Some of you may have read the authorized edition, some may even have read the pirated edition because this seminal book has been translated into 35 languages, besides at least two pirated editions. In the non-pirated editions, it has sold more than a million copies worldwide.
It is an exceptionally important market value that in principle is capitalized on a balance sheet as goodwill. Reputation and trust were particularly valued assets in freewheeling nineteenth-century America. Throughout much of that century, laissez-faire reigned and caveat emptor was the prevailing prescription for guarding against the wide-open trading practices of those years. A reputation for honest dealings was thus a particularly valued asset.