Return on capital employed is recognised both as a symbol of capitalism and as a calculation designed to help achieve the more effective deployment of available resources. Dating the emergence of this ‘accounting signature’ has been the subject of vigorous debate. Rob Bryer believes that calculation of the return on capital employed played a meaningful role in business life from the eighteenth century onwards whereas Steven Toms (2006, p. 206) finds scant evidence of the existence of this emblem of a capitalist mentality until ‘much later’. This paper seeks to contribute to this debate based on the contents of the Spencer Stanhope archive, Eighteenth Century Collections Online and UK Parliamentary Papers.

所用资本回报率被认为是资本主义的象征，也是一种旨在帮助更有效地部署可用资源的计算方法。这种“会计签名”出现的年代一直是激烈争论的话题。罗布·布莱尔 (Rob Bryer) 认为，从 18 世纪开始，计算所用资本回报率在商业生活中发挥了有意义的作用，而史蒂文·汤姆斯 (Steven Toms，2006，第 206 页) 直到“很久以后”才发现很少的证据表明这种资本主义心态的象征存在。 '。本文旨在根据斯宾塞·斯坦霍普档案、十八世纪在线收藏和英国议会文件的内容为这场辩论做出贡献。