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BOOKCASE , an See also:article of See also:furniture, forming a shelved receptacle, usually perpendicular or See also:horizontal, for the storage of books. When books, being written by See also:hand, were excessivelyscarce,they were kept in small coffers which the See also:great carried about with them on their journeys. As See also:manuscript volumes accumulated in the religious houses or in See also:regal palaces, they were stored upon shelves or in cupboards, and it is from these cupboards that the bookcase of to-See also:day directly descends. At a somewhat later date the doors were, for convenience' See also:sake, discarded, and the See also:evolution of the bookcase made one step forward. Even then, however, the volumes were not arranged in the See also:modern See also:fashion. They were either placed in piles apon their sides, or if upright, were ranged with their backs to the See also:wall and their edges outwards. The See also:band of See also:leather, vellum or See also:parchment which closed the See also:book was often used for the inscription of the See also:title, which was thus on the fore-edge instead of on the back. It was not until the invention of See also:printing had greatly cheapened books that it became the practice to write the title on the back and See also:place the edges inwards. See also:Early bookcases were usually of See also:oak, which is still deemed to be the most appropriate See also:wood for a stately library. The See also:oldest bookcases in See also:England are those in the Bodleian library at See also:Oxford, which were placed in position in the last See also:year or two of the 16th See also:century; in that library are the earliest extant examples of shelved galleries over the See also:flat wall-cases. See also:Long ranges of book-shelves are necessarily somewhat severe in See also:appearance, and many attempts have been made by means of carved cornices and pilasters to give them a more riant appearance—attempts which were never so successful as in the hands of the great See also:English See also:cabinet-makers of the second 'See also:half of the 18th century. Both See also:Chippendale and See also:Sheraton made or designed great See also:numbers of bookcases, mostly glazed with little lozenges encased in See also:fret-See also:work frames often of great See also:charm and elegance. The alluring See also:grace of some of Sheraton's satinwood bookcases has very rarely indeed been equalled. The See also:French cabinet-makers of the same See also:period were also highly successful with small ornamental cases. See also:Mahogany, See also:rosewood, satinwood and even choicer See also:exotic timbers were used; they were often inlaid with marqueterie and mounted with chased and gilded See also:bronze. See also:Dwarf bookcases were frequently finished with a slab of choice See also:marble at the See also:top. In the great public See also:libraries of the loth century the bookcases are often of See also:iron, as in the See also:British Museum where the shelves are covered with cowhide, of See also:steel, as in the library of See also:Congress at See also:Washington, or of See also:slate, as in the See also:Fitzwilliam library at See also:Cambridge. There are three systems of arranging bookcases—flat against the wall; in " stacks " or ranges parallel to each other with merely enough space between to allow of the passage of a librarian; or in bays or alcoves where cases jut out into the See also:room at right angles to the wall-cases. The stack See also:system is suitable only for public libraries where See also:economy of space is essential; the See also:bay system is not only hand-some but utilizes the space to great See also:advantage. The library of the See also:city of See also:London at the See also:Guildhall is a peculiarly effective example of the bay arrangement.
