Reference
HF41/7/13
Title
Accounts produced as evidence in the Case in the 1890s
Scope and Content
The Accounts of E.Powers & Sons by T.Preston.
These notes were prepared to help the searcher understand the accounts of the firm found under the reference HF41/7/13/1-12. They were used as evidence in Manisty v Archdale.
The firm's financial year appears to have ended on about 17th September . It was losing money throughout almost the whole of the period covered by these accounts ie 1862-1884. However losses of a few hundred pounds in the 1860s became losses of £8,000 or £9,000 in the disastrous period, beginning with the financial year 1869-1870 until 1871-1872.
Thereafter there was a modest recovery, although the firm was scarcely in a position of financial health. Powers & Sons almost broke even in 1872-1873 and actually made a profit in the following year. This happy circumstance did not recur. Between 1873-1874 and 1879-1880 the balance added to the Credit side of the Ledger (ie the cumulative shortfall between money coming in and money going out rose from £31,530 to £43,800. The firm must have been on the brink of collapse at this point and was very probably saved from Bankruptcy by an injection of cash of £30,358, received from Edmund Powers in the first month of the new financial year
As it was the millers remained in business for a few years more, though the losses continued unabated, at about £2,000 in 1881-1882, £2,750 in 1882-1883 and nearly £8,000 in 1883-1884. This was the last full financial year covered by these accounts, ending on 17th September but the accounts themselves continued for another month to 20th October, when a final balance was given. This showed that the negative balance had risen by £320 to £25,066 in the last month of operations.
Though the millers' downfall occurred in the period of the Agricultural Depression, comparing the available figures for wheat prices with the fluctuation in the firm's financial position from year to year, does not show a close correlation between them.
The Ledger accounts mainly record only a surname beside the amount of a payment made by Powers & Sons. Some can be identified as farming in the Biggleswade area. Lindsell, the Banker and Hooper, Solicitor provided the firm with professional services. Descriptions of Receipts are even less informative; in the majority of cases simply recording "Cash", followed by the amount.
Edmund Powers personal accounts show a more favourable picture, though they may be misleading in trying to form an overall impression of his financial affairs. At any rate he accumulated a steadily increasing positive balance up to 1875, when it stood at £31,531. Thereafter it altered very little, standing at £31,599 at the end of these accounts, being only slightly more than the payment recorded in the company ledgers, as made by him to the firm in November 1880.
Level of description
file