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    History of Accounting

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    The history of accounting began in ancient Mesopotamia over 7,000 years ago where records of expenditures and goods were kept related to temple activities. Early accounting developed alongside writing, counting, and the use of money. By the Roman Empire, the government had detailed financial records and the role of accountants expanded. Double-entry bookkeeping was later introduced in Italy in the 15th century and accounting transitioned into a modern profession in the 19th century with the formation of professional bodies.

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    History of Accounting

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    Ronald
    185 views5 pages
    The history of accounting began in ancient Mesopotamia over 7,000 years ago where records of expenditures and goods were kept related to temple activities. Early accounting developed alongside writing, counting, and the use of money. By the Roman Empire, the government had detailed financial records and the role of accountants expanded. Double-entry bookkeeping was later introduced in Italy in the 15th century and accounting transitioned into a modern profession in the 19th century with the formation of professional bodies.

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    The history of accounting began in ancient Mesopotamia over 7,000 years ago where records of expenditures and goods were kept related to temple activities. Early accounting developed alongside writing, counting, and the use of money. By the Roman Empire, the government had detailed financial records and the role of accountants expanded. Double-entry bookkeeping was later introduced in Italy in the 15th century and accounting transitioned into a modern profession in the 19th century with the formation of professional bodies.

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    185 views5 pages

    History of Accounting

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    Ronald
    The history of accounting began in ancient Mesopotamia over 7,000 years ago where records of expenditures and goods were kept related to temple activities. Early accounting developed alongside writing, counting, and the use of money. By the Roman Empire, the government had detailed financial records and the role of accountants expanded. Double-entry bookkeeping was later introduced in Italy in the 15th century and accounting transitioned into a modern profession in the 19th century with the formation of professional bodies.

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    History of accounting

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    Portrait of Luca Pacioli, attributed to Jacopo de' Barbari, 1495, (Museo di Capodimonte).

    The history of accounting or accountancy can be traced to ancient civilizations.[1][2][3]


    The early development of accounting dates to ancient Mesopotamia, and is closely
    related to developments in writing, counting and money[1][4][5] and early auditing systems
    by the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians.[2] By the time of the Roman Empire,
    the government had access to detailed financial information. [6]
    In India Chanakya wrote a manuscript similar to a financial management book, during
    the period of the Mauryan Empire. His book "Arthashasthra" contains few detailed
    aspects of maintaining books of accounts for a Sovereign State.
    The Italian Luca Pacioli, recognized as The Father of accounting and bookkeeping was
    the first person to publish a work on double-entry bookkeeping, and introduced the field
    in Italy.[7][8]
    The modern profession of the chartered accountant originated in Scotland in the
    nineteenth century. Accountants often belonged to the same associations as solicitors,
    who often offered accounting services to their clients. Early modern accounting had
    similarities to today's forensic accounting. Accounting began to transition into an
    organized profession in the nineteenth century, [9] with local professional bodies in
    England merging to form the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and
    Wales in 1880.[10]

    Contents

     1Ancient history
    o 1.1Early development of accounting
    o 1.2Expansion of the role of the accountant
     2Roman empire
     3Medieval and renaissance periods
    o 3.1Double-entry bookkeeping
    o 3.2The Renaissance cultural context
    o 3.3Financial and management accounting
     4Modern professional accounting
     5See also
     6References
     7Further reading
    o 7.1United States
    o 7.2Historiography
     8External links

    Ancient history[edit]

    Globular envelope (known as a Bulla) with a cluster of accountancy tokens, Uruk period, 4000-3100 B.C.E,
    from Susa. Louvre Museum

    Early development of accounting[edit]