The whole question of the construction and arrangement of book-cases was learnedly discussed in the See also:light of experience by W. E. See also:Gladstone in the Nineteenth Century for See also: P.-B.) BOOK-See also:COLLECTING, the bringing together of books which in their contents, their See also:form or the See also:history of the individual copy possess some See also:element of permanent See also:interest, and either actually or prospectively are rare, in the sense of being difficult to procure. This qualification of rarity, which figures much too largely in the popular view of book-collecting, is entirely sub-See also:ordinate to that of interest, for the rarity of a book devoid of interest is a See also:matter of no concern. On the other hand so long as a book (or anything else) is and appears likely to continue to be easilyprocurable at any moment, no one has any See also:reason for collecting it. The anticipation that it will always be easily procurable is often unfounded; but so long as the anticipation exists it restrains collecting, with the result that See also:Horn-books are much rarer than First See also:Folio Shakespeares. It has even been laid down that the ultimate rarity of books varies in the inverse ratio of the number of copies originally printed, and though the generalization is a little sweeping, it is not far from the truth. To See also:triumph over small difficulties being the See also:chief element in See also:games of skill, the different varieties of book-collecting, which offer almost as many varieties of grades of difficulty, make excellent hobbies. But in its essence the pastime of a book-See also:collector is identical with the See also:official work of the See also:curator of a museum, and thus also with one See also:branch of the duties of the librarian of any library of respectable See also:age. In its inception every library is a See also:literary workshop, with more or less of a See also:garden or recreation ground attached according as its managers are influenced by the humanities or by a narrow conception of utility. As the library grows, the books and See also:editions which have been the tools of one See also:generation pass out of use; and it becomes largely a depository or storehouse of a stock much of which is dead. But from out of this seemingly dead stock preserved at haphazard, critics and antiquaries gradually pick out books which they find to be still alive. Of some of these the interest cannot be reproduced in its entirety by any See also:mere reprint, and it is this See also:salvage which forms the literary museum. Book-collectors are privileged to leap at once to this See also:stage in their relations with books, using the dealers' shops and catalogues as depositories from which to pick the books which will best See also:fit with the aim or central See also:idea of their collection. For in the modern private collection, as in the modern museum, the need for a central idea must be fully recognized. Neither the collector nor the curator can be content to keep a mere curiosity-See also:shop. It is the collector's business to illustrate his central idea by his choice of examples, by the care with which he describes them and the skill with which they are arranged. In all these matters many amateurs See also:rival, if they do not outstrip, the professional curators and librarians, and not seldom their collections are made with a view to their ultimate transference to public ownership. In any See also:case'it is by the zeal of collectors that books which otherwise would have perished from neglect are discovered, cared for and preserved, and those who achieve these results certainly deserve well of the community. Whenever a high degree of See also:civilization has been attained book-lovers have multiplied, and to the student with his modest See also:desire to read his favourite author in a well-written or well-printed copy there has been added a class of owners suspected of caring more for the externals of books than for the enjoyment to be obtained by See also:reading them. But although adumbrations of it existed under the See also:Roman See also:empire and towards the end of the See also:middle ages, book-collecting, as it is now under- stood, is essentially of modern growth. A glance through what must be regarded as the See also:medieval See also:text-book on the love of books, the Plzilobiblon, attributed to See also:Richard de See also:Bury (written in 1345), shows that it deals almost exclusively with the delights of litera- See also:ture, and See also:Sebastian See also:Brant's attack on the book-See also:fool, written a century and a half later, demonstrates nothing more than that the See also:possession of books is a poor substitute for learning. This is so obviously true that before book-collecting in the modern sense can begin it is essential that there should be no lack of books to read, just as until cups and saucers became plentiful there was no room for the collector of old See also:china. Even when the invention of printing had reduced the cost of books by some 8o %, book-collectors did not immediately appear. There is a natural temptation to imagine that the early book-owners, whose libraries have enriched modern collectors with some of their best-known treasures, must necessarily have been collectors themselves. This is far from being the case. Hardly a book
of all that See also:Jean Grolier (1479–1565) caused to be See also:bound so See also:taste-
fully for himself and his See also:friends reveals any antiquarian instincts
in its liberal owner, who bought partly to encourage the best
printers of his day, partly to provide his friends with the most
See also:recent fruits of See also:Renaissance scholarship. In England See also:Arch-
