A History of Accounting and Accountants

Richard Brown, Richard Brown

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317792468
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Business allgemein

First published in 1968. Inspired by the occurrence of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the incorporation of Accountants in Scotland—in which country the Chartered Accountant first saw the light — suggested the propriety of writing an account of the origin and growth of the profession while it was still possible to ascertain the facts and describe the circumstances with some degree of fulness. This book also includes a history of Accounts, Auditing, and Book-keeping; in short, to treat of Accounting— as well as Accountants—from the historic standpoint.

PART I

HISTORY OF ACCOUNTING

A HISTORY OF ACCOUNTING AND ACCOUNTANTS

CHAPTER I

NUMERATION

PRIMITIVE, GREEK, ROMAN, MODERN

THE art of numeration, or the method of counting, whether by words or signs or symbols, goes back to the dawn of intelligence among human beings, though it can hardly be said to begin with the moment when one thing is distinguishable from another. How the process of numbering did begin can only be conjectured from the habits of those lower races who are still uncivilised, and from the results reached by comparative philologists in their study of language.

It is probable that methods of indicating small numbers by some sort of signs preceded the giving of names, and that indeed the names given denoted the signs employed. Thus the words for ears, wings, hands have been used by the Chinese, the Tibetans, and the Hottentots respectively to denote two. The Brazilians generally count by the joints of the fingers, and consequently only to three. Every greater number they express by the word for many. The African Bushmen are said to have no names for any numbers beyond two, and among some of the Papuan islanders two is the basis of their numeration; they do not go beyond six, three twos signifying both six and an indefinite number.

It is abundantly evident from the narratives of travellers that the majority of savage races learned to make use of their fingers and toes in helping them to count, and hence the bases of their systems were five or ten or twenty. The Mexicans have a primitive or uncompounded name for twenty, and as we count from ten upwards by the multiples and powers of ten, so they count by the multiples and powers of twenty. For example, they express 100 by a word which means 5 times 20, and 1000 by twice 400 plus 10 times 20. The Peruvians, who employed knotted strings, called quipus, probably the earliest form of abacus, for expressing numbers and retaining them in memory, had a decimal system. With them a single knot signified 10, two single knots 20, a double knot 100, a triple knot 1000, and so on to higher numbers. Among the early Greeks a quinary system seems to have been in use, as may be seen from the verb πєµπάζєιv, to count by fives, and then generally to count. After the establishment of a decimal system of numeration, a corresponding nomenclature would follow with comparatively little difficulty.

The cardinal numbers in Greek are—

one; δύo, two;

three; τέσσαρєς, four; πέvτε, five; ἕξ, six; ἑπτά, seven; ὀκτώ, eight; ἐvvέα, nine; δέκα, ten.

The names for the numbers 11–19 are formed by conjoining the units with ten, with in general an intervening and (καὶ). A few of the higher numbers are εἴκoσι, twenty; τριάκovτα, thirty; έκaτόv, a hundred; χίλιoι, a thousand; µύριoι, ten thousand. The last number, often termed a myriad (µvριάς), was the highest denomination used by the Greeks, though they could without difficulty express numbers higher than 10,000. Thus 100,000 would be δέκα µvριάδєς, and a billion (that is, a million millions) would be µυριάκις µύριαι µυριάδєς.

In the statement of large and also of comparatively small numbers it was common to begin with the units and to ascend to the tens, hundreds, but the reverse order was frequently adopted. Thus they could say five and twenty as well as twenty and five; when and was omitted they put the tens first, thus twenty five (εἴκoσι πέvτε).

Instead of eighteen or nineteen the Greeks (and the Romans also, as we shall see) often said twenty wanting two or twenty wanting one. A similar mode of expression was employed for 28, 29; and Thucydides uses a myriad wanting three hundred for nine thousand seven hundred.

Some peculiarities, which are not easy to account for, occur in the names of the cardinal numbers. Thus the words for 1, 2, 3, 4 are declinable, those for 5 to 199 inclusive are indeclinable, while those for 200, 300–1000, 2000–10,000 are declinable.

The names for the ordinal numbers are mostly derived from those of the cardinal by a process which is in general uniform throughout. The first of the ordinals (

from πρό) has the ending of the Greek superlative—compare the form πρόατoς and the comparative πpότєpoς—and the second (δєύτєρoς) has the ending of the comparative. It may here be noted, however, that some tribes exist which have names for many cardinal numbers, but the only names they have for ordinals are first and last.

The Greeks expressed fractions whose numerator is unity much as we do; thus

Sometimes they conjoined the name for the ordinal with a word for part; thus

Fractions with other numerators than unity they expressed by stating the denominator first and then the numerator:

Fractions whose numerator was one less than the denominator they expressed by stating the numerator only with the word for parts; thus

the two parts (out of three).

The way in which they expressed certain mixed numbers may be seen from such a phrase as ἕßδoµov ήµιτάλαvτov. It means the seventh a half talent, and is equivalent to six whole talents and the seventh a half talent, that is, to 6

talents.

The cardinal numbers in Latin are unus, one; duo, two; tres, three; quatuor, four; quinque, five; sex, six; septem, seven; octo, eight; novem, nine; decem, ten.

The names for the numbers 11–19 are formed by prefixing the units to ten, the word decem being modified to decim. A few of the higher numbers are viginti, twenty; triginta, thirty; centum, a hundred; mille, a thousand. The last number, mille, is the highest denomination of the Romans.

