,) with red lead. The account of the whole transaction as given by Mr. Accum, is worth reading, but too long to be extracted. Cayenne pepper, “is sometimes adulterated with red lead, to prevent its becoming bleached on exposure to light.” (P. 305.) Pickles “are sometimes intentionally coloured by means of copper.” (P. 306.) “Mrs. E. Raffald directs, ‘to render pickles green, boil them with halfpence, or allow them to stand twenty-four hours in copper or brass pans.’” (P. 309.) “Vinegar is sometimes largely adulterated with sulphuric acid, to give it more acidity.” (P. 311.) “Red sugar drops are usually coloured with the inferior kind of vermilion. This pigment is generally adulterated with red lead. Other kinds of sweetmeats are sometimes rendered poisonous by being coloured with preparations of copper.” (P. 315, 316.) “The foreign conserves ... are frequently impregnated with copper.” (P. 317.) “Quantities” of catsup “are daily to be met with, which on a chemical examination, are found to abound with copper.” (P. 319.) “The quantity of copper which we have more than once detected in this sauce, used for seasoning, and which, on account of its cheapness, is much resorted to by people in the lower walks of life, has exceeded the proportion of lead to be met with in other articles employed in domestic economy.” (P. 320.) “The leaves of the cherry-laurel, prunus laurocerasus, a poisonous plant,” are used to flavour custards, blanc-mange, and other
  • 30. delicacies of the table. (P. 324.) An instance is given of the dangerous consequences of this practice. (P. 325, 326.) “The water distilled from cherry-laurel leaves is frequently mixed with brandy and other spirituous liquors.” (P. 327.) Several samples of anchovy sauce “have been found contaminated with lead.” (P. 328.) It is not unusual to employ, in preparing this sauce, “a certain quantity of Venetian red, added for the purpose of colouring it, which, if genuine, is an innocent colouring substance. But instances have occurred of this pigment having been adulterated with orange lead, which is nothing else than a better kind of minimum or red oxid of lead.” (P, 328, 329.) In lozenges, “the adulterating ingredient is usually pipe-clay, of which a liberal portion is substituted for sugar.” (P. 330.) Dr. T. Lloyd says, “‘I was informed,’” (at a respectable chemist’s shop in the city) “‘that there were two kinds of ginger lozenges kept for sale, the one at three-pence the once, and the other at six-pence; and that the article furnished to me by mistake was the cheaper commodity. The latter were distinguished by the epithet verum, they being composed of sugar and ginger only. But the former were manufactured partly of white Cornish clay, with a portion of sugar only, with ginger and Guinea pepper. I was likewise informed, that of Tolu lozenges, peppermint lozenges, and ginger pearls, and several other sorts or lozenges, two kinds were kept; that the reduced prices, as they were called, were manufactured for those very clever persons in their own conceit, who are fond of haggling, and insist on buying better bargains than other people, shutting their eyes to the defects of an article, so that they can enjoy the delight of getting it cheap: and, secondly, for those persons, who being but bad paymasters, yet as the manufacturer, for his own credit’s sake, cannot charge more than the usual price of the article, he thinks himself therefore authorized to adulterate it in value, to make up for the risk he runs, and the long credit he must give.’” (P. 332, 333.) Well—there is then some honesty left in the world. What a pleasure it is to have to deal with a respectable man. But we return to the practices of the knaves.