See also:bishop See also:Cranmer, Lords See also:Arundel and Lumley, and See also: Almost all the large book-buyers of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries bought with a public See also:object, or were rewarded for their zeal by their treasures being thought worthy of a public resting-place. Sir See also: A similar offer of the great collections formed by Sir Hans See also:Sloane, including some 50,000 printed books, together with the need for taking better care of what remained of the Cotton manuscripts, vested in trustees for public use in 1702 and partially destroyed by See also:fire in 1731, led to the See also:foundation of the British Museum in 1753, and this on its opening in 1757 was almost immediately enriched by George II.'s See also:gift of the old royal library, formed by the See also:kings and queens of England from Henry VII. to See also: When George III. came to the See also:throne he found himself book-less, and the magnificent library of over 8o,000 books and See also:pamphlets and 440 manuscripts which he accumulated shows on a large scale the See also:catholic and literary spirit of the book-lovers of his day. As befitted the library of an English See also: 1834) for £750, to pass with the See also:rest of his rare books to Mrs See also:Rylands in 1892, and by her gift to the John Rylands library at See also:Manchester in 1899. The books of Sir M. M. Sykes were sold in 1824, those of J. B. See also:Inglis in 1826 (after which he collected again) and those of George Hibbert in 1829. The 150,00ovolumes brought together by Richard See also:Heber at an expense of about £roo,000 were disposed of by successive sales during the years 1834–1837 and realized not much more than half their cost. The wonderful library of See also: 1815) in 1884, his " See also:Gutenberg " See also:Bible fetching £39o0 and his Mainz Psalter £4950. The great collection of manuscripts formed by Sir Thomas Phillipps (d. 1872) has furnished materials for numerous sales. The printed books of the earl of See also:Ashburnham (d. 1878) kept the auctioneers busy in 1897 and 1898; his manuscripts were sold, some to the British government (the See also:Stowe collection shared between the British Museum and Dublin), the German government (part of the Libri and See also:Barrois collection, all, See also:save one MS. of 13th century German See also:ballads, resold to France), the See also:Italian government (the rest of the Libri collection) Mr See also:Yates See also:Thompson (the MSS. known as the Appendix) and Mr J. Pierpont See also:Morgan (the See also:Lindau Gospels). The collections formed by Mr W, H. See also:Miller (d. 1848, mainly English See also:poetry), theduke of See also:Devonshire (d. 1858) and Mr Henry Huth (d. 1878), are still intact. Among the book-buyers of the reign of George III., John Ratcliffe, an ex-See also:coal-See also:merchant, and James See also:West had devoted themselves specially to Caxtons (of which the former possessed 48 and the latter 34) and the products of other early English presses. The collections of Capell and Garrick were also small and homogeneous. Each See also:section, moreover, of some of the great libraries that have just been enumerated might fairly be considered a collection in itself, the See also:union of several collections in the same library being made possible by the See also:wealth of their purchaser and the small prices fetched by most classes of books in comparison with those which are now paid. But perhaps the modern cabinet theory of book-collecting was first carried out with conspicuous skill by Henry See also:Perkins (d. 1855), whose 865 fine manuscripts and specimens of early printing, when sold in 1870, realized nearly £26,000. If surrounded by a sufficient quantity of general literature the collection might not have seemed noticeably different from some of those already mentioned, but the growing cost of books, together with difficulties as to See also:house-room, combined to discourage See also:miscellaneous buying on a large scale, and what has been called the " cabinet " theory of collecting, so well carried out by Henry Perkins, became increasingly popular among book buyers, alike in France, England and the See also:United States of See also:America. See also:Henri Beraldi, in his See also:catalogue of his own collection (printed 1892), has described how in France a little band of book-loving amateurs See also:grew up who laughed at the bibliophile de la vicille See also:roche as they disrespectfully called their predecessors, and prided themselves on the unity and compactness of their own treasures. In place of the miscellaneous library in which every class of book claimed to be represented, and which needed a special room or See also:gallery to house it, they aimed at small collections which should epitomize the owner's tastes and require nothing bulkier than a neat bookcase or cabinet to hold them. The French bibliophiles whom M. Beraldi celebrated applied this theory with great success to collecting the dainty French illustrated books of the 18th century which were their especial favourites. In England Richard See also:Fisher treated his fine examples of early book-See also:illustration as part of his collection of engravings,etchings and woodcuts(illustrated catalogue printed 1879), and See also:Frederick Locker (Locker-Lampson) formed in two small bookcases such a gathering of first editions of English imaginative literature that the mere catalogue of it (printed in 1886) produced the effect of a stately and picturesque procession. Some of the book-hoards of previous generations could have spared the See also:equivalent of the Locker collection without seeming noticeably the poorer, but the compactness and unity of this small collection, in which every book appears to have been bought for a special reason and to form an integral part of the whole, gave it an See also:artistic individuality which was a pleasant triumph for its owner, and excited so much interest among See also:American admirers of Mr Locker's poetry that it may be said to have set a fashion. As another example of the value of a small collection, both for delight and for See also:historical and artistic study, mention may be made of the little roomful of manuscripts and See also:incunabula which William See also:Morris brought together to illustrate the history of the bookish arts in the middle ages before the Renaissance introduced new ideals. 
