Somary’s statistical study combines a methodological analysis of corporate returns with a sectoral history of Austrian joint-stock enterprise. Its empirical investigation principally covers 1878–1899, traces company formation back to 1816, and concludes with tables of foundations and dissolutions through 1900. Banks, insurance, industry, transport, and miscellaneous enterprises receive separate treatment. Railways are excluded because their accounting differs, while incomplete earlier records constrain the historical calculation of returns.
The study begins by defining what corporate statistics should measure:
Ziel der Actienstatistik ist die Feststellung der Verzinsung des Actiencapitals.
English translation: The aim of joint-stock statistics is the ascertainment of the yield on share capital.
This objective requires reconstructing shareholders’ economic benefits and losses rather than simply aggregating reported profits. Published accounts employ inconsistent classifications, so their figures cannot be treated as immediately comparable.
Den zweiten Fehler der heute üblichen Methode sehen wir darin, dass auf die verschiedene Abfassung der Bilanzen keine Rücksicht genommen wird.
English translation: We see the second defect of the method customary today in the fact that no account is taken of the differing manner in which balance sheets are drawn up.
Somary therefore treats extraordinary depreciation as an expense even where shareholder approval places it among appropriations of profit. Bonuses, remuneration, and pension-fund contributions likewise require consistent classification as administrative costs. Comparability is an analytical achievement, not an inherent property of balance sheets.
Dividends are similarly inadequate as a measure of returns. Reserve accumulation benefits shareholders when earned, not merely when distributed; reserve depletion must register when losses occur. Earlier losses and their subsequent repayment should remain visible in their respective years rather than disappear through retrospective cancellation. Subscription rights and liquidation gains supplement dividends and reserve gains, while deficits, capital write-downs, and losses on liquidation or bankruptcy reduce the result.
Solche Abstempelungen bedeuten entschieden für die Actionäre einen Verlust.
English translation: Such stampings-down of shares (Abstempelungen) decidedly mean a loss for the shareholders.
Recognizing capital reductions prevents nominal adjustments from concealing shareholders’ losses. Failed enterprises must also remain within the statistical reckoning, especially in crisis years. Somary supplements ordinary accounts with tables of liquidations, recording paid-in capital and liquidation proceeds. The resulting net gains are related first to paid-in dividend-bearing capital plus premiums and then separately to market valuations. High returns on original investment need not imply equally attractive yields at current share prices.
The sectoral investigations demonstrate the consequences of these distinctions. Banks yield 8½ percent on invested capital and insurers 13.3 percent, but their market-based returns are approximately 5.7 and 5 percent. Industry averages 5.27 percent, concealing substantial disparities: gas companies earn 16.6 percent, construction companies virtually nothing, and steam mills incur losses despite paying dividends. Dividend payments can thus sustain an appearance of prosperity unsupported by an enterprise’s overall performance.
Somary links these findings to industry-specific explanations and policy judgments. The unusually high profits and limited losses of gasworks support municipal ownership. Competitive underbidding helps explain construction losses, Hungarian competition the decline of steam mills, and cartel arrangements the divergent fortunes of sugar refiners and raw-sugar factories. He advocates assistance for small sugar enterprises threatened by concentration, while acknowledging that family ownership and unreliable accounts restrict the reach of joint-stock statistics. The inherited official classification also obscures newer industries, including electricity, within a miscellaneous category.
The historical synthesis balances the destruction associated with 1873 against the productive foundations established during the preceding boom. The years 1866–1873 generated extensive company formation but disproportionate failures. Recovery remained protracted: Austrian corporate capital in 1899 still stood below its 1873 peak. Comparison with Germany reveals slower Austrian expansion and increasing average company size, which Somary connects with the disappearance of small enterprises, mergers, and restricted competition.
His aggregate return of 6.75 percent exceeds the customary 4 percent on “safe” investments, a comparison he considers warranted because his calculation includes losses. This favorable assessment remains qualified by sector: weak textile and milling results reflect industrial decline, whereas mining, sugar, and construction expose difficulties with the joint-stock form itself. The study makes judgments about corporate organization depend on reconstructed shareholder outcomes—including reserves, failures, and capital losses—rather than dividends or reported profits alone.
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