  • 31. Olive oil “is sometimes contaminated with lead.” (P. 334.) The dealers in this commodity assert that lead or pewter “prevents the oil from becoming rancid. And hence some retailers often suffer a pewter measure to remain immersed in the oil.” (P. 336.) “The beverage called soda water is frequently contaminated both with copper and lead.” (P. 351.) Mr. Johnston, of Greek Street, Soho, was the first who pointed out the danger to the public. “Many kinds of viands are frequently impregnated with copper, in consequence of the employment of cooking utensels made of that metal. By the use of such vessels in dressing food, we are daily liable to be poisoned.” (P. 352.) “Mr. Thiery, who wrote a thesis on the noxious quality of copper, observes that ‘our food receives its quantity of poison, in the kitchen by the use of copper pans and dishes. The brewer mingles poison in our beer, by boiling it in copper vessels. The sugar-baker employs copper pans. The pastry-cook bakes our tarts in copper moulds. The confectioner uses copper vessels. The oilman boils his pickles in copper or brass vessels, and verdigrise is plentifully formed by the action of the vinegar upon the metal.’” (P. 353, 354.) Moreover, “various kinds of food, used in domestic economy, are liable to become impregnated with lead.” (P. 359.) Mr. Accum, speaking on the subject of Beer, says, “It will be noticed that some of the sophistications are comparatively harmless, whilst others are affected by substances deleterious to health.” (P. 185.) We think, however, that the candour of Mr. Accum leads him to make too much allowance for this consideration throughout. Surely, though many articles of food be not absolutely poisonous, a diet consisting of drugs and chemical compounds and articles never intended by nature to be eaten or drunk, articles for which, presented simple, the hungriest stomach would feel no appetite or inclination, cannot be wholesome. Brick and mortar are not poison; yet we cannot, like the dragon of Wantley, swallow a church, and pick our teeth with the steeple. Many can eat oysters, but few could manage the oyster-knife. Even the Welshman of King Arthur’s court, fond as he was of toasted cheese, would inevitably have been choked by the mouse that ran down his throat to eat it, had he not “pulled him out by the tail.”
  • 32. We could give farther extracts; but must refer the reader to the work itself, which contains much interesting matter, besides what we have selected. THE MONEY THAT IS OFTEN LAID OUT IN THE PURCHASE OF COOKERY BOOKS, WHICH TEACH THE ART OF EXCITING DISEASE AND PAIN BY DUBIOUS COMBINATIONS AND CULINARY POISONS, MIGHT, WE THINK, BE MUCH BETTER EXPENDED UPON A BOOK LIKE THE PRESENT; EVERY PAGE OF WHICH GIVES WARNING OF SOME DANGER, OF WHICH WE OUGHT ALL TO BE AWARE.
  • 33. A Treatise on Adulterated Provisions. By FREDRICK ACCUM. THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT. II. KINGS—CHAP. VI. VERSE XI. (From Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, No. XXXV. Page 542.) Mr. Accum, it appears, is one of those very good-natured friends, who is quite resolved not to allow us to be cheated and poisoned as our fathers were before us, and our children will be after us, without cackling to us of our danger, and opening our eyes to abysses of fraud and imposition, of the very existence of which we had until now the good fortune to be entirely ignorant. His book is a perfect death’s head, a memento mori, the perusal of any single chapter of which is enough to throw any man into the blue devils for a fortnight. Mr. Accum puts us something in mind of an officious blockhead, who, instead of comforting his dying friend, is continually jogging him on the elbow with such cheering assurances as the following. “I am sorry there is no hope; my dear fellow, you must kick the bucket soon. Your liver is diseased, your lungs gone, your bowels as impenetrable as marble, your legs swelled like door-posts, your face as yellow as a guinea, and the doctor just now assured me you could not live a week.” Mr. Accum’s work is evidently written in the same spirit of dark and melancholy anticipation, which pervades Dr. Robison’s celebrated “Proofs of a Conspiracy, &c. against all the crowned