Many living collectors are working in a similar spirit, and as this spirit spreads the monotony of the old libraries, in which the same editions of the same books recurred with wearisome frequency, should be replaced by much greater individuality and variety. Moreover, if they can be grouped See also:round some central idea cheap books may yield just as good See also:sport to the collector as expensive ones, and the collector of quite modem. works may render admirable service to posterity. The only See also:limitation is against books specially manufactured to attract him, or artificially made rare. A quite wholesome interest in contemporary first editions was brought to nought about 1889 by the booksellers beginning to hoard copies of See also:Browning's Asolando and Mr See also:Lang's See also:Blue See also:Fairy Book on the day of publication, while a graceful but quite See also:minor poet was made ridiculous by boo being asked for a set of his privately printed opuscula. The
See also:petty gambling in books printed at the Kelmscott and Doves' presses, and in the fine See also:paper copies of a certain See also:Life of See also:Queen See also:Victoria, for which a See also:premium of 250 % was asked before publication, is another See also:proof that until the manufacturing stage is over collecting cannot safely begin. But with this exception the See also: See also:Lowndes, first published in 1834, was revised by H. G. See also:Bohn in 1857–1864, and of this also no further edition has been printed. These two works between them gave all the See also:information the old-fashioned collectors required, the Tresor de livres rares et precieux by J. G. T. Graesse (See also:Dresden, 1859–1867, supplementary volume in 1869) adding little to the information given by Brunet. The day of the omnivorous collector being past, the place of these general manuals has been taken by more detailed See also:bibliographies and handbooks on special books, and though new editions of both Lowndes and Brunet would be useful to librarians and booksellers no publisher has had the courage to produce them. To attract a collector a book must See also:appeal to his See also:eye, his mind or his See also:imagination, and many famous books appeal to all three. A book may be beautiful by virtue of its binding, its illustrations or the See also:simple perfection and See also:harmony of its See also:print and paper. The attraction of a fine binding has always been See also:felt in France, the high prices quoted for Elzevirs and French first editions being often due much more to their 17th and 18th century jackets than to the books themselves. The appreciation of old bindings has greatly increased in England since the See also:exhibition of them at the See also:Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1891 (illustrated catalogue printed the same year), English See also:blind stamped bindings, embroidered bindings, and bindings attributable to See also:Samuel Mearne (temp. Charles II.) being much more sought after than formerly.
(See See also:BOOKBINDING.)
