Bulletin HASKINS & SELLS 19
The Distortion of Surplus
SURPLUS, in its simplest conception,
signifies an accumulation of profits.
Thus, it was used probably in the earliest
balance sheets, the exact date of which history
has failed to record. In the process of
evolution, culminating in the present-day
balance sheets of corporations particularly,
it has lost much of its original significance.
Now, frequently it serves as a convenient
balancing figure, representing the excess of
