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The history of accounting dates back to the Middle Ages about 6000 years before Christ where there were already necessary elements to consider the existence of accounting activities such as numbers and writing as well as the concept of property and the acceptance of a generalized unit of value, the most remote accounting testimony that is known is a clay tablet from Mesopotamia where they had developed a civilization where accounting was of great importance. -
Between 5400 and 3200 B.C., the first traces of a banking organization originated in the Red Temple of Babylon where offerings and deposits were received and presented with interest. -
By the year 5000 B.C., there were laws that required merchants to keep certain books in order to record their transactions. -
Around 3623 B.C., in Egypt, the pharaohs had scribes who, by order of their superiors, recorded the income and expenses of the sovereign in orderly order. -
In the year 2100 B.C., Hammurabi, who reigned in Babylon, made the famous codification that bears his name and in which the accounting practice is mentioned. -
The famous code of Hammurabi was promulgated in approximately 1700 BC bringing criminal laws, civil and commercial regulations. -
In the year 594 B.C., the legislation of Solomon, legally established that the council should appoint by lot among its members, ten legists, to build the "Court of Auditors", destined to entrust to officials, various administrative services that had to render annual accounts. -
Between 356 and 323 B.C., the heyday of Alexander the Great's empire, the market for goods grew to such an extent that it covered the Baltic Peninsula, Egypt and a large part of Asia Minor (India), giving rise to the exercise of adequate control over transactions by means of annotations. -
In Rome, persons engaged in the accounting activity left written testimony on tablets of ivory or other oblong-shaped animal bone with inscriptions showing the name of some slave or freedman, his master or employer and the date, as well as the notation of "Spectavit", i.e.. "Reviewed by". As a reliable testimony, from the year 85 B.C., the Romans kept an accounting consisting of two books, the "Adversaria" and the "Codex". -
Between the VI and IX centuries in Constantinople, the gold "Solidus" was issued with a weight of 4.5 grams, which became the most accepted currency in all international transactions, allowing through this homogeneous measure the accounting registration. For this reason, it is not unusual for Italian cities to reach a high level of knowledge and maximum development of accounting. -
In 1157, Ansaldus Boilardus, a Genoese notary, distributed profits from a commercial partnership, distribution based on the balance of the income and expenditure account divided in proportion to its investments. -
They are preserved since 1211 in Florence, accounts kept by an anonymous Florentine merchant with different characteristics to keep the books, a peculiar method that gave origin to the Florentine School, where the debit and credit go up side by side in different paragraphs each one. -
From the year 1327, we have news of the first auditor "Maestri Racionali", whose mission was to monitor and collate the work of the "Sasseri" and keep a duplicate of these books, one of these is called "Cartulari" (Ledger) written on parchment dating from 1340 and is preserved in the State Archives of Genoa. -
A new accounting advance appears between the years 1366 and 1400, where the books of Francesco Datini show the image of double-entry bookkeeping that involves, for the first time, proper patrimonial accounts, such antecedents being preserved in France. -
Without a doubt, the greatest author of his time was Friar Lucas de Paciolo, born in the village of San Sepulcro Toscaza in 1445, entered the monastery of St. Francis of Assisi at a young age, specialized in theology and mathematics, was a tireless traveler teaching his specialties in various universities in Rome, it is said that he lived in Milan with Leonardo de Vinci and due to the French invasion they moved to Florence, where he was secretary to the cardinal of the diocese. -
Benedetto Cotrugli Rangeo, born in Dalmatia, author of "Della mercatura et del mercante perfetto", a work he finished writing on August 25, 1458, is considered a pioneer in the study of double entry. -
In 1494, the paternity of accounting was attributed to an Italian monk named Friar Lucas Bartolomeo Pacciolo, who formalized a very primitive scheme to record the few mercantile operations carried out by the congregation of which he was a member.
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In 1494 a treatise by Fray Lucas de Paciolo entitled "Summa de aritmética, geometría, proportioni et proportionalita" was published, divided into two parts, the first in arithmetic and algebra and the second in geometry, the latter subdivided into eight sections, the last of these being the "Distincio nona tractus XI" entitled "Trattato de computi e delle scritture" which includes 36 chapters, considered that accounting in its application requires mathematical knowledge. -
In 1509 he made a new reprint of his treatise, but only the "Tractus XI" where he not only refers to the double entry registration system based on the axiom: "There is no debtor without a creditor", but also to the commercial practices concerning partnerships, sales, interests, bills of exchange, etc.
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Della mercatura et del mercante perfetto was published in 1573, a copy is preserved in the Library of Marciana - Venice. In this book, the chapter on accounting explicitly establishes the identity of the double entry, as well as the use of three books: "Notebook" (General Ledger), "Giornale" (Diary) and "Memoriale" (Draft), including a copy book of letters and the imperative need to teach accounting. -
Mercantilist expansionism was responsible for exporting double-entry bookkeeping to the new continent. However, in pre-Columbian America, accounting was a common activity among the settlers. It is from the 17th century onwards that the mercantile centers, independent professionals, emerged, with functions oriented primarily to monitor and review the veracity of accounting information. -
At the University of Pennsylvania in 1801, the teaching of accounting began, and from that time on, the other universities also included it. -
From the 19th century onwards, accounting underwent transcendental modifications due to the birth of speculations on the nature of accounts, thus creating schools, among which we can mention the personalist, value, abstract, juridical and positivist schools. In addition, the study of accounting principles began, tending to solve problems related to prices and the unit of measurement of value, etc. -
By means of the agreement of February 22, 1877, the first school of commerce was founded under the name of Escuela de Contabilidad de Honduras. -
In 1901, a 2-year curriculum was established after elementary school, which lasted until 1924, granting the title of bookkeeper. -
In 1911, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants was founded, dedicated to the study of accounting research.
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In 1925 the curriculum was reformed to 4 years and then extended to 5 years, granting the title of commercial expert, to which was added the title of public accountant. -
In 1957 the Ministry of Public Education established a curriculum, within the so-called Diversified Cycle for 3-year commercial studies, establishing as a requirement the Common Cycle of General Culture.