there are remarks about the cost per unit of raw soda. The direc­ tors were well aware that production level and cost per unit were in inverse ratio: . . . this year we produced 448 000 d: more than the pre­ ceding year; therefore, the overheads for salaries and in­ terests contribute to the cost per unit proportionately less. Allocation of overhead. The allocation of overhead costs was discussed during four meetings of the Board of Directors: March 7 and 13, 1832; August 20, 1833; September 4, 1834.10 The members of the Board discussed the allocation of overheads between glass and chemical products. At the first meeting, on March 7, 1832, it was reported: The Administration (of the Company) has decided that the overheads accounts of every branch will be divided in accordance with the production as shown on the books; each product {produits speciaux) will be charged with its own direct expenses (frais speciaux). At the meeting the next week (March 13, 1832), the record indi­ cates that overhead cost allocation was again discussed: It has been pointed out to the Board of Directors by one of the members that the preceding decree, dividing over­ head expenses in accordance with each factory's produc­ tion stated by its books, could entail serious drawbacks; for example, in a year of very low sales, it we stop the production and only sell glass in stock, we should be obliged to make the chemical products bear all the over­ head expenses, which means a considerable increase in their cost prices and gives us a wrong image of them. He (the member of the B. of D.) thinks it much more conve­ nient to divide the overhead expenses in accordance with the fixed capital involved in each one of the two factories, as shown by the general inventory, capital to which we add the required working capital; with such a manner of distribution, each factory would bear its own part of overheads required by the supervision and administration of its capital. In the above-mentioned case of a factory's producing next to nothing, we would have to state a loss for that factory, which is quite normal.