Illustrated books of certain periods are also much in See also:request, and with the exception of a few which early celebrity has pre-vented becoming rare have increased inordinately in See also:price. The See also:primitive woodcuts in incunabula are now almost too highly appreciated, and while the Nuremburg See also:Chronicle (1493) seldom fetches more than £30 or the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Venice, 1499) more than £120, rarer books are priced in hundreds. The best books on the subject are: for See also:Italy, Lippmann's Wood See also:Engraving in Italy in the 15th Century (1888), Kristeller's Early Florentine Woodcuts (1897), the duc de Rivoli's (Prince d'Essling's) Bibliographie See also:des livres a figures venitiens 1469–7525 (1892, new edition 1906); for See also:Germany, Muther's See also:Die deutsche Biicherillustration der Gothik and Friihrenaissance (1884); for Holland and See also:Belgium, Sir W. M. See also:Conway's The Woodcutters of the See also:Netherlands in the 15th Century (1884); for France the material will all be found in Claudin's Histoire de l'imprimerie en France (1900, &c.). Some information on the illustrated books of the early 16th century is given in Butsch's Die Biicherornamentik der Renaissance (1878), but the See also:pretty French books of the middle of the century and the later Dutch and English See also:copper-engraved book illustrations (for the latter see See also:Colvin's Early Engraving and Engravers inEngland, 1905) have been imperfectly appreciated. This?cannot be said of the French books of the 18th century chronicled by H. See also:Cohen, See also:Guide de l'See also:amateur de livre d gravures du XVIIIP siecle (5th ed., 1886), much of the same information, with a little more about English books, being given in Lewine's Bibliography of Eighteenth Century Art and Illustrated Books (1898). English books with coloured illustrations, for which there has arisen a sudden fashion, are welldescribed in See also: In addition to the works mentioned in the article on incunabula(q.v),See also:note may be made of Humphrey's Masterpieces of the Early Printers and Engravers (187o), while Lippmann's Druckschriften des X V bis X VIII Jahrhunderts (1884–1887) covers, though not-very fully, the later period. Among books which make an intellectual appeal to the col-lectors may be classed all works of historical value which have not been reprinted, or of which the See also:original editions are more See also:authentic, or convincing, than modern reprints. It is evident that these See also:cover a vast field, and that the collector in taking possession of any corner of it is at once the servant and rival of historical students. Lord See also:Crawford's vast collections of English, Scottish and Irish proclamations and of papal bulls may be cited as See also:capital instances of the work which a collector may do for the promotion of historical See also:research, and the philological library brought together by Prince Lucien See also:Bonaparte (An See also:Attempt at a Catalogue by V. See also:Collins, published 1894) and the Foxwell collection of early books on See also:political economy (presented to the university of London by the Goldsmiths' See also:Company) are two other instances of recent date. Much collecting of this kind is now being carried on by the libraries of institutes and See also:societies connected with special professions and studies, but there is ample room also for private collectors to work on these lines. Of books which appeal to a collector's imagination the most obvious examples are those which can be associated with some famous See also:person or event. A book which has belonged to a king or queen (more especially one who, like See also:Mary queen of Scots, has appealed to popular sympathies), or to a great statesman, soldier or poet, which bears any See also:mark of having been valued by him, or of being connected with any striking incident in his life, has an interest which defies See also:analysis. Collectors themselves have a natural tenderness for their predecessors, and a copy of a famous work is all the more regarded if its See also:pedigree can be traced through a long series of book-loving owners. Hence the See also:production of such works as Great Book-Collectors by Charles and Mary See also:Elton (1893), English Book-Collectors by W. Y. See also:Fletcher (1902) and Guigard's Nouvel armorial du bibliophile (189o). Books condemned to be burnt, or which have caused the persecution of their authors, have an imaginative interest of another kind, though one which seems to have appealed more to writers of books than to collectors. As has already been noted, most of the books specially valued by collectors make a See also:double or triple appeal to the collecting See also:instinct, and the desire to possess first editions maybe accounted for partly by their See also:positive superiority over reprints for purposes of study, partly by the associations which they can be proved to possess or which imagination creates for them. The value set on them is at least to some extent fanciful. It would be difficult, for instance, to justify the high prices paid by collectors of the days of George III. for the first printed editions of the See also:Greek and Latin classics. With few exceptions these are of no value as texts, and there are no possible associations by which they can be linked with the See also:personality of their authors. It may