  • 34. heads of Europe.” The conspiracy disclosed by Mr. Accum is certainly of a still more dreadful nature, and is even more widely ramified than that which excited so much horror in the worthy professor. It is a conspiracy of brewers, bakers, grocers, wine-merchants, confectioners, apothecaries, and cooks, against the lives of all and every one of his majesty’s liege subjects. It is easy to see that Mr. Accum’s nerves are considerably agitated, that— “Sad forebodings shake him as he writes.” Not only at the festive board is he haunted by chimeras dire of danger—not only does he tremble over the tureen—and faint over the flesh-pot: but even in his chintz night-gown, and red morocco slippers, he is not secure. An imaginary sexton is continually jogging his elbow as he writes, a death’s head and cross bones rise on his library table; and at the end of his sofa he beholds a visionary tomb- stone of the best granite— ON WHICH ARE INSCRIBED THE DREADFUL WORDS— Hic Jacet, FREDRICK ACCUM, Operative Chemist,
  • 35. OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO. Since we read his book, our appetite has visibly decreased. At the Celtic club, yesterday, we dined almost entirely on roast beef; Mr. Oman’s London-particular Madeira lost all its relish, and we turned pale in the act of eating a custard, when we recollected the dreadful punishment inflicted on custard-eaters, in page 326 of the present work. We beg to assure our friends, therefore, that at the present moment they may invite us to dinner with the greatest impunity.— Our diet is at present quite similar to that of Parnel’s hermit, “Our food the fruits, our drink the crystal well;” though we trust a few days will recover us from our panic, and enable us to resume our former habits of life. Those of our friends, therefore, who have any intention of pasturing us, had better not lose the present opportunity of doing so. So favourable a combination of circumstances must have been quite unhoped for on their part, and most probably will never occur again.[24] V. S. 24. To save some trouble, we may announce that we are already engaged to dinner, on the 23d, 27th, and 28th of this month, and to evening parties, on the 22d, 23d, 26th, 28th, and 29th, and 3d of March. Since, by the publication of Mr. Accum’s book, an end has been for ever put to our former blessed state of ignorance, let us arm ourselves with philosophy, and boldly venture to look our danger in the face; or, as the poet beautifully expresses it, in language singularly applicable,
  • 36. “Come, Christopher, and leave all meaner things, To low ambition and the pride of kings; Let us, since life can little else supply; Than just to swallow poison and to die; Expatiate free o’er all this dreadful field, Try what the brewer, what the baker yield; Explore the druggists’ shop, the butchers’ stall; Expose their roguery, and—damn them all!” Pope. Melancholy as the details are, there is something almost ludicrous, we think, in the very extent to which the deceptions are carried. So inextricably are we all immersed in this mighty labyrinth of fraud, that even the venders of poison themselves are forced, by a sort of retributive justice, to swallow it in their turn.—Thus the apothecary, who sells the poisonous ingredients to the brewer, chuckles over his roguery, and swallows his own drugs in his daily copious exhibitions of Brown stout. The brewer in his turn, is poisoned by the baker, the wine-merchant, and the grocer. And, whenever the baker’s stomach fails him, he meets his coup de grace in the adulterated drugs of his friend the apothecary, whose health he has been gradually contributing to undermine, by feeding him every morning on chalk and alum, in the shape of hot rolls. Our readers will now, we think, be able to form a general idea of the perils to which they are exposed by every meal. Mr. Accum’s details on the adulteration of wine are extremely ample, and so interesting, that we regret our limits prevent our making more copious extracts, and oblige us to refer our readers for farther information to the work itself. Having thus laid open to our view the arcana of the cellar, Mr. Accum next treats us with an expose of the secrets of the brew- house. Verily, the wine-merchant and brewer are par nobile fratrum; and after the following disclosures, it will henceforth be a matter of the greatest indifference to us, whether we drink Perry or Champaigne, Hermitage or Brown stout. Latet anguis in poculo, there is disease and death in them all, and one is only preferable to
