ABSTRACT
Mr. R. S. Edwards general views as to the nature of costs are, of course, based on theory that has come to be widely accepted by economists. Mr. Edwards has made explicit what has hitherto been only implicit in accounting literature. He has attached fundamental importance to limitations that have usually been dismissed as trivial. He points out, the long period and the short period must be carefully differentiated; an expense may be part of the prime cost of running a factory for a year, and yet be an oncost so far as any minor piece of work is concerned. He explains the situation accurately and indeed adds that many true prime costs are, because of their smallness, not worthy of separate treatment among the direct expenses, and so must, for the sake of convenience, be classed with the oncosts. Clearly, his theories can be adequately weighed only by persons who are willing to think in terms of economic analysis.