be doubted whether any one now collects them save as specimens of printing, though no class of books which has once been prized ever sinks back into See also:absolute obscurity. On the other hand the See also:prestige of the first editions of. English and French literary masterpieces has immensely increased. A first folio See also:Shakespeare (1623) was in 1906 sold separately for £3000, and the MacGeorge copies of the first four folios (1623, 1632, 1663–1664 and 1685) fetched collectively the high price of £10,000. The See also:quarto editions of Shakespeare plays have appreciated even more, several of these little books, once sold at 6d. apiece, having fetched over £I000, while the unknown and unique copy of the 1594 edition of See also:Titus Andronicus, discovered in See also:Sweden, speedily passed to an American collector for £2000. Information as to early editions of famous English books will be found in Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual, in See also:Hazlitt's Handbook to the PopularPoetical and Dramatic Literature of Great See also:Britain from the Invention of Printing to the Restoration Objects and methods. (1867) and his subsequent Collections and Notes (1876-1903), and as to more recent books in See also:Slater's Early Editions, a bibliographical survey of the works of some popular modern authors (1894), while French classics have found an excellent chronicler in Jules Le See also:Petit (Bibliographic des principales editions originales d'ecrivains See also:francais du X Ve an X VIII e siecle, 1888). In most cases there is a marked falling off in the interest with which early editions other than the first are regarded, and consequently in the prices paid for them, though important changes in the text give to the edition in which they first occur some See also:shadow of the prestige attaching to an original issue. One of the recognized byways of book-collecting, however, used to be the collection of as many editions as possible of the same work. When this result in the acquisition of numerous See also:late editions of no value for the text its only usefulness would appear to be the See also:index it may offer to the author's popularity. But in See also:translations of the Bible, inliturgical works, and ineditionspublished during the author's life the aid offered to the study of the development of the final text by a long See also:row of intermediate editions may be very great. Another instance in which imagination reinforces the more positive interest a book may possess is in the case of editions which can be connected with the origin, See also:diffusion or development of printing. Piety suggests that book-lovers should take a special interest in the history of the art which has done so much for their happiness, and in this respect they have mostly shown themselves religious. The first book printed in any See also:town is reasonably coveted by See also:local antiquaries, and the desire to measure the amount and quality of the work of every early printer has caused the preservation of thousands of books which would otherwise have perished. (See INCUNABULA.) The See also:financial See also:side of book-collecting may be studied in Slater's Book-Prices Current, published annually since 1887, and in See also:Livingston's American Book Prices Current, and in the same author's Auction Prices of Books (1905). While largely influenced by fashion the prices given for books are never wholly unreason-able. They are determined, firstly by the positive or associative interest which can be found in the book itself, secondly by the infrequency with which copies come into the See also:market compared with the number and wealth of their would-be possessors, and thirdly, except in the case of books of the greatest interest and rarity, by the condition of the copy offered in respect to completeness, See also:size, freshness and See also:absence of stains. (A. W. Po.) BOOK-KEEPING, a systematic See also:record of business transactions, in a form conveniently available for reference, made by individuals or corporations engaged in commercial or financial operations with a view to enabling them with the minimum amount of trouble and of dislocation to the business itself to ascertain at any time (1) the detailed particulars of the transactions under-taken, and (2) the cumulative effect upon the business and its financial relations to others. Book-keeping, sometimes described as a See also:science and sometimes as an art, partakes of the nature of both. It is not so much a See also:discovery as a growth, the crude methods of former days having been gradually improved to meet the changing requirements of business, and this See also:process of evolution is still going on. The ideal of any system of book-keeping is the maximum of record combined with the minimum of labour, but as dishonesty has to be guarded against, no system of book-keeping can be regarded as adequate which does not enable the record to be readily verified as a true and See also:complete statement of the transactions involved. Such a verification is called an See also:audit, and in the case of public and other large concerns is ordinarily undertaken by professional See also:accountants (q.v.). Where the book-keeping See also:staff is large it is usually organized so that its members, to some extent at least, check each other's work, and to that extent an audit, known as a "staff audit" or " See also:internal check," is frequently