Accounting History for students

History of Bookkeeping and Accounting Scribe - Sakkara about 2500 BC (Louvre) The Ancient World Medieval Developments Industrial Revolution The “Near East” – Cradle of Civilization Ancient Names      Sumeria Assyria Mesopotamia Babylon Persia Dawn of Civilization    Transition from hunter/gather to farmer Jordan River Valley Jericho – Oldest fortified city discovered so far  Artifacts date back some 10,000 years! “Jerry of Jericho” The First Inventory Scribe - Sakkara about 2500 BC (Louvre)  Who was the first accountant?   Someone who needed to keep track of what was stored in temple or king’s granary? Must “writing” come before record keeping? Which came first – writing or numbers?  Dr Gunter Dreyer of the German Institute of Archaeology is perhaps the most prominent of a number of archeologists who believe that writing actually developed out of early marks that were used to tally the kinds and amounts of goods in stock at ancient warehouses Earliest writing = inventory control!   Dr Dreyer recently discovered numerous inscribed bone labels attached to bags of oil and linen in the tomb of King Scorpion I at Abydos, Egypt The labels date back 5300 years, are the world's earliest known writing, and describe inventory owners, amounts, and suppliers One of the Oldest Professions!  In ancient Egypt, the accountant was called the "eyes and ears" of the king Simple Token System  Simple token system did not require abstract concepts of numbers, writing or money!  Envelope & tokens - Susa, 3300 BC (Lourve) Token system expanded – used as evidence of transactions  Clay “envelopes” date from around 4000 BC in Sumeria Accounting pre-dates writing!  Complex tokens evolved about 3700 BC   Use of lines, notches and other markings used as abstract representations of wealth and the development of numbers Evolved into cuneiform Accounting records on pre-cuneiform tablet (Louvre) Invention of Money Coins appear to be a simultaneous but independent development at about the same time in China, India, and Greece First coin of India (?) Before 5th Century BC Minted in Madhyadesha?, found near Mathura Silver unit Seven punch marks Weight: 7.14 gm Numismatic Digest # 22 Rare http://www.med.unc.edu/~nupam/ancient1.html Invention of Coins – around 630BC  Castulo AE30 Augustus' (?) portrait right / Helmeted Sphinx right, star before, Iberian legend in ex - photos from http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sg/sg0015.html Ancient Greece  The public economy of the Athenians had a highly developed system of accounting & auditing  Treasurer or manager of Public Revenue  Accounts kept by clerks and controlled by “checking clerks”  Accountability assured by public exposure of accounts on stone Ancient Rome  Practices of private life led to public accounting process    Transactions were first entered in a “day book” (memorandum or “adversaria” in Latin) Monthly, the entries were transferred to the ledger (“codex tabulae”)  The codex could be used in court to substantiate contracts and claims In government – separation of responsibilities China  Accounting largely used to evaluate efficiency of governmental programs and civil servants  To date, no evidence of double-entry bookkeeping before introduction from west in 1800s The Rise of Double Entry Crusades – demand for exotic goods Genoa-Venice-Florence: A Commercial Revolution Littleton’s Antecedents of Bookkeeping Private property (power to change ownership) Capital (wealth productively employed) Commerce (exchange of goods) Credit (present use of future goods) Writing Money Arithmetic   The antecedents then require: A methodology (a plan to systematically rendering the material into the language) The Father of Accounting: Fra Luca Pacioli  Traditional   He was born in 1445 in Sansepolcro, Italy A dedicated Franciscan, he showed a passion for mathematics Did not invent double entry – but wrote the most influential early “textbook” 1494 – The Summa   The treatise’s official title: "Summma de Arithmetica, Geometria: Proportioni et Proportionalita" One section of the book was devoted to methods of recording merchant transactions, including ideas about double-entry bookkeeping Numbers in Medieval Bookkeeping  Even though the Italian merchants calculated with Arabic numerals as early as the 13th century, Roman figures dominated in their account books until the late 15th century (but with decreasing frequency)   Use of Roman numerals persisted in northern Europe even longer as double entry moved north gradually The prolonged use of the ’old’ writing style is mostly explained by with the general belief of the contemporaries that the Roman were forgery-proof Sombart’s Theory (1924)  Double entry bookkeeping was such a powerful tool that it made possible the new social and economic system which we call capitalism  “chicken and egg” arguments! Rise of Cost Accounting  Josiah Wedgwood – Entrepreneur & Cost Accountant  1770-2 financially difficult times with dropping demand and rising inventories  Found head clerk had been embezzling  Began looking at costs of materials and labor & allocated overhead costs  Discovered economies of scale – importance of volume  Started differential pricing – elite vs mass-market  New manufacturing equipment introduced The Abacus  The Abacus is an ingenious counting device based on the relative positions of two sets of beads moving on parallel strings The first set contains five beads on each string and allows counting from to 5, while the second set has only two beads per string representing the numbers and 10 The Abacus system seems to be based on a radix of five Using a radix of five makes sense since humans started counting objects on their fingers http://www.xnumber.com/xn umber/mechanical1.htm00 The Exchequer  in British history, the government department that was responsible for receiving and dispersing the public revenue The word derives from the Latin scaccarium, “chessboard,” in reference to the checkered cloth on which the reckoning of revenues took place Technology Changes What’s Possible in Accounting  William Seward Burroughs invented and patented the first workable adding machine in 1885 in St Louis, Mo  Production increased dramatically after 1900