A concise history of analytical accounting: examining the use of mathematical notions in our discipline.

Este trabajo ofrece una sucinta revisión de los métodos de matemática analítica empleados en teneduría de libros y contabilidad durante los últimos cinco milenios. The paper offers a succinct survey of analytical-mathematical methods as employed in bookkeeping and accounting during some five millennia.Historia de la contabilidad analítica, uso de nociones matemáticas, álgebra matricial, information perspectiva, clean surplus theory, teoría matemática de la agencia. History of analytical accounting, use of mathematical notions, matrix algebra, information perspective, clean surplus theory, mathematical agency theory.

From accounting to negative numbers: A signal contribution of medieval India to mathematics

The major object of this paper is to present evidence for arguing that the highly developed Hindu accounting tradition, beginning with Kautilya\u27s Arthasastra about 300 b.c., or even earlier, may have had a part in the more receptive attitude of medieval Indian mathematicians, compared to Europeans, in accepting negative numbers. The Hindus justified this attitude by arguing that having a debt is the inverse of possessing an asset; thus, attributing a negative number to a debt but a positive one to an asset. To advance the argument, the paper shows that the accounting aspect of debt is at least as basic as its legalistic one. Indeed, the former can be traced to the 4th millennium b.c. or earlier, while the first known legal codes go back only to the 3rd millennium b.c. However, there are other angles from which to examine the relation between accounting and negative numbers. Some accountants [e.g., Peters and Emery, 1978] believe that the long-standing hesitation of European mathematicians to accept negative numbers contributed to the accountants\u27 debit/credit scheme, while others [e.g, Scorgie, 1989] deny this view. But this controversy concerns rather the influence of negative numbers upon accounting. It neglects to investigate the reverse possibility; namely, the influence of accounting upon the Indian mathematicians\u27 early acceptance of negative numbers. Thus, this paper first reviews concisely, for the sake of contrast, the arguments between Peters and Emery [1978] and Scorgie [1989]; then it elaborates on the long-standing resistance of Western mathematicians to legitimizing negative numbers (which, in its entirety, did not happen before the 19th century); and, finally, it discusses the very different attitude of medieval Indian mathematicians, who were the first to accept negative magnitudes as numbers (e.g., Brahmagupta, 7th century a.d., Bhaskara, 12th century a.d.). Their interpretation of a negative number as representing debt as a basic accounting and legal notion may have been conditioned by the longstanding accounting tradition of India since the 3rd century b.c. or before

Accounting Books of Argentina: Publications, Research and Institutional Background.

La literatura contable en lengua inglesa ofrece relativamente poca información sobre las investigaciones y publicaciones realizadas en Latinoamérica, tanto en el pasado como en la actualidad. Con el objetivo de contribuir a cerrar la brecha, hemos investigado esta temática en la Argentina. The English accounting literature offers relatively little insight into past and current research and publication efforts in Latin America. In trying to fill some of this gap we investigated this issue from the viewpoint of Argentina.Argentina, siglo 20, contabilidad, instituciones, publicaciones, autores, investigación. Argentina, 20th century, accounting, institutions, publications, authors, research.

Oldest writings, and inventory tags of Egypt

Gunter Dreyer\u27s Umm El-Quaab I: Das pradynastische Konigsgrab U-j und seine fruhen Schriftzeugnisse presents comprehensively the results of archaeological diggings in the tomb U-j. It also outlines Dreyer\u27s claim to have discovered the origin of writing. The primary aspect of this review essay is to draw the attention of accounting historians to Dreyer\u27s book and to the claim therein to have discovered the earliest known writing. Since this discovery is closely connected to an accounting function (though in a somewhat different way from that of the Sumerian proto-cuneiform writing), a review of Dreyer\u27s book is well justified. Dreyer\u27s claim is based on a series of small inventory tags (identifying in proto-hieroglyphics the provenance of various commodities) found in the tomb of King Scorpion I (c.3400 B.C. to 3200 B.C.).1 Another aspect of this review is a discussion of the controversy surrounding Dreyer\u27s claim and the counter-hypothesis of accounting archaeology

Follow-up to: Recent insights into Mesopotamian accounting of the 3rd millennium B.C.: Correction to Table 1

In the following, the corrected version of Table 1 to the above-mentioned paper [Mattessich, 1998] is shown. The author apologizes for having supplied (on p. 16) an obsolete version (based on incorrect conversion rates). In consequence, the figures of this table did not match with the figures of the first 17 lines of the commentary in the subsequent section, UNEXPLAINED DISCREPANCIES AND OTHER ITEMS TO BE CLARIFIED (p. 17). The present version does match this original commentary (a proof that two versions of the table got switched erroneously). However, I ask the reader to regard my interpretations of Nissen et al. [1993] as a preliminary attempt by an accountant, hardly familiar with the intricacies of Sumerian language and measurement systems. As was repeatedly hinted at, this area is worthy of continuing research

Prehistoric accounting and the problem of representation: On recent archeological evidence of the Middle-East from 8000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.

Recent archeological research offers revolutionary insight about the precursor of abstract counting and pictographic as well as ideographic writing. This precursor was a data processing system in which simple (and later complex) clay tokens of various shapes were aggregated in hollow clay receptacles or envelopes (and later sealed string systems) to represent symbolically assets and economic transactions. Scores of such tokens (the recent explanation of which is due to Prof. Schmandt-Besserat) were found by archeologists all over the Fertile Crescent in layers belonging to the time between 8000 B.C. to 3100 B.C. : after this date cuneiform clay tablets emerged

Recent insights into Mesopotamian accounting of the 3rd millennium B.C. -- Successor to token accounting

This paper examines from an accounting perspective recent work by Nissen et al. [1993], here regarded as an extension of the archaeological research of Schmandt-Besserat [1977, 1992] and its analysis by Mattessich [1987, 1994]. The transition from the 4th millennium B.C. to the 3rd millennium b.c. featured the use of proto-cuneiform and cuneiform accounting techniques to replace the older token accounting. This research reinforces the previously made hypothesis [Mattessich, 1987] that the inserting of tokens into a clay container during the last phase of token accounting corresponded to debit entries, while the impressing of tokens on the surface of the container was meant to convey the credit total of an equity. Similarly, in proto-cuneiform bookkeeping, debit entries appear again on one side while the credit total appears on the reverse side, but this time on the clay tablets. Yet, the research also leads to the hypothesis that the closed double-entry system of token accounting could not be maintained in the archaic bookkeeping of the subsequent period where, apparently, a debit/credit scheme was used in which only some but not all entries had counter-entries. Finally, the paper illustrates important labor production aspects of archaic bookkeeping and cost accounting which are contrasted to modern budgeting and standard costing

Accounting research in Spain: second half of the 20th century.

Este trabajo aborda el análisis de la literatura contable en España, limitado temporalmente a la segunda mitad del siglo XX y algo más. This paper deals with accounting literature in Spain, though mainly limited to the second half of the 20th century or slightly beyond.España, contabilidad, publicaciones, investigación, teoría, auditoría, contabilidad de costes, desde 1950. Spain, accounting, publications, research, theory, auditing, cost accounting, beginning with 1950.

An axiomatic basis of accounting: a structuralist reconstruction

Set-theoretic axiomatizations are given for a model of accounting with double c1assification, and a general core-model for accounting. The empirical status, and "representational" role of systems of accounts, as weIl as the problem of how to assign "correct" values to the goods accounted, are analyzed in precise terms. A net of special laws based on the core-model is described