performed by the book-keeping staff itself. Formerly, when See also:credit was a considerably less important See also:factor than now in commercial transactions, book-keeping was frequently limited to an See also:account of receipts and payments of See also:money; and in early times, before money was in use,to an account of the See also:receipt and issue of goods of different kinds. Even nowwhat may be called the " See also:cash'system " of accounts is almost exclusively used by governments, local authorities, and charitable and other institutions; but in business it is equally necessary to record movements of credit, as a mere statement of receipts and payments of money would show only a part of the See also:total number of transactions undertaken. As for See also:practical purposes some limit must be placed upon the daily record of transactions, certain classes show only a record of cash receipts and payments, which must, when it is desired to ascertain the actual position of affairs, be adjusted by bringing into account those transactions which have not yet been completed by the receipt or See also:payment of money. For instance, it is usual to See also:charge customers with goods sold to them at the date when the sale takes place, and to give them credit for the amount received in payment upon the date of receipt (thus completely recording every phase of the transaction as and when it occurs); but in connexion (say) with See also:wages it is not usual to give each workman credit for the services rendered by him from day to day, but merely to charge up the amounts, when paid, to a wages account, which thus at any date only shows the amounts which have actually been paid, and takes no cognisance of the sums accruing due. When, therefore, it is desired to ascertain the actual See also:expenditure upon wages for any given period, it is necessary to allow for the payments made during that period in respect of work previously performed, and to add the value of work performed during the current period which remains unpaid. In the See also:majority of businesses those accounts which See also:deal with various forms of See also:standing expenses are thus dealt with, and in consequence the record, as it appears from day to day, is See also:pro See also:lotto incomplete. Another very important series of transactions which is not included in the See also:ordinary day-to-day record is that representing the loss gradually accruing by reason of See also:waste, or depreciation, of See also:assets or general equipment of the business; proper See also:allowance for these losses must of course be made whenever it is desired to ascertain the true position of affairs. The origin of book-keeping is lost in obscurity, but recent researches would appear to show that some method of keeping accounts has existed from the remotest times. Baby- History. Ionian records have been found dating back as far as 2600 B.C., written with a stylus on small slabs of See also:clay, and it is of interest to note (Records of the Past, xi. 89) that these slabs or tablets " usually contain impressions from See also:cylinder See also:seals, and See also:nail marks, which were considered to be a See also:man's natural See also:seal," thus showing that the modern method of identifying criminals by See also:finger prints had its counterpart in Babylonia some 4500 years ago. See also:Egyptian records were commonly written on See also:papyrus, and contemporary pictures show a See also:scribe keeping account of the quantities of See also:grain brought into and removed from the government See also:store-houses. It will thus be seen that some form of book-keeping existed long before bound books were known, and therefore the more general See also:term accounting would seem to be preferable—the more so as the most modern developments are in the direction of again abandoning the bound book in favour of loose or easily detached sheets of paper or card, thus capable of being rearranged as circumstances or convenience may dictate. Most of the earlier accounting records are in the nature of a mere narrative of events, which—however complete in itself—failed to fulfil the second requirement of an adequate system of book-keeping already referred to. See also:Prior to the use of money nothing in this direction could of course well be at-tempted; but for a long time after its employment became general money values were recorded in Roman figures, which naturally did not lend themselves to ready calculation. At the See also:present time it may be generally stated that all book-keeping records are kept in three distinct columns, dealing respectively with the date of the transaction, its nature, and its money value. The earliest extant example of accounts so kept is probably a See also:ledger in the See also:Advocates' library at See also:Edinburgh, dated 1697, which, it is of interest to note, is ruled by hand. Prior to that time, however, double-entry book-keeping had been in general use. The exact date of its introduction is unknown; but it was certainly not. as has been frequently stated, the