  • 37. the other, because it will poison us at about one-tenth of the expense. “Malt liquors, and particularly porter, the favourite beverage of the inhabitants of London and of other large towns, is amongst those articles, in the manufacture of which the greatest frauds are frequently committed. “The practice of adulterating beer appears to be of early date. To shew that they have augmented in our own days, we shall exhibit an abstract from documents laid lately before Parliament. “Mr. Accum not only amply proves, that unwholesome ingredients are used by fraudulent brewers, and that very deleterious substances are also vended both to brewers and publicans for adulterating beer, but that the ingredients mixed up in the brewer’s enchanting cauldron are placed above all competition, even with the potent charms of Macbeth’s witches: ‘Root of hemlock, digg’d i’ the dark, * * * * * * * * For a charm of pow’rful trouble. Like a hell-broth boil and bubble; Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.’ Mr. Accum very properly gives us a list of those miscreants who have been convicted of adulterating their porter with poisonous ingredients, and want of room alone prevents us from damning them to everlasting fame, by inserting their names along with that of the Rev. Sennacherib Terrot, in the imperishable pages of this miscellany. Mr. Accum gives us a long dissertation on counterfeit tea, and another on spurious coffee; but as these are impositions by which we are little affected, we shall not allow them to detain us. The leaves of the sloe-thorn are substituted for the former, and roasted horse beans for the latter. These frauds, it appears, are carried to a very great extent. We must now draw our extracts to a close; but we can assure our readers, that we have not yet introduced them to one tythe of the poisonous articles in common use, detected by Mr. Accum. We shall
  • 38. give the titles of a few to satisfy the curious:—Poisonous confectionary, poisonous pickles, poisonous cayenne pepper, poisonous custards, poisonous anchovy sauce, poisonous lozenges, poisonous lemon acid, poisonous mushrooms, poisonous ketchup, and poisonous soda water! Read this, and wonder how you live! While we thus suffer under accumulated miseries brought upon us by the unprincipled avarice and cupidity of others, it is surely incumbent on us not wantonly to increase the catalogue by any negligence or follies of our own. Will it be believed, that in the cookery book, which forms the prevailing oracle of the kitchens in this part of the island, there is an express injunction to “boil greens with halfpence in order to improve their colour?”—That our puddings are frequently seasoned with laurel leaves, and our sweetmeats almost uniformly prepared in copper vessels? Why are we thus compelled to swallow a supererogatorary quantity of poison which may so easily be avoided? And why are we constantly made to run the risk of our lives by participating in custards, trifles, and blancmanges, seasoned by a most deadly poison extracted from the prunus lauro-cerasus? Verily, while our present detestable system of cookery remains, we may exclaim with the sacred historian, that there is indeed “Death in the Pot.”
  • 39. A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, AND CULINARY POISONS, Exhibiting the Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer, Wine, Spirituous Liquors, &c. and Methods of detecting them. By FREDRICK ACCUM. (From the Edinburgh Review, No. LXV. Page 131.) It is curious to see how vice varies its forms, and maintains its substance, in all conditions of society;—and how certainly those changes, or improvements as we call them, which diminish one class of offences, aggravate or give birth to another.—In rude and simple communities, most crimes take the shape of violence and outrage— in polished and refined ones, of Fraud. Men sin from their animal propensities in the first case, and from their intellectual depravation in the second. The one state of things is prolific of murders, batteries, rapines, and burnings—the other of forgeries, swindlings, defamations, and seductions. The sum of evil is probably pretty much the same in both—though probably greatest in the civilized and enlightened stages; the sharpening of the intellect, and the spread of knowledge, giving prodigious force and activity to all criminal propensities. Among the offences which are peculiar to a refined and enlightened society, and owe their birth, indeed, to its science and refinement, are those skilful and dexterous adulterations of the manifold objects of its luxurious consumption, to which their value and variety, and the delicacy of their preparation, hold out so many temptations; while the very skill and knowledge which are requisite in their formation, furnish such facilities for their sophistication. The
