Note 145-4 — CHAPTER 1.

In the East, a valuation by one's self of his property is considered a guilty kind of pride, usually punished by the loss of one's possessions. (Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, I, 72 ff.) See Samuel, 24, on the census made by David. The Egyptians, however, as may be inferred from their monuments, must have very early and very extensively felt the want of some kind of book-keeping such as we have mentioned. A very accurate sort of book-keeping among the more highly[TN 2] cultured Romans, with a daily memorandum and a monthly book with entries from the former (adversaria-tabula expensi et accepti). Compare Cicero, pro Roscio, com. 2, 3; pro Cluent, 30; Verr., II, 1, 23, 36. The Latin putare, from putus, pure, means: to make an account clear, and therefore corresponds to the American provincialism, "I reckon," i. e., I believe; and is a remarkable proof of a rigid method of keeping accounts. The Italian, or so-called double-entry method of book-keeping, which gives the most accurate information on the profit from every separate branch of business, became usual among the nations of modern Europe whose civilization was the first to ripen, about the end of the fifteenth century. Its invention is ascribed to the monk Luca Paciolo di Borgo S. Sepolcro.

In England, this kind of book-keeping is very gradually coming into use even among farmers, while Simond, Voyage en Angleterre, 2 ed., II, 64, Dunoyer, Liberté du Travail, VIII, 5, say, "it would in France be considered as ridiculous as the book-keeping of an apple vendor." In Germany, there have been for some time past, manufactories of commercial books. Besides, the remarkable difference brought out by the income tax in England between the exact statements made by large manufacturers, etc., and by those engaged in industry on a medium or small scale, bears evidence of the better way in which the former keep their accounts, the cause and effect of their better business in general. Compare Knies, in the Tübing. Zeitschr., 1854, 513. On the best mode of determining income, see Cazaux, Eléments d'Économie publique et privée, Livre, II. It is especially necessary to keep an account of the increase or diminution, even when accidental, of the value of the fixed capital employed.