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The Accounting Historians Journal
Vol. 22, No. 2
December 1995
Keith Hooper
UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO
THE CELY SHIPPING ACCOUNTS:
ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE
TRANSITION FROM ORAL TO
WRITTEN RECORDS
Abstract: The records of a voyage from London to Bordeaux during
1486-87 are reviewed. The voyage was the first of a regular pattern of
trading voyages conducted on behalf of the Cely family who traded
English wheat and wool for Bordeaux wine. This family were fifteenth
century London merchants whose accounts and other papers
are held by the London Public Record Office. Secondary sources are
used to show that by the late fifteenth century many English merchants
were attracted to overseas trade, which despite considerable
risks, offered the prospect of a good return.
The paper illustrates some features of medieval accounting, especially
the problem of accountability and control, when direct oversight
was not possible. The expansion of English shipping and overseas
trade was accompanied by the development of written records
and the replacement of oral systems of accountability common in
feudal England.
The Cely family were London wool and wheat merchants
who, in 1486, ventured into ship-owning and the Bordeaux
wine-trade. Accounts relating to their first voyage survive, and
useful records of the two following voyages exist.1 The accounts
are of interest because they were written English at a time when
an educated minority wrote in Latin and, more importantly,
occurred during the period of transition from oral to written
1The Cely papers came into the possession of the Public Record Office as
the result of a dispute in 1489, between Richard Cely and the widow of his
brother, George, over payments of debts arising from the brothers' joint trading
ventures. Thus the accounts were collected as evidence to pursue a suit in the
Court of Chancery. The documents studied are from a set of transcriptions made
by Dr A H Hanham from original letters, accounts and memoranda now assembled
in the Public Record Office, London. The collection comprises two
volumes of letters and seven files of accounts and memoranda (Chancery
Miscellania, C.47, Bundle 37, Files 10-16.
Submitted July 1994
Revised April 1995
Accepted August 1995
