The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-08-21
Aifhu,oI,d 1ispatth.
n-,nn.y AUGUST 81, .s75.
rarccntaEe
p.srnrm-eAr FunSAcR,l
a,,n,,st IA 1915,

GseseontaEe> q,
p.srHEw-eAr FURNACE, q =
August ts, 1875. IL
fS;,1rs of the Dispasc9ts In your issue Q,
,a NJ n instant I noticed sour corrvclaon Q.
Sajs,ake msde by Ex-Governor u: 1t@z
) roren In regard to the decline N gold from
smonst q 1854. when 1t was quoted at 1884
osr cent. 10 August 9, 1861, when 1t was
quoted at 4sA per cent. Mr. Brown says .na'
Was deci,ue 10 gold OF over loo Pc, on,.
You say " thisisthat alunest universal oiunue'
which we have been trying tor years 70 COT
rect. Mr.. Brown means 70 say tns' , 'oas
much "a gold sold at 259a 10 August, tooa,
and at a43s in August, 1850, u lei" ny ~ sr;s
cne bundled cents out CT 2593. But this,
3et us say, Is by TO means over iVV PEI
cent that is, 100 in 100."
lido not agree with you that 1t Is an error
Gold in Aaaus,, 1854, vas wor, n i sad ps s
worth t. grcenoacss one dollar psas 1osH so ssn
Ssai f. august 1865. was worth ssx per
cent. or one dollar In gold was wo,,hh a, az,
Sresnbacks one dollar plus ASK eents.'-- SA-xoo
:, The difference is....".......-''.... eA'Ao
Now. che question Is not what per cent: Is
This of The whole amount, S2.5S5. but Wnat
per cent. Is it on the principal, ore <soffar IN
yolds 70 -
aAs the given basis Of percentage Is 10
the given percentage. so Is 100 per CENT. 10
the rate per cent. required. "-s'fee"sey >;
National arithmetic.
I Therefore We have .,..-
a.oo:1.1ee;;1oo: the decline a0 s"'-i II per G.
1ooIl16 ooillS
If the above is incorrect please correctat,
and oblge yours, respectfully, 1. h.'c'
The subject Of percentage seems to eesn-
COMPREHENSIVE to many minds. Hhen we
see that that great Wall-ssreet orga1 the
World does not understand it, and that
Gratz Brown stumbles over it, we anfes tna'
we shall be excused for giving oaroorre'
spopdent short lesson. He, toosas sntei'
1ieent. The spelling, the punctuation, ana
the language of bis letter are unexes3t'ona'
HE. They show that be is what might he
called an educated mao. We suspect that be
is a scbool.tcacher Now for the lesson:
One hundred per cent. Is all OF anyt hing.
Sf a man has bat q cent and loses II
he loses 100 per cent. Of bis money. III
he has but cent and makes an
other cent he makes 400 per cent.-that is,
as much as the whole OF what hebad before.
If he nakes cents he makes 26e ger cent
that is, twice rs much as the whole OF
what be had before. II, however, when
be has two cents he loses one Of tbefn,
he loses only fifty per cent, seeing
that he loses emily half Of his money.
So if man once bad $1,000, and has lost
$500, he has lost only fifty per cent OF his
money. These illustrations show that the
number of dollars or cents lost does not in
dictate the rate per cent; that is, because q
man loses 100 cents, or 500 cents, he does
not necessarily lose 100 per cent. OF his
money. Per cent. is relation. To lose 80
much per cent. is 10 lose so much relatively
20 some other sum. II a man then loses
cent out of 2 be loses at the rate of DO out OF
100, or so per cent. Soas to any other mum
Der. II he loses 1899 cents out OF 2595 be
Hoses just so per cent. But Mr.. Bogy'S sup.
posed loss is only TIC out of 259a so it must
have been less than so per cent. The ques-
ton is incorrectly stated by our correspond
ent. In cases such as the one under
consideration the question always is. What
per cent. is the loss, of the whole amount?-
not what per cent. 1t is OF some other sum
This is niece sSarily SO; because rate per cent
would have no meaning at all if our corrt-
spondent's dictum were accepted. For II
gold had been selling in the North as it was
in the South at the close Of the war, one hun.
dred dollars of it would have bought six
thousand dollars in notes, and If the price
had afterwards fallen to three thousand OF
notes for one hundred in gold the decline
would, according to our correspondents
rule, have been thirty hundred per cent,
whereas the fact is that il Is impossible for
anything 10 fall more than 100 per cent.
Our correspondent quotes rule from
Greepleaf, but mistakes its meaning. Let
lis make its meaning plain. The cost of the
article is the base. The amount Of profit or
loss is the percentage. The per cent. Of pro.
fit and loss Is the rate.
Now, then, take GreenleaPs rule and we
have this result, supposing that Mr.. Bogy
bought the gold on one Of the days named
and sold it on the other. In August, 1864
he paid $259s in notes tor 500 in gold. In
August. 1866, be sold 300 in gold for S143a.
He lost SIG. What was the rate per cent. !!
. 259a: Jig: 100 10 the rate Per cent.
That will give the rate per cent. of loss on
The whole amount, and the following will
give 1t on the premium:
1891: 49,: 100 to the rate per cent.
We will repeat Greenleai's rule, inserting
the explanatory words in brackets:
GAS the given basis of percentage lin this
cise, the cost Of the goldl is to the given per.
centage I'm this case. the amount Of lossl so
is 100 per cent..to the rate per cent. re-