Capitalism and the return on capital employed. Some further evidence
本文通过分析Spencer Stanhope档案、18世纪在线馆藏和英国议会文件，探讨资本回报率作为资本主义象征的出现时间，回应了关于其是否在18世纪就已发挥重要作用的学术争论。
Return on capital employed is recognised both as a symbol of capitalism and as a calculation designed to help achieve the more effective deployment of available resources. Dating the emergence of this ‘accounting signature’ has been the subject of vigorous debate. Rob Bryer believes that calculation of the return on capital employed played a meaningful role in business life from the eighteenth century onwards whereas Steven Toms (2006, p. 206) finds scant evidence of the existence of this emblem of a capitalist mentality until ‘much later’. This paper seeks to contribute to this debate based on the contents of the Spencer Stanhope archive, Eighteenth Century Collections Online and UK Parliamentary Papers.