THE STORY OF ARTIFICIAL SILK 
original shareholders 5,500 per cent. For 
every pound they put in, they now have 
£55. 
The net profits in 1927 were £4,585,000. 
The reserves are £12,000,000. And the 
present market value of the shares is now 
more than £110,000.000. 
In 1927 it paid a bonus of £12,000,000 to 
its shareholders. It is the only British firm 
that has ever given its shareholders so large 
a bonus. Several years previously, it gave a 
bonus of £8,000,000. Altogether, it has paid 
five bonuses to its shareholders, on top of a 
25 per cent., tax free, dividend. 
The biggest and most joyous boom on the 
London Stock Exchange ‘in 1927 was caused 
by this Courtauld bonus. The Courtauld 
shares leapt up in value £12,000,000 in a 
single day. A feeling of confidence and 
optimism was created by this bonus such as 
Great Britain has not known since the pre-war 
days. 
In 1913 the capital of Courtaulds was only 
£200,000. Its shares were selling at 32s. 
apiece. If any foreseeing man had bought 
I,000 shares at that time, he could now sell 
~4