ACCOUNT (through O. Fr. acont, Late Lat. comptum, computare, to calculate), counting, reckoning, especially of moneys paid and received, hence a statement made as to the receipt and payment of moneys; also any statement as to acts or conduct, or quite simply any narrative report of events, &c. A further sense-development is that of esteem, consideration.
As a stock-exchange term “account” is used in several senses. (1) The periodical settlements occurring, in London, monthly for British government and a few other first-class securities, and fortnightly for all others. The settlement extends over four days in mining shares and three days in other securities. The first day is the carry-over, “contango,” or making-up, day, on which speculative commitments are carried over, or continued: that is, the bulls, who have bought stock for the rise, arrange the rate of interest that they have to give on their stock to a moneylender, or bear, who will pay for it or take it in for them; and the bears, who have sold for the fall, arrange the rate that they receive from the bulls or, if the stock is scarce and oversold, the backwardation or rate that they have to pay to holders of the stock who will lend it them to enable them to complete their bargains. On the second day, called ticket-day or name day, a ticket giving the name and address of the ultimate buyer and the firm which will pay for the stock is passed through the various intermediaries to the ultimate seller, so that the actual transfer of the stock can be made directly. In the mining market the passing of names takes two days. On the last day, account day, pay day or settling day, cheques are paid to meet speculative differences, or against the delivering of stock. (2) The period between two settlements. A nineteen-day account is one in which nineteen days elapse between one pay-day and another. (3) The volume or condition of commitments. A speculator is said to have a large account open when he has dealt heavily either for the rise or fall. A bull account exists in a stock or group of stocks when it or they have been bought for the rise by a large number of operators; in the contrary case, when there have been heavy sales for the fall, a bear account is developed.
ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL, formerly an officer in the English Court of Chancery, who received all moneys lodged in court, and by whom they were deposited in bank and disbursed. The office was abolished by the Chancery Funds Act 1872, and the duties transferred to the paymaster-general (q.v.).
ACCOUNTANTS. The term “accountant” is one to which, of late years, its original meaning has been more generally attributed—that of an expert in the science of book-keeping. It is sometimes adopted by book-keepers, but this is an erroneous application of the term; it properly describes those competent to design and control the systems of accounts required for the record of the multifarious and rapid transactions of trade and finance. It assumes the possession of a wide knowledge of the principles upon which accountancy is based, which may be shortly described as constituting a science by means of which all mercantile and financial transactions, whether in money or in money’s worth, including operations completed and engagements undertaken to be fulfilled at once or in a future, however remote, may be recorded; and this science comprises a knowledge of the methods of preparing statistics, whether relating to finance or to any transactions or circumstances which can be stated by numeration, and of ascertaining or estimating on correct bases the cost of any operation whether in money, in commodities, in time, in life or in any wasting property. Generally, accountancy may be described as being the science by means of which all operations, as far as they are capable of being shown in figures, are accurately recorded and their results ascertained and stated.
The origin of the profession of accountancy in Great Britain is difficult to trace; auditors of accounts were naturally of very early existence, being mentioned as officers of importance in the statutes of Westminster in the reign of Edward I. The art of accountancy on a scientific principle must certainly have been understood History.in Italy before 1495, when Friar Luca dal Borgo published at Venice his treatise on book-keeping; but the first known English book on the science was published in London by John Gouge or Gough in 1543. It is described as A Profitable Treatyce called the Instrument or Boke to learn to knowe the good order of the kepyng of the famouse reconynge, called in Latin, Dare and Habere, and, in Englyshe, Debitor and Creditor. A short book of instruction was also published in 1588 by John Mellis of Southwark, in which he says, “I am but the renuer and reviver of an auncient old copie printed here in London the 14 of August 1543: collected, published, made, and set forth by one Hugh Oldcastle, Scholemaster, who, as appeareth by his treatise, then taught Arithmetike, and this booke in Saint Ollaves parish in Marke Lane.” John Mellis refers to the fact that the principle of accounts he explains (which is a simple system of double entry) is “after the forme of Venice.” The very interesting and able book described as The Merchants Mirrour, or directions for the perfect ordering and keeping of his accounts; framed by way of Debitor and Creditor, after the (so tearmed) Italian manner, by Richard Dafforne, accountant, published in 1635, contains many references to early books on the science of accountancy. In a chapter in this book, headed “Opinion of Book-keeping’s Antiquity,” the author states, on the authority of another writer, that the form of book-keeping referred to had then been in use in Italy about two hundred years, “but that the same, or one in many parts very like this, was used in the time of Julius Caesar, and in Rome long before.” He gives quotations of Latin book-keeping terms in use in ancient times, and refers to “ex Oratione Ciceronis pro Roscio Comaedo”; and he adds: “That the one side of their booke was used for Debitor, the other for Creditor, is manifest in a certaine place, Naturalis Historiae Plinii, lib. 2, cap. 7, where hee, speaking of Fortune, saith thus:
Huic Omnia Expensa.
Huic Omnia Feruntur accepta et in tota Ratione mortalium sola Utramque Paginam facit.”
An early Dutch writer appears to have suggested that double-entry book-keeping was even in existence among the Greeks, pointing to scientific accountancy having been invented in remote times.
There were several editions of Richard Dafforne’s book printed—the second edition having been published in 1636, the third in 1656, and another was issued in 1684. The book is a very complete treatise on scientific accountancy, it was beautifully prepared and contains elaborate explanations; the numerous editions tend to prove that the science was highly appreciated in the 17th century. From this time there has been a continuous supply of literature on the subject, many of the authors styling themselves accountants and teachers of the art, and thus proving that the professional accountant was then known and employed. Very early in the 18th century the services of an accountant practising in the city of London were made use of in the course of an investigation into the transactions of a director of the South Sea Company, who had been dealing in the company’s stock. During this investigation the accountant appears to have examined the books of at least two firms of merchants. His report is described Observations made upon examining the books of Sawbridge and Company, by Charles Snell, Writing Master and Accountant in Foster Lane, London.
In 1799, when Holden’s Triennial Directory of London, Westminster and Southwark was first published, 11 individuals and firms were therein described as accountants; in the same directory, for the period 1809–1811, the number had risen to 24; and in that for 1822–1824, there were 73 firms of practising accountants recorded.
The earliest English books dealing with scientific book-keeping were written at a time when the English and Dutch were very actively engaged in foreign trade, in succession to the Italian merchants of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries; but it was not until the beginning of the 19th century that, in consequence of the adoption Modern development.of improved methods of manufacture and transit, resulting from the application of water and steam power to manufactures and methods of conveyance which largely increased the trade of Great Britain, the profession of an accountant became one which men of scientific knowledge and capacity adopted for
