Double-entry bookkeeping
Contabilidad por partida doble
- Date
- 1340 · confidence medium
- Place
- Genoa, Italy (commune ledgers)
- Credited to
- Genoese and Florentine accountants (codified by Luca Pacioli in 1494)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A system in which every transaction is recorded twice (debit and credit) so that the books balance and profit and net worth can be calculated. The basis of modern economic rationality.
The Genoese ledgers of 1340 are the first complete example; earlier Florentine fragments exist (c. 1296–1300).
What it led to
- large-scale trading firms and capital companies
- the concept of calculated profit and the 'spirit of capitalism' (Sombart, Weber)
- auditing, the balance sheet and quantitative economics
Built on
- Negative numbers and sign rulesc. 100 BCE
- Indian decimal place-value numeralsc. 450 CE
- Hindu-Arabic numerals in Europe976
- Zero and positional notation in Europe (Fibonacci)1202
- Liber Abaci and the Fibonacci sequence1202
- Bill of exchangec. 1250
- Hindu-Arabic numerals in Europe
- Bill of exchange
- Tuscan merchants' accounts (Fini, Farolfi c. 1300)