ABSTRACT
On e of t h e most important problems of corporate finance is the valuation of proprietary equities. A good deal has been said and written upon the subject, chiefly from the viewpoints of buyer and seller bargaining for a going concern, and the fundamental principle governing valuation for such purposes is, generally speaking, well understood. The same principle, however, has a much wider scope; it not only explains the basic phenomena of the stock markets, but also furnishes the essential clue to a unified theory of corporate distributions.