    See also: History of mathematics, History of writing, and History of money
    Accounting records dating back more than 7,000 years have been found
    in Mesopotamia,[11] and documents from ancient Mesopotamia show lists
    of expenditures, and goods received and traded.[1] The development of accounting,
    along with that of money and numbers, may be related to the taxation and trading
    activities of temples:
    "another part of the explanation as to why accounting employs the numerical metaphor
    is [...] that money, numbers and accounting are interrelated and, perhaps, inseparable
    in their origins: all emerged in the context of controlling
    goods, stocks and transactions in the temple economy of Mesopotamia." [1]
    The early development of accounting was closely related to developments
    in writing, counting, and money. In particular, there is evidence that a key step in the
    development of counting—the transition from concrete to abstract counting—was
    related to the early development of accounting and money and took place in
    Mesopotamia[1]
    Other early accounting records were also found in the ruins of
    ancient Babylon, Assyria and Sumer, which date back more than 7,000 years. The
    people of that time relied on primitive accounting methods to record the growth of crops
    and herds. Because there was a natural season to farming and herding, it was easy to
    count and determine if a surplus had been gained after the crops had been harvested or
    the young animals weaned.[11]
    Expansion of the role of the accountant[edit]
    Between the 4th millennium BC and the 3rd millennium BC, the ruling leaders and
    priests in ancient Iran had people oversee financial matters. In Godin Tepe (‫)گدین تپه‬
    and Tepe Yahya (‫)تپه يحيی‬, cylindrical tokens that were used for bookkeeping on clay
    scripts were found in buildings that had large rooms for storage of crops. In Godin
    Tepe's findings, the scripts only contained tables with figures, while in Tepe Yahya's
    findings, the scripts also contained graphical representations. [4] The invention of a form
    of bookkeeping using clay tokens represented a huge cognitive leap for mankind.[5]
    During the 2nd millennium BC,[12] the expansion of commerce and business expanded
    the role of the accountant. The Phoenicians invented a phonetic alphabet "probably for
    bookkeeping purposes", based on the Egyptian hieratic script, and there is evidence
    that an individual in ancient Egypt held the title "comptroller of the scribes". There is
    also evidence for an early form of accounting in the Old Testament; for example
    the Book of Exodus describes Moses engaging Ithamar to account for the materials that
    had been contributed towards the building of the tabernacle.[2]
    By about the 4th century BC, the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians had auditing
    systems for checking movement in and out of storehouses, including oral "audit
    reports", resulting in the term "auditor" (from audire, to hear in Latin). The importance of
    taxation had created a need for the recording of payments, and the Rosetta Stone also
    includes a description of a tax revolt.[2]

    Roman empire[edit]
    Part of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti from the Monumentum Ancyranum (Temple of Augustus and Rome)
    at Ancyra, built between 25 BCE - 20 BCE.

    By the time of Emperor Augustus (63 BC - AD 14), the Roman government had access


    to detailed financial information as evidenced by the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (Latin:
    "The Deeds of the Divine Augustus"). The inscription was an account to the Roman
    people of the Emperor Augustus' stewardship, and listed and quantified his public
    expenditure, including distributions to the people, grants of land or money to army
    veterans, subsidies to the aerarium (treasury), building of temples, religious offerings,
    and expenditures on theatrical shows and gladiatorial games, covering a period of about
    forty years. The scope of the accounting information at the emperor's disposal suggests
    that its purpose encompassed planning and decision-making. [6]
    The Roman historians Suetonius and Cassius Dio record that in 23
    BC, Augustus prepared a rationarium (account) which listed public revenues, the
    amounts of cash in the aerarium (treasury), in the provincial fisci (tax officials), and in
    the hands of the publicani (public contractors); and that it included the names of the
    freedmen and slaves from whom a detailed account could be obtained. The closeness
    of this information to the executive authority of the emperor is attested by Tacitus'
    statement that it was written out by Augustus himself.[13]
    Records of cash, commodities, and transactions were kept scrupulously by military
    personnel of the Roman army. An account of small cash sums received over a few days
    at the fort of Vindolanda circa AD 110 shows that the fort could compute revenues in
    cash on a daily basis, perhaps from sales of surplus supplies or goods manufactured in
    the camp, items dispensed to slaves such as cervesa (beer) and clavi
    caligares (nails for boots), as well as commodities bought by individual soldiers. The
    basic needs of the fort were met by a mixture of direct production, purchase and
    requisition; in one letter, a request for money to buy 5,000 modii (measures)
    of braces (a cereal used in brewing) shows that the fort bought provisions for a
    considerable number of people.[14]
    The Heroninos Archive is the name given to a huge collection of papyrus documents,
    mostly letters, but also including a fair number of accounts, which come from Roman
    Egypt in 3rd century AD. The bulk of the documents relate to the running of a large,
    private estate[15] is named after Heroninos because he was phrontistes (Koine
    Greek: manager) of the estate which had a complex and standardised system of
    accounting which was followed by all its local farm managers. [16] Each administrator on
    each sub-division of the estate drew up his own little accounts, for the day-to-day
    running of the estate, payment of the workforce, production of crops, the sale of
    produce, the use of animals, and general expenditure on the staff. This information was
    then summarized as pieces of papyrus scroll into one big yearly account for each
    particular sub-division of the estate. Entries were arranged by sector, with cash
    expenses and gains extrapolated from all the different sectors. Accounts of this kind
    gave the owner the opportunity to take better economic decisions because the
    information was purposefully selected and arranged. [17]

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