  • 40. very industry and busy activity of such a society, exposes it more and more to such impostures;—and by the division of labour which takes place, and confines every man to his own separate task, brings him into a complete dependence on the industry of others for a supply of the most necessary articles. The honesty of the dealer, and of the original manufacturer, is the only security to the public for the genuineness of the article in which he deals. The consumer can in general know nothing of their component parts; he must take them as he finds them; and, even if he is dissatisfied, he has in general no effectual means of redress. It will be found, that as crimes of violence decrease with the progress of society, frauds are multiplied; and there springs up in every prosperous country a race of degenerate traders and manufacturers, whose business is to cheat and to deceive; who pervert their talents to the most dishonest purposes, prefering the illicit gains thus acquired to the fair profits of honorable dealing; and counter-working, by their sinister arts, the general improvement of society. In almost every branch of manufacture, there are fraudulent dealers, who are instigated by the thirst of gain, to debase the articles which they vend to the public, and to exact a high price for what is comparatively cheap and worthless. After pointing out various deceptions of this nature, Mr. Accum, the ingenious author of the work before us, proceeds in his account of those frauds, in the following terms. ‘Soap used in house-keeping is frequently adulterated with a considerable portion of fine white clay, brought from St. Stephen’s in Cornwall. In the manufacture of printing paper, a large quantity of plaster of Paris is added to the paper stuff, to increase the weight of the manufactured article. The selvage of cloth is often dyed with a permanent colour, and artfully stitched to the edge of cloth dyed with a fugitive dye. The frauds committed in the tanning of skins, and in the manufacture of cutlery, and jewellery, exceed belief.’ pp. 27-29. What is infinitely worse, however, than any of those frauds, sophistications, we are informed, are carried on to an equal extent in
  • 41. all the essential articles of subsistence or comfort. So long as our dishonest dealers do not intermeddle with these things, their deceptions are comparatively harmless; the evil in all such cases amounting only to so much pecuniary damage. But when they begin to tamper with food, or with articles connected with the table, their frauds are most pernicious: in all cases the nutritive quality of the food is injured, by the artificial ingredients intermixed with it; and when these ingredients, as frequently happens, are of a poisonous quality, they endanger the health and even the life of all to whom they are vended. We cannot conceive any thing more diabolical than those contrivances; and we consider their authors in a far worse light than ordinary felons, who, being known, can be duly guarded against. But those fraudulent dealers conceal themselves under the fair show of a reputable traffic—they contrive in this manner to escape the infamy which justly belongs to them—and, under the disguise of wealth, credit, and character, to lurk in the bosom of society, wounding the hand that cherishes them, and scattering around them poison and death. It is chiefly for the purpose of laying open the dishonest artifices of this class of dealers, that Mr. Accum has published the present very interesting and popular work; and he gives a most fearful view of the various and extensive frauds which are daily practised on the unsuspecting public. ‘Among the number of substances used in domestic economy, which are now very generally found sophisticated, may be distinguished—tea, coffee, bread, beer, wine, spirituous liquors, salad oil, pepper, vinegar, mustard, cream, and other articles of subsistence.—Indeed, it would be difficult to mention a single article of food which is not to be met with in an adulterated state; and there are some substances which are scarcely ever to be procured genuine.—Some of these spurious compounds are comparatively harmless when used as food; and as, in these cases, merely substances of inferior value are substituted for more costly and genuine ingredients, the sophistication, though it may affect our purse, does not injure our health. Of this kind are the manufacture of factitious pepper, the adulterations of mustard, vinegar, cream, &c. Others, however, are highly deleterious; and to this class belong the adulterations
  • 42. of beer, wines, spirituous liquors, pickles, salad oil, and many others.’ pp. 2-4. There are, it appears, particular chemists who make it their sole employment to supply the unprincipled brewer of porter and ale with drugs, and other deleterious preparations; while others perform the same office to the wine and spirit merchant, as well as to the grocer and oilman—and these illicit pursuits have assumed all the order and method of a regular trade. ‘The eager and insatiable thirst for gain’ (Mr. Accum justly observes), which seems to be a leading characteristic of the times, calls into action every human faculty, and gives an irresistible impulse to the power of invention; and where lucre becomes the reigning principle, the possible sacrifice of a fellow-creature’s life is a secondary consideration.’ Mr. Accum having exhibited this general view of his subject, proceeds to enter into an examination of the articles most commonly counterfeited, and to explain the nature of the ingredients used in sophisticating them. He commences with a dissertation on the qualities of good water, in which he briefly points out the dangerous sophistications to which it is liable, from the administration of foreign ingredients. But in the case of water, the adulteration is purely accidental, which cannot be said of the other articles specified by Mr. Accum. In the making of Bread, more especially in London, various ingredients are occasionally mingled with the dough. To suit the caprice of his customers, the baker is obliged to have his bread light and porous, and of a pure white. It is impossible to produce this sort of bread from flour alone, unless it be of the finest quality. The best flour, however, being mostly used by the biscuit-bakers and pastry-cooks, it is only from the inferior sorts that bread is made; and it becomes necessary, in order to have it of that light and porous quality, and of a fine white, to mix alum with the dough. Without this ingredient, the flour used by the London bakers would not yield so white a bread as that sold in the metropolis. Wine appears to be a subject for the most extensive and pernicious frauds.
  • 43. ‘All persons (Mr. Accum observes) moderately conversant with the subject, are aware, that a portion of alum is added to young and meagre red wines, for the purpose of brightening their colour; that Brazil wood, or the husks of elderberries and bilberries, which are imported from Germany, under the fallacious name of berry-dye, are employed to impart a deep rich purple tint to red port of a pale colour; that gypsum is used to render cloudy white wines transparent; that an additional astringency is imparted to immature red wines by means of oak-wood and sawdust, and the husks of filberts; and that a mixture of spoiled foreign and home- made wines is converted into the wretched compound frequently sold in the metropolis by the name genuine old Port.’ Other expedients are resorted to, in order to give flavour to insipid wines. For this purpose bitter almonds are occasionally employed; factitious port wine is also flavoured with a tincture drawn from the seeds of raisins; and other ingredients are frequently used, such as sweet brier, orris root, clary, cherry-laurel water, and elder flowers. In London, the sophistication of wine is carried to an enormous extent, as well as the art of manufacturing spurious wine, which has become a regular trade, in which a large capital is invested; and it is well known that many thousand pipes of spoiled cider are annually sent to the metropolis for the purpose of being converted into an imitation of port wine. Innumerable are the tricks practised to deceive the unwary, by giving to weak, thin, and spoiled wines, all the characteristic marks of age, and also of flavour and strength. In carrying on these illicit occupations, the division of labour has been completely established; each has his own task assigned him in the confederate work of iniquity; and thus they acquire dexterity for the execution of their mischievous purposes. To one class is allotted the task of crusting, which consists in lining the interior surface of empty wine bottles with a red crust. This is accomplished by suffering a saturated hot solution of super-tartrate of potash, coloured red with a decoction of Brazil wood to chrystallize within them. A similar operation is frequently performed on the wooden cask which is to hold the wine, and which, in the same manner as the bottle, is artificially stained with a red crust; and on some occasions, the lower extremities of
  • 44. the corks in wine bottles are also stained red, in order to give them the appearance of having been long in contact with the wine. It is the business of a particular class of wine-coopers, by means of an astringent extract mixed with home-made and foreign wines, to produce ‘genuine old port,’ or to give an artificial flavour and colour to weak wine; while the mellowing and restoring of spoiled white wines is the occupation of another class called refiners of wine. Other deceptions are practised by fraudulent dealers, which are still more culpable. The most dangerous of these is where wine is adulterated by an admixture of lead. Mr. Accum justly observes, that the ‘merchant or dealer who practises this dangerous sophistication, adds the crime of murder to that of fraud, and deliberately scatters the seeds of disease and death among those customers who contribute to his emolument.’ Spirituous liquors, which in this country form one of the chief articles of consumption, are subjects of equally extensive fraud with wine. The deceptions which are practised by the dealers in this article, are chiefly confined to fraudulent imitations of the peculiar flavour of different sorts of spirits; and as this flavour constitutes, along with the strength, the value of the spirit, the profit of the dealer consists in imitating this quality at a cheaper rate than it is produced in the genuine spirit. The flavour of French brandy is imitated, by distilling British molasses spirit over wine lees; previous to which, however, the spirit is deprived of its peculiar disagreeable flavour, by rectification over fresh-burnt charcoal and quicklime. This operation is performed by those who are called brewers’ druggists, and forms the article in the prices-current called Spirit Flavour. Wine lees are imported into this country for the purpose, and they pay the same duty as foreign wines. Another method of imitating the flavour of brandy, which is adopted by brandy merchants, is by means of a spirit obtained from raisin wine, after it has begun to become somewhat sour. ‘Oak sawdust,’ (Mr. Accum observes), ‘and a spirituous tincture of raisin stones, are likewise used to impart to new brandy and rum a ripe taste, resembling brandy or rum long kept in oaken casks, and a somewhat oily consistence, so as to form
  • 45. a durable froth at its surface, when strongly agitated in a vial. The colouring substances are burnt sugar, or molasses; the latter gives to imitative brandy a luscious taste, and fulness in the mouth.’ Gin, which is sold in small quantities to those who judge of the strength by the taste, is made up for sale by fraudulent dealers with water and sugar; and this admixture rendering the liquor turbid, several expedients are resorted to, in order to clarify it; some of which are harmless, while others are criminal. A mixture of alum with subcarbonate of potash, is sometimes employed for this purpose; but more frequently, in place of this, a solution of subacetate of lead, and then a solution of alum,—a practice reprobated by Mr. Accum as highly dangerous, owing to the admixture of the lead with the spirit, which thereby becomes poisonous. After this operation, it is usual to give a false appearance of strength to the spirit by mixing with it grains of paradise, guinea pepper, capsicum, and other acrid and aromatic substances. In the manufacture of malt liquors, a wide field is opened for the operations of fraud. The immense quantity of the article consumed, presents an irresistible temptation to the unprincipled dealer; while the vegetable substances with which beer is adulterated, are in all cases difficult to be detected, and are frequently beyond the reach of chemical analysis. There is, accordingly, no article which is the subject of such varied and extensive frauds. These are committed in the first instance by the brewer, during the process of manufacture, and afterwards by the dealer, who deteriorates, by fraudulent intermixtures, the liquor which he sells to the consumer. ‘The intoxicating qualities of porter (he continues) are to be ascribed to the various drugs intermixed with it;’ and, as some sorts of porter are more heady than others, the difference arises, according to this author, ‘from the greater or less quantity of stupifying ingredients’ contained in it. These consist of various substances, some of which are highly deleterious. Thus, the extract disguised under the name of black extract, and ostensibly destined for the use of tanners and dyers, is obtained by boiling the berries of the cocculus indicus in water, and converting, by a subsequent evaporation, this decoction
  • 46. into a stiff black tenacious mass, possessing in a high degree the narcotic and intoxicating quality of the poisonous berry from which it is prepared. Quassia is another substance employed in place of hops, to give the beer a bitter taste; and the shavings of this wood are sold in a half torrified and ground state, in order to prevent its being recognised. Not only is the use of all these deleterious substances strictly prohibited to the brewer under severe penalties, but all druggists or grocers convicted of supplying him with any of them, or who have them in their possession, are liable to severe penalties; and Mr. Accum gives a list of twenty-nine convictions for this offence, from the year 1812 to 1819. From the year 1813 to 1819, the number of brewers prosecuted and convicted of using illegal ingredients in their breweries, amounts to thirty-four. Numerous seizures have also been made during the same period at various breweries, and in the warehouses of brewers’-druggists, of illegal ingredients, to be used in the brewing of beer, some of