Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.64 (826 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B007Q6XKA8 |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 164 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-03-31 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Luca Pacioli—monk, mathematician, alchemist, and friend of Leonardo da Vinci—incorporated Arabic mathematics to formulate a system that could work across all trades and nations. As Jane Gleeson-White reveals, double-entry accounting was nothing short of revolutionary: it fueled the Renaissance, enabled capitalism to flourish, and created the global economy. “Lively history. Shows double entry’s role in the creation of the accounting profession, and even of capitalism itself.”—The New YorkerFilled with colorful characters and history, Double Entry takes us from the ancient origins of accounting in Mesopotamia to the frontiers of modern finance. Yet double-entry accounting has had its failures. At the heart of the story is double-entry bookkeeping: the first system that allowed merchants to actually measure the worth of their businesses. With the costs of sudden corporate collapses such as Enron and Lehman Brothers, and its disregard of environmental and human costs, the time may have come to re-create it for the future.. John Maynard Keynes would use it to calculate GDP, the measure of a nation’s wealth
. Jane Gleeson-White is the author of Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance, which won the 2012 Waverley Library Award for Literature. Gleeson-White has degrees in economics and literature from the University of Sydney
"A Great Informative Read" according to The Peripatetic Reader. This is not your ordinary history book. In Double Entry, Gleeson-White transforms what is ordinarily the dull and boring subject of accounting -- think of all those Monty Python jokes about Chartered Accountants -- and turned it into an exciting, lively, and relevant history. Gleeson-White's narrative is lively, highly readable and well-research in an otherwise obscure area. She has woven this lively read into a unique insight of the role the Double Entry accounting system has played in making and ultimately un-making the modern world, financial and otherwise.The Double Entry system of accounting is a relatively new phenomeno. Glimpsing the soul of Double Entry Andrew Maffei I have a close friend that alerted me to the importance of Double Entry Bookkeeping (DEB) in society six years ago. He had several personal stories to tell about his early work life as an apprentice at General Electric in Lynn MA back in the 50s and how the double-entry pattern pervaded all departments -- machine shop, drafting, parts-assembly, etc. He introduced me to Pacioli, Pacioli's collaboration with Da Vinci, and the insistence that the double-entry pattern is something more fundamental to human-beings, their society, and science. It's something that goes beyond commerce and finance.My gut has always told me that my fr. "Double Entry (AKA Debit/Credit)" according to My Opinion. This is an amazing story of the birth of the accounting method known as "double entry" that is still used today. As an accounting major in college, I remember hearing the name Luca Pacioli, but none of my accounting courses dwelled on the man or the time in history that he occupied. After working in the accounting profession as a certified public accountant and as a corporate financial officer with a publicly-traded corporation, I have finally learned of the origins of my profession.The history that the author explores is fascinating. From the development of double entry accounting to aid the merchants of Venice to the spread
This dynamic examination of the impact and legacy of double-entry bookkeeping is sure to appeal to those in the accounting profession, business leaders, and history buffs, and will likely become required reading in business school curricula.” - Publishers Weekly. Lively and elegantly written account of the history of double-entry bookkeeping. “A stimulating approach that presents a compelling outline for further detailed review.” - Kirkus Reviews“Starred review