Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

book, bill books, invoice books, sales book, warehouse ledger, or stock book, cash book, adventure book, &c. There are also other subsidiary books, such as the account current book, petty cash book, day book, cash sales book, order book, letter book, &c.

The journal is made up, or posted, from the waste book and its subdivisions, and is a technical transcript thereof, to facilitate the entry of the items into the ledger.

The ledger accounts, in double entry, are designated, according to their nature, either personal or impersonal, and are generally divided as follows, viz.-stock, cash, bills receivable, bills payable, merchandise, accounts with persons, profit and loss and balance. The merchandise and profit and loss accounts are generally subdivided into different branches.

The ledger contains a synopsis or condensed summary of the transactions connected with the particular business carried on. It has been well called " a book of results," in which the particular facts scattered throughout the primary books are collected, arranged and classified, and is a "tabular centralization of the subordinate books and the final instrument of the balance sheet."-Foster's Double Entry Elucidated.

Balancing may be said to be the key to book-keeping, and the correctness of the result depends entirely upon the accuracy with which we have performed that process. The object in balancing is to ascertain the gains or losses for any particular period, and the present amount of assets and liabilities. The present net amount of assets must, of course, be equal to the net stock at the commencement of business, or at any subsequent period of stock-taking, or "rest," together with the net profits from that time. That proof of

the correctness of the accounts is worked out and made to appear by the "stock," "profit and loss," and "balance" accounts, and when they agree the proof is considered complete.

Some ardent admirers of the system of double entry have likened its proofs to those of mathematics,

The

comparison, however, cannot safely be supported. It is no doubt a primary axiom in the exact sciences that "the whole is equal to the sum of all its parts," and on that foundation the admirers of book-keeping by double entry have endeavoured to rest the superstructure of that system. A certain amount of error, however, is inseparable from any system that can be devised by man. "Perfection in anything human never has been and never can be attained." The fundamental principles of double entry, like the axioms of mathematics, are immutable and infallible; but, in practice, they are exposed to the imperfections of the accountant, from intentional neglect or accidental perversion. Errors of equal amount may occur in various ways, on both sides of the accounts, though they may still appear correct, as regards their equilibrium. A great advantage arises from the "weekly statement" in the following system (the form of which is shown in the Petty Cash Book), obviating, as it does,-in connection with the petty cash book,-the necessity of keeping "a duplicate bankers book," and proving also, the correctness of the accounts, as certainly as, but far more simply than, by double entry, when the balances agree.

Book-keeping being a science as well as an art, the principles of the science must be studied by those who wish to work out their practical application without difficulty. Many excellent treatises on the subject might be recommended for this purpose, amongst which (with reference especially to double entry) the author would mention Foster's Double Entry Elucidated,* used at the City of London School, and—as to accounts generally and partnership-Mr. Cory's work, already referred to.

"In all studies the mind must begin by learning principles, without a knowledge of which it would be

* The author expresses himself as being much indebted to Mr. Foster, for the use made by the author, in these pages, of the work above mentioned.

constantly falling into error." "When we teach the principles of any science, we are, as it were, raising a wide floodgate through which knowledge may rush in a full and copious flood."

When those principles, or truths, are applied to practical purposes, as in the rules of book-keeping, science then becomes art.

A great fault in the mode of teaching book-keeping has been that of allowing the rules of art to be worked out arbitrarily and dogmatically, without a previous or concurrent knowledge of the principles of the science.

The great desiderata in the study of this subject are "close reasoning" and "correct habits of thinking."

"From the most elementary knowledge to the highest speculations, one method of instruction is universally applicable. This consists, first, in carefully examining the constituent parts of any object, that is, in analysing it; secondly, in classifying, and separately considering these component parts; thirdly, in reconstructing the object, that is, in operating by synthesis.”

The author concludes these few observations by adding the following extracts from other works:

"To the mercantile system of accounts we attach the highest value. As a science, it comes to us with the powerful recommendation not only of long experience, but of high authority,-of those engaged in the active pursuits of life, and of those who have surveyed its concerns with the eye of philosophy. The Italian method of book-keeping affords unquestionably valuable facilities for unravelling and elucidating complex accounts; and we are satisfied that no person without a knowledge of it can be a perfect accountant.”— Report on the Public Accounts.

"The counting-house of an accomplished merchant is a school of method, where the science may be learned of arranging particulars under generals, of bringing the different parts of a transaction together, and of showing at one view, a long series of dealings and exchanges. Let no one venture into business while

he is ignorant of the method of regulating books; never let him imagine that any degree of natural ability will enable him to supply this deficiency."— Dr. Johnson.

Professor De Morgan's learned work on Arithmetic contains some excellent remarks on the subject of bookkeeping. See also Jones's work on the English Systems of Book-keeping by Single and Double Entry, &c., 1834. A useful work on the subject is published by Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh. Amongst the recent works on Solicitors' Book-keeping should be mentioned those of Mr. Kain, Mr. Richardson, and Mr. Oke.

A FEW REMARKS CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF ACCOUNTS AND BOOK-KEEPING.

The subject of accounts is so interwoven with that of arithmetic, that it is impossible to treat of the former without referring to the latter.

A variety of evidence testifies to the fact that the system of notation which we call Arabic, was in use amongst the Hindoos many centuries before the Arabians became possessed of a knowledge of it. In the eleventh century of the Christian era, the Moors became possessed of portions of Spain, and established there a flourishing kingdom, where the favourite sciences of their eastern ancestors were cultivated with great activity and success, and from that quarter, as well as from the Moors in Africa, those sciences appear chiefly to have been communicated to the Spaniards and other Europeans.

Amongst the nations of antiquity the Phoenicians are considered to have been the most commercial. The early enterprises, the great commerce, and the numerous colonies of that people, have caused their history to be interwoven with that of almost every nation of antiquity. Tyre was called "a mart of nations." Her merchants were princes, her traffickers "the honourable of the earth." (Isaiah c. xxiii.) Herodotus and other ancient authors mention the commercial voyages of the Phonicians. In the prophecies of Ezekiel, who flourished 260 years before the fall of Tyre, and who conveys a magnificent idea of her commerce, we have the most particular account of the nature and variety of her commercial transactions that is to be found in any ancient writer : (Ezekiel c. xxvii.) From that "mart of nations" all the

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »