ABSTRACT
The question as to whether 'Costs are the best basis for estimating and fixing selling prices' is one of these insidious questions full of trap-holes for anyone who attempts to answer it by a direct negative or affirmative. We could regulate the selling prices by the costs, and the question as to whether this was the best basis of estimating and fixing selling prices would become one of practical politics. Despite the theory and often accepted practice of buying in the cheapest market, the author believes few business men would defend such a system if they imagined that it implied buying under cost with possibly ultimate wrecking of the industry. Costs are, however, one of the factors which can to some extent be translated into pounds, shillings and pence, and to the extent to which they can be so predetermined they form a valuable basis upon which to either appraise unremunerative prices or to estimate or fix profitable selling prices.
