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Thanks Ross.  I know that PV analysis (not perhaps by that name)  
using a discount rate can be traced back to English damage claims  
arising from the Great Fire of London.  It was used in the valuation of  
natural resources, notably forests and timber and is often ascribed in  
that usage to 19th century Germans and Austrians (perhaps influenced  
by the economists figuring in the recent discussions here), but can also  
be traced to a much earlier English usage.  (In this particular usage the  
tables are turned the Germans and Austrians getting credit really due the  
English!)  I have a citation for that history, may have posted it here  
before, and will dig it out again.   
 
My introduction to the HES list was indeed researching the accuracy of  
an attribution to Fisher of a definition of value as "the present worth  
(PV) of future benefits."  Have yet to get or find a confirmation of  
source, but assuming it is Fisher, then indeed he used PV.   
 
My specific question, however, was about the IRR concept.... the  
discount rate at which PV costs = PV revenues, i.e. NPV = O.  Do you  
know who introduced it to PV analyses?   
 
Thanks, Scott Cullen 
 
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