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invention of See also:Lucas de Bergo, in or about 1494. This, however, is the date of the first issue (at Venice) of a printed book entitled Everything about See also:Arithmetic, See also:Geometry and Proportion, by Luca Paciolo, which contains inter ilia an explanation of book-keeping by double-entry as then understood; but in all See also:probability, the system had then been in use for something like 200 years. It is perhaps unfortunate that from 1494 until comparatively recent times the literature of accounting has been provided by theorists and students, rather than by practical business men, and it may well be doubted, therefore, whether it accurately describes contemporary See also:procedure. Another illusion which it is necessary to expose in the interests of truth is the value attached to See also: Subsidiary books which do not form the basis of subsequent entries into the ledger, but are merely used for statistical purposes, are known as statistical or See also:auxiliary books. In the early days of book-keeping the ledger comprised merely those accounts which it was thought desirable to keep accessible, and was not a complete record of all transactions. Thus in many instances records were only kept of transactions with other business houses, known as See also:personal accounts. In the earliest examples transactions tending to reduce indebtedness were recorded in See also:order of date, as they occurred underneath transactions recording the creation of the indebtedness; and the amount of the reduction was subtracted from the sum of the indebtedness up to that date. This method was found to be inconvenient, and the next step was to keep one account of the transactions recording the creation of indebtedness and another account (called the contra account) of those transactions reducing or extinguishing it. For convenience these two accounts were kept on opposite sides of the ledger, and thus was evolved the Dr. and Cr. account as at present in general use: Dr. A.B. Contra. Cr. £ s. d. £ s. d. In this form of account all transactions creating indebtedness due from the person named therein to the business—that is to say, all benefits received by that person from the business—are recorded upon the left-hand, or Dr. side, and per contra all transactions representing benefits imparted by him, giving rise to a liability on the part of the business, are recorded upon the Cr. side. The account may run on indefinitely,but as a matter of convenience is usually ruled off each time all indebtedness is extinguished, and also at certain periodical intervals, so that the See also:state of the account may then be readily apparent. A mere collection of personal accounts is, however, obviously a very incomplete record of the transactions of any business, and does not suffice to enable a statement of its financial position to be prepared. So at an early date other accounts were added to the ledger, recording the acquisition of and disposal of different classes of See also:property, such accounts being generally known as real accounts. These accounts are kept upon the same principle as personal accounts, in that all expenditure upon the part of the business is recorded upon the Dr. side, and all receipts upon the Cr. side; the excess of the debit entries over the credit entries thus showing the value placed upon those assets that still remain the property of the business. With the aid of personal and real accounts properly written up to date, it is possible at any time to prepare a statement of assets and liabilities showing the financial position of a business, and the following is an example of such a statement, which shows also how the profit made by the business may be thus ascertained, assuming that the financial position at the commencement of the current financial period, and the movements of capital into and out of the business during the period, are capable of being ascertained. The method of accounting hitherto described represents single-entry, which—albeit manifestly incomplete—is still very generally used by small business houses, and particularly by See also:retail traders. Its essential weakness is that it provides no automatic check upon the clerical accuracy of the record, and, should any See also:mistake be made in the keeping of the books, or in the extraction therefrom of the lists of assets and liabilities, the statement of assets and liabilities and the profit or loss of the current financial period, will be incorrect to an equal extent. It was to avoid this obvious weakness of single-entry that the system of double-entry was evolved. The essential principle of double-entry is that it constitutes a complete record of every business transaction, and as these transactions are invariably See also:cross-dealings—involving simultaneously the receipt of a benefit by some one acrd the imparting of a benefit by some one—a complete record of transactions from both points of view necessitates an entry of equal amount upon debit and credit sides of the ledger. Hence it follows that, if the clerical work be correctly performed, the aggregate amount entered up upon the debit side of the ledger must at all times equal the aggregate amount entered up upon the credit side; and thus a complete See also:list of all ledger balances will show an agreement of the total debit balances with the total credit balances. Such a list is called a trial See also:balance, an example of which is given below. It should be observed, however, that the test supplied by the trial balance is a purely See also:mechanical one, and does not prove the absolute accuracy of the ledger as Date. Narrative. Amount. Date. Narrative. Amount. Slagle-entry accounts. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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