Richard P. Brief, "The Origin and Evolution of Nineteenth-Century Asset Accounting," Business History Review 40 (Spring 1966): 1-23.
Klein, Jay Gould, 274-75, 306.
Testimony of Jay Gould, May 19, 1887, PRC, 1:588.
For actual costs, Testimony of James W. Davis, June 21, 1887, PRC,3:1087.
The best American bar iron was running between $146 (its peak) a ton in 1865 and $75 in 1870. Pig iron ran between a little under $60 to a little under $40 during this same period. Ties usually ran 25 to 50 cents.
See, e.g., Robert Fogel, The Union Pacific: A Case in Premature Enterprise
Charles Francis Adams, "Railroad Inflation," North American Review 108 (Jan. 1869): 143-50.
Klein, Union Pacific, 38-39.