The numbers between 20 and 100 are expressed either by the larger number first and the smaller number after it without a connecting et (and), or by the smaller number first and the larger number after it with a connecting et. Thus 21 is viginti unus, or unus et viginti. Numbers above 100 always have the larger number first.

The numbers 18, 19, 28, 29, &c., are often expressed by two from twenty, one from twenty, &c. The smaller number is put first, and de is inserted for from; thus 18 = duodeviginti, 19 = undeviginti, 28 = duodetriginta, 29 = undetriginta, and so on to undecentum for 99. 98 however is either nonaginta octo or octo et nonaginta.

As in Greek, the names of the ordinal numbers are derived from those of the cardinal, with the exception of primus and secundus. Primus is the superlative of prae or pro (before), and secundus the present participle of the verb sequor (follow).

Fractions are expressed by the ordinal numbers, with part or parts (pars or partes) expressed or understood; thus

tres septimae. Other forms are employed when the numerator is one less than the denominator; thus

duae partes (two parts out of three),

tres partes (three parts out of four). Sometimes a fraction is expressed as the sum of two fractions; thus pars quarta et septima

sometimes as the product of two fractions; thus quarta septima =

The Roman unit of weight, length, area was called as (our ace), and it was divided into twelve equal parts, called unciae, whence came our ounce and inch. The names of the parts are—

Here we have the first occurrence of duodecimal fractions.

In the expression of mixed numbers the fractional part is followed by that ordinal number which is one more than the given integer; thus

quadrans quartus, the fourth a quarter (three wholes being understood),

semis tertius, the third a half (two wholes being understood). Semis tertius, contracted to sestertius, was written with the symbol for two (II), and S, the initial of semis, after it (IIS). The horizontal stroke that was drawn through the whole symbol, as in our Њ, £ for pounds, is represented by the printer’s HS.

The names of the cardinal numbers in French are derived from the corresponding Latin names transformed more or less regularly according to the laws of phonetics.

The numbers 17, 18, 19 were in classical Latin septemdecim, octodecim, novemdecim, but in popular Latin they were decem et septem, decem et octo, decem et nouem, and these popular forms have given rise to the French terms dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf. Among the multiples of 10, the first five are formed regularly from the Latin, but the usual names for 70, 80, 90 are not septante, octante, nonante, but soixante-dix, quatrevingts, quatre-vingt-dix. The name septante occurs in La Version des Septante, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, called by us the Septuagint; along with octante and nonante it is found in certain provinces of the north and east of France, and in some parts of Belgium.

The forms soixante-dix, &c., are vestiges of the vigesimal system which was in use among the ancient Gauls. This vigesimal system and the Roman decimal system were used concurrently during the Middle Ages; thus 32 was either trente et deux or vingt et douze, 43 either quarante et trois or deux vingts et trois, 158 either cent cinquante et huit or sept-vingts et dix-huit. In the seventeenth century six vingts was a common expression for 120, and at the present day there is an hospital in Paris for three hundred blind people called Les Quinze-Vingts.

The same adoption of the popular Latin words for 17, 18, 19 is seen in Italian diciassette, diciotto, diciannove, and for 16, 17, 18, 19 in the Spanish diez y seis, diez y siete, diez y ocho, diez y nueve. The names for 70, 80, 90 in Latin become settanta, ottanta, novanta in Italian, and setenta, ochenta, noventa in Spanish.

The word million, derived from the Italian milione, means a big thousand, just as balloon means a big ball, saloon, derived from salone, a big sala.

For 1000 millions the French now use the word milliard as well as billion. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a French billion was a million of millions; its present meaning in France dates from the eighteenth century.

In old French, numbers expressed by thousands, hundreds, tens, and units had the various denominations connected by et (and). This conjunction is now suppressed except before un and onze.

The names of the ordinal numbers come from the corresponding cardinals, except in the case of premier. Twenty-first, however, is vingt et unième.

In German the names of the cardinal numbers from 1–20, 30–100, 1000 closely resemble our own. For 21, 22, Germans say ein und zwanzig, zwei und zwanzig, and not zwanzig ein.

As in Greek and Latin, so in German there is found the idiom viertehalb (the fourth a half) for

elftehalb (the eleventh a half) for

Instead, however, of zweitehalb for

they use anderthalb, from ander (other), in the sense of second.

The Germans still retain what seems to us a peculiarity in their expression of time. Thus they say halb zwei (half two) for half-past one, halb zehn (half ten) for half-past nine This mode of expression is exactly paralleled in the Scottish dialect, where half twelve means half-past eleven, and so on. A similar idiom is found in French, in some Eastern languages, and in Icelandic, where half the fourth hundred = 350, half the fourth ten = 35, and so on.

Our own names for numbers show few peculiarities in their composition, the exceptions being the names for the cardinal numbers eleven and twelve, and the ordinals first and second. Eleven is obviously the same word as Anglo-Saxon endlufon, Gothic ainlif, German eilf or elf, but whether it stands for one left (after the base, ten, is taken away) is somewhat doubtful. Twelve is supposed to stand for two left (after ten is taken away), and is derived from the Teutonic base, twalif First is the superlative of a word meaning before, and second is derived from the Latin secundus.

With regard to the earliest Greek notation for numbers our information is scanty, for the oldest inscriptions contain no numerals. There is reason to believe that a set of symbols where 1, 2, 3, 4 were denoted by upright strokes, 5 by

the initial letter of πέvτε,...