Editorial

We have clear evidence that interest in accounting history is growing, that more good articles are being submitted than ever before, and that subscribers are getting exceptional value for money. May this happy state of affairs continue

Accountants\u27 writing tools

Thanks to Professor Denise Schmandt-Besserat, we now believe that we understand the origins of writing, and accountants are eager to associate their art with early attempts to demonstrate accountability. Very little attention, however, has been devoted to the medium, as distinct from the message, and in particular, to the tools and materials accountants use. One hundred years ago an English journalist pronounced In so far as the perfection of materials for writing is concerned, we may have little to hope for in this country. Paper and ink, he thought, were so perfectly adjusted to their purpose that it: was hard to imagine how they could be improved. There is an area here for accounting research

How wrong was Sombart?

Werner Sombart, a political economist of some note, was born and died in Germany. He studied law, economics, history and philosophy at the Universities of Berlin, Rome, and Pisa, and eventually became professor of economics in Berlin. The so-called Sombart Propositions have received considerable attention in recent accounting literature. In fact, Sombart went so far as to state that the introduction of accounting was of the highest importance for the development of capitalism, and clearly, such perception deserves special study

Loans of ancient Rome

At the start of the Roman period, the epoch of the patrician tribes, families lived from the cultivation of the land; trade was insignificant. Loans were made for the purpose of surviving until the next harvest, which would be abundant enough to permit repayment of the loan. Thus, a loan would be made for less than one year. The creditor had power of life and death over his debtor, who, knowing that his life, or at least his liberty, was in danger, would hardly be likely to want a long-term loan

Editorial

lt takes a long time for an editor to have a noticeable effect on the contents of a publication such as The Accounting Historians Journal. The Accounting Historians Journal has demonstrated standards of accounting scholarship and intellectual integrity that must eventually convince more and more accounting students to start their pursuit of knowledge in its pages

Accounting and the invention of writing

In Vol. 3, No. 2 The Accounting Historians Notebook (Fall, 1980) Professor Louis Goldberg expressed the wish to know whether the view that accounting antedated writing would now represent a generally accepted attitude among present day archaeologists and prehistorians. An earlier issue of the Notebook mentioned the work of Professor Denise Schmandt-Besserat of the University of Texas at Austin, who has made significant discoveries in this field. (See, for example, Reckoning before Writing , Archaeology, Vol. 32, No. 3 (1979), pp. 23-31, and The Earliest Precursor of Writing , Scientific American, Vol. 238, No. 6, (June 1968)

Book Reviews [1974, Vol. 1, nos. 1-4]

Books reviewed are: Ellis Mast Sowell, The Evolution of the Theories and Techniques of Standard Costs Reviewed by Kenneth S. Most; James Ole Winjum, The Role of Accounting in the Economic Development of England: 1500-1750 Reviewed by Marc J. Epstein; Michael Chatfield, A History of Accounting Thought Reviewed by Turgut Var; Michael E. Parrish, Securities Regulation and the New Deal Reviewed by Hugh Hughes