AGE OF RECORD KEEPING

The objective of record keeping was at maintaining integrity and discovering misappropriation. Some of the most ancient records are on clay tablets. In accounting history, in Mesopotamia, it was indicate considerable attachment to written record keeping. When an Egypt papyrus was introduced, it was easily handled and stored. Records were important as they reminded owners of the quantities of stores held and enabled owners to control the activities of their stewards.

A steward’s local powers were considerable. Stewards might understate the natural increase of livestock, or make good any trading losses from money accumulated, holding back surpluses and so on. From the mid-fourteenth century, written accounts and knowledge of standard level of achievement became more widespread and, as a consequence, the control of the steward became less direct (Noke 1991).

Written forms of accounting became more common and accounting became increasingly reliant on documentation rather than ceremonial oath-taking. But, there was a problem in using the Roman numerals. Edwards (1981, p. 47) observes that the use of Arabic numerals was resisted on the ground that they could be more easily changed for fraudulent purposes.

Thompson argues, more robust and public, and therefore better suited to larger firms continuously engaged in shipping ventures. The oral testimony from trusted family servants, though useful to report regular domestic transactions, was less suited to reporting an irregular series of transactions to several partners, especially where direct control could not be exercised. Writing also contained rhetorical elements that were more dialectic and available to subsequent analysis by a range of partners.

In the traditional domestic trades, illiterate merchants could flourish without written records. Written