ADMASS UNIVERSITY

Principles of Accounting I

CH-1 Part I. Evolution of Accounting
Accounting is an old and time –honored discipline .History indicates that all developed societies require certain accounting records. Record keeping is an accounting sense is thought to have begun about 4000 B.C. The record keeping, control & verification problems of the ancient world had many characteristics similar to those we encounter today. For example, ancient government also kept records of receipts and disbursements and used procedures to check the honesty and reliability of employees.
A study of the evolution of accounting suggests that accounting processes have developed primarily in response to business needs. Also, economic progress has affected the development of accounting processes. History shows that the higher the levels of civilization, the more elaborate the accounting methods.

1.1 Primitive Accounting
People in all civilizations have maintained various types of records of business activities. The oldest known are clay tablet records of the payment of wages in
Babylonia around 3,600 B.C. There are numerous evidences of record keeping and systems of accounting control in ancient Egypt and in the Greek city– states. The earliest known English records were compiled at the direction of
William the conqueror in the eleventh century to ascertain the financial resources of the kingdom. Even though they used it in different activities,
Primitive accounting had various shortcomings. Complete accounting for an enterprise developed some what

later in response to the needs of the

commercial republics of Italy.

Taddesse; oct. 2015

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ADMASS UNIVERSITY

Principles of Accounting I

Limitations of Primitive Accounting
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It dealt only with limited aspects of the financial operations of Private or governmental enterprises.

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