Reckoning boards;Tallies;Accounting machines -- History
How could our ancestors do accounting while they were still illiterate and had no paper? The answer is that they used the tally and the checkerboard. In medieval Europe, the tally was normally a short stick on which notches were cut to represent...
This bibliography is a continuation of those published in R. H. Parker (ed.) Bibliographies for Accounting Historians (New York, Arno Press, 1980). It has been drawn up upon the same principles and the arrangement is the same. Most items date from...
As the revolution in computing advances, it is appropriate to step back and look at the earliest practical aid to computation?? abacus. Its formal western origins lie with the Greeks and the expansion of trade in the seventh century BC, and its...
Inquiry into the origin of double entry accounting has typically focused on form as the causal factor. In the present article the arguments supporting this view are reviewed and challenged by developing the substantive framework of double entry...
Giovanni Farolfi and Co.;Farolfi (Giovanni) and Co.;Bookkeeping -- History
This article examines the branch ledger of a Florentine firm in 13th century Provence, and its relationship to contemporaneous Tuscan account books. It is concluded that the ledger was part of a sophisticated accounting system, with a debit and...
Numerals -- History;Accounting -- History;Bookkeeping -- History
The general adoption of "Arabic" numerals by European bookkeepers occurred at least five hundred years after their introduction to the scholarly world. The early availability yet late adoption of this numeration is shown to be due to several...