them highly deleterious. Malt liquors, after they are delivered by the brewer to the retail- dealer, are still destined to undergo various mutations before they reach the consumer. It is a common practice with the retailers of beer, though it be contrary to law, to mix table-beer with strong beer; and, to disguise this fraud, recourse is had to various expedients. It is a well known property of genuine beer, that when poured from one vessel into another, it bears a strong white froth, without which professed judges would not pronounce the liquor good. This property is lost, however, when table-beer is mixed with strong beer; and to restore it, a mixture of what is called beer- heading is added, composed of common green vitriol, alum, and salt. To give a pungent taste to weak insipid beer, capsicum and grains of paradise, two highly acrid substances, are employed; and, of date, a concentrated tincture of these articles has appeared for sale in the prices-current of brewers’-druggists. To bring beer forward, as it is technically called, or to make it hard, a portion of sulphuric acid is mixed with it, which, in an instant, produces an imitation of the age of eighteen months; and stale, half-spoiled, or
  • 47. sour beer, is converted into mild beer, by the simple admixture of an alkali or an alkaline earth; oyster-shell powder, and subcarbonate of potash, or soda, being usually employed for that purpose. In order to show that these deceptions are not imaginary, Mr. Accum refers to the frequent convictions of brewers for those fraudulent practices, and to the seizures which have been made at different breweries of illegal ingredients—a list of which, and of the proprietors of the breweries where they were seized, he has extracted from the Minutes of the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to Inquire into the Price and Quality of Beer. It may be observed, that while some of the sophistications of beer appear to be perfectly harmless, other substances are frequently employed for this purpose which are highly deleterious, and which must gradually undermine the health of those by whom they are used. Many other of the most ordinary articles of consumption are mentioned by our author as being the object of the most disgusting and pernicious frauds. Tea, it is well known, from the numerous convictions which have lately taken place, has been counterfeited to an enormous extent; and copper, in one form or another, is the chief ingredient made use of for effecting the imitation. The practice of adulterating coffee, has also been carried on for a long time, and to a considerable extent, while black and white pepper, Cayenne pepper, mustard, pickles of all sorts, have been all of them debased by an admixture of baser, and, in many cases, poisonous ingredients. Ground pepper is frequently sophisticated by an admixture from the sweepings of the pepper warehouses. These sweepings are purchased in the market under the initials P. D., signifying pepper dust. ‘An inferior sort of this vile refuse (Mr. Accum observes), or the sweepings of P. D., is distinguished among venders by the abbreviation of D. P. D., denoting dust, or dirt of pepper dust.’ Of those various frauds so ably exposed in Mr. Accum’s work, and which are so much the more dangerous, as they are committed under the disguise of an honourable trade, it is impossible to speak in terms of too strong reprobation; and in the first impulse of our
  • 48. indignation, we were inclined to avenge such iniquitous practices by some signal punishment. We naturally reflect, that such offences, in whatever light they are viewed, are of a far deeper dye than many of those for which our sanguinary code awards the penalty of death —and we wonder that the punishment hitherto inflicted, has been limited to a fine. If we turn our view, however, from the moral turpitude of the act, to a calm consideration of that important question, namely,—What is the most effectual method of protecting the community from those frauds?—we will then see strong reasons for preferring the lighter punishment. We do not find from experience, that offences are prevented by severe punishments. On the contrary, the crime of forgery, under the most unrelenting execution of the severe law against it, has grown more frequent. As those, therefore, by whom the offence of adulterating articles of provision is committed, are generally creditable and wealthy individuals, the infliction of a heavy fine, accompanied by public disgrace, seems a very suitable punishment: and if it be duly and reasonably applied, there is little doubt that it will be found effectual to check, and finally to root out, those disgraceful frauds.
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