261·1346 ... A’s share £261.2.8¼ 84·1231 ... B’s ... 84.2.5¾ 166·3697 ... C’s ... 166.7.4¾ -------- ------------- 511·6274 £511.2.6¾ If ever the fraction of a farthing be wanted, remember that the _coinage_-result is larger than the decimal of a pound, when we use only three places. From 1000 times the decimal take 4 per cent, and we get the exact number of farthings, and we need only look at the decimal then left to set the preceding right. Thus, in 134·6 123·1 369·7 5·38 4·92 14·79 ----- ------ ------ ·22 ·18 ·91 we see that (if we use four decimals only) the pence of the above results are nearly 8_d._ ·22 of a farthing, 5½_d._ ·18, and 4½_d._ ·91. A man can pay £2376. 4. 4½, his debts being £3293. 11. 0¾. How much per cent can he pay, and how much in the pound? 3293·553)2376·2180(·7214756 70·7309 4·8598 1·5662 2488 183 18 _Answer_, £72. 2.11½ per cent. 0.14.5¼ per pound. APPENDIX VII. ON THE MAIN PRINCIPLE OF BOOK-KEEPING. A brief notice of the principle on which accounts are kept (when they are _properly_ kept) may perhaps be useful to students who are learning book-keeping, as the treatises on that subject frequently give too little in the way of explanation. Any person who is engaged in business must desire to know accurately, whenever an investigation of the state of his affairs is made. 1, What he had at the commencement of the account, or immediately after the last investigation was made; 2, What he has gained and lost in the interval in all the several branches of his business; 3, What he is now worth. From the first two of these things he obviously knows the third. In the interval between two investigations, he may at any one time desire to know how any one account stands. An _account_ is a recital of all that has happened, in reference to any class of dealings, since the last investigation. It can only consist of receipts and expenditures, and so it is said to have two sides, a _debtor_ and a _creditor_ side. All accounts are kept in _money_. If goods be bought, they are estimated by the money paid for them. If a debtor give a bill of exchange, being a promise to pay a certain sum at a certain time, it is put down as worth that sum of money. All the tools, furniture, horses, &c. used in the business are rated at their value in money. All the actual coin, bank-notes, &c., which are in or come in, being the only money in the books which really is money, is called _cash_.