The art and science of book-keeping is not a modern innovation. It is not unreasonable to say that some method must have been used during the ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek civilisations where trading took place, to record the various transactions of merchants, as monetary systems were present at the time. In fact the « Tigris » expedition by Thor Heyerdahl in 1977-78 proved that in about 3000-4000 BC the Sumerian civilisation of Babylonia and Mesopotamia, by the use of reed ships, navigated the Gulf of Arabia to the various countries around it, the Indian Ocean to Pakistan and Africa and the Red Sea up to Egypt, to trade their goods with those of the different countries. Thus, even as early as that period in time, records of one type or another would have been kept of the transactions, either for money or by barter.

However, the modern method of book-keeping owes its origin to Luca Pacioli, a Fransiscan monk of the fifteenth century in Italy. He it was who decided to record, in book form, the best of the book-keeping methods in vogue with the merchants of Venice for their detail and exactness. This book was produced in 1494 and called the ‘Summa de Arithmetica Geometrica Proportioni et Proportionalita’, and Chapter IX was entitled book-keeping. Although he was not a book-keeper, his work served to form the basis for recording the accounts of merchants throughout Europe and beyond. Pacioli stated quite clearly, that his ‘Summa’ was by no means an original work, but simply the recording of systems that were in use in Venice, and that had been practiced there for approximately two hundred years.

The system of double entry, or the ‘Venetian method’, as recorded in the ‘Summa’ described in great detail the different books to use : eg the investory, the memorandum book, the journal and the ledger. Debits and credits were to be carefully kept apart, with the former being placed on the left-hand side and the latter on the right-hand side, when entries were made in the accounts. The balancing and closing of the accounts in the ledger were to be completed in one day ; in the interval, no entry could be permitted in the books. Certainly there is no mention as such of a trial balance nor of a balance sheet. Neither is there any reference to a company. Book-keeping was therefore intended for sole traders.

Such was the influence of his work, that between 1543 and 1565, various books on the subject appeared in Holland, France, England, Germany and Spain. His influence on the respective writers in Holland, Germany and England was immense, and, indirectly through them, upon those in America.

Pacioli foresaw the need to educate students in book-keeping and the necessity of applying his work to everyday life, and accordingly his book has extended that knowledge throughout the world.

<B>Zaid AKHTAR DURBAUREE</B>