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records are kept in three distinct columns, dealing respectively with
the date of the transaction, its nature, and its money value. The
earliest extant example of accounts so kept is probably a ledger in the
Advocates' library at Edinburgh, dated 1697, which, it is of interest to
note, is ruled by hand. Prior to that time, however, double-entry
book-keeping had been in general use. The exact date of its introduction
is unknown; but it was certainly not, as has been frequently stated, the
invention of Lucas de Bergo, in or about 1494. This, however, is the
date of the first issue (at Venice) of a printed book entitled
_Everything about Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion_, by Luca Paciolo,
which contains _inter alia_ an explanation of book-keeping by
double-entry as then understood; but in all probability, the system had
then been in use for something like 200 years. It is perhaps unfortunate
that from 1494 until comparatively recent times the literature of
accounting has been provided by theorists and students, rather than by
practical business men, and it may well be doubted, therefore, whether
it accurately describes contemporary procedure. Another illusion which
it is necessary to expose in the interests of truth is the value
attached to _Jones's English System of Book-keeping by Single or Double
Entry_, published at Bristol in 1796. Before publishing this book, E.T.
Jones issued a prospectus, stating that he had patented an entirely new
and greatly improved system, and that subscribers (at a guinea a copy)
would be entitled to a special licence empowering them to put the new
invention into practice in their own book-keeping. With this bait he
secured thousands of subscribers, but so far as can be gathered his
system was entirely without merit, and it is chiefly of interest as
indicating the value, even then, of advertising.

Modern methods.

It is impossible here to describe fully all the improvements that have
been made in methods of accounting during recent years, but it is
proposed to deal with the more important of these improvements, after
the general principles upon which all systems of book-keeping are based
have been briefly described.

The centre of all book-keeping systems is the _ledger_, and it may be
said that all other books are only kept as a matter of practical
convenience--hence the name "subsidiary books" that is frequently
applied thereto. Inasmuch, however, as the transactions are first