ABSTRACT
Limperg’s suggestion that any holding losses were to be charged to a special reserve account, Wertberichtigungsconto or rekening voor prijsverschillen, until the balance has been exhausted, with any residue then to be charged to the profit and loss account, begs the inference that his approach was more pragmatic, and certainly less systematic, than that of Schmidt. The aforementioned similarities and differences are examined, with recourse, initially to Schmidt: However, if these losses are only phantom losses, such as occur when the value in the buyers’ market goes down, for instance, this might lead to unemployment and production stoppages, which are not justified economically. Both Limperg and Schmidt were systematic, deductive thinkers whose premises were taken from their casual observations of business affairs. In this regard their methods of analysis, at least in Europe, were seminal.
