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oapen-20.500.12657-748262023-08-03T17:59:41Z Chapter Bookkeeping as a ‘key technology’ of pre-modern commerce. Its relevance for the eco-nomic development in Europe Denzel, Markus A. Accounting (double-entry) bookkeeping commerce economic development entrepreneurial risk growth merchants’ treatises bic Book Industry Communication::J Society & social sciences::JH Sociology & anthropology::JHB Sociology It is the aim of this paper to analyse the importance of (double-entry) bookkeeping for the economic development in Europe and its possible indirect influence on economic growth. Being one of the most important commercial techniques of the European merchants double-entry bookkeeping stayed in close relationship to the expansion of trade. So, the distribution of different bookkeeping techniques all over Western and Central Europe, took place, on one hand, through the extensive commercial contacts of Italian merchant-bankers with merchants of regions north of the Alps and because of the need of many non-Italian merchants to consolidate their commercial knowledge in Italy through specific studies and/or through acquiring practical knowledge. On the other, treaties on (double-entry) bookkeeping supported its diffusion. The study analyses examples of ledgers as ‘mirrors’ of their enterprises’ activities, and it will be shown how such ledgers served as instruments for reducing various risks of entrepreneurial engagement. As a result it will become clear that the knowledge of the technique of double-entry bookkeeping was one of the preconditions of the commercial and, later on, the industrial expansion of the Europeans, which made a significant difference to other merchant cultures in the world. 2023-08-03T15:02:55Z 2023-08-03T15:02:55Z 2023 chapter ONIX_20230803_9791221500929_22 9791221500929 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/74826 eng Datini Studies in Economic History application/pdf Attribution 4.0 International 9791221500929-14.pdf https://books.fupress.com/doi/capitoli/979-12-215-0092-9_14 Firenze University Press L’economia della conoscenza: innovazione, produttività e crescita economica nei secoli XIII-XVIII / The knowledge economy: innovation, productivity and economic growth, 13th to 18th century 10.36253/979-12-215-0092-9.14 10.36253/979-12-215-0092-9.14 bf65d21a-78e5-4ba2-983a-dbfa90962870 9f9bbbdd-c500-4575-9865-db2693689bc1 9791221500929 3 27 Florence open access
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It is the aim of this paper to analyse the importance of (double-entry) bookkeeping for the economic development in Europe and its possible indirect influence on economic growth. Being one of the most important commercial techniques of the European merchants double-entry bookkeeping stayed in close relationship to the expansion of trade. So, the distribution of different bookkeeping techniques all over Western and Central Europe, took place, on one hand, through the extensive commercial contacts of Italian merchant-bankers with merchants of regions north of the Alps and because of the need of many non-Italian merchants to consolidate their commercial knowledge in Italy through specific studies and/or through acquiring practical knowledge. On the other, treaties on (double-entry) bookkeeping supported its diffusion. The study analyses examples of ledgers as ‘mirrors’ of their enterprises’ activities, and it will be shown how such ledgers served as instruments for reducing various risks of entrepreneurial engagement. As a result it will become clear that the knowledge of the technique of double-entry bookkeeping was one of the preconditions of the commercial and, later on, the industrial expansion of the Europeans, which made a significant difference to other merchant cultures in the world.
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