Publisher's Synopsis
Within these volumes are detailed a host of commodities, transactions, trading methods and practices which established Europe as the trading centre of the world for centuries. The post-medieval expansion of commerce brought merchants, traders, lawyers and bankers face to face with many unprecedented theoretical and practical problems. Before they could come to terms with a new business environment, they needed to devise new systems to record, monitor and control the financial aspects of trade. Books on the theory and practice of accounting date from the beginning of this great global expansion in trade, and to a large extent the practices they delineated determined its activity and progress. Most of the texts in the series were written as works of instruction for students and apprentices, or as practical guides for merchants and traders.
The texts in this second series, reprinted in facsimile, show the development of book keeping in the 350 years after Pacioli's exposition of the double entry in Summa de Arithmetica. The texts, in English, German, Italian, French, Spanish and Dutch, cover the entire scope of theory and practice in accounting and bookkeeping, and illustrate the spread of ideas between ascendant and declining powers in European trade in this period. The collection is based on the library of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in London, whose holdings in bookkeeping and accountancy are the finest in the world. Also in the series are included works from the collections of the British Library and two previously unknown works discovered by Professor Yamey and reproduced from the unique copies in the Economisch-Historische Bibliotheek in Amsterdam.
