How did the ancient people keep accounts, and what were the ancient settlers called

In ancient times, the bookkeeper was called Mr. Bookkeeper, and the so-called Mr. Bookkeeper in ancient times was actually a modern accountant.

With the progress and development of society, it has gradually evolved into a professional service industry, which is called an accounting company, a financial company, a first-class accounting company, etc. Whatever the title, his function is to establish accounts, keep accounts