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Retail merchants, in buying goods by wholesale, buy a great many articles by the dozen, such as boots and shoes, hats and caps, and notions of various kinds; now the merchant, in buying, for instance, a dozen hats, knows exactly what one of these hats will retail for in the market where he deals; and unless he is a good accountant, it will often take him some time to determine whether he can afford to purchase the dozen hats and make a living profit by selling them by the single hat; and in buying his goods by auction, as the merchant often does, he has not time to make the calculation before the goods are bid off. He therefore loses the chance of making good bargains by being afraid to bid at random, or if he bids, and the goods are cried off, he may have made a poor bargain by bidding thus at a venture. It then becomes a useful and practical problem to determine instantly what per cent. he would gain if he retailed the hat at a certain price, to tell what an article should retail for to make a profit of 20 per cent.

Rule.—Divide what the articles cost per dozen by 10. which is done by removing the decimal point one place to the left.

For instance, if hats cost $17.50 per dozen, remove the decimal point one place to the left, making $1.75, what they should be sold for apiece to gain 20 per cent, on the cost. If they cost $31.00 per dozen, they should be sold at $3.10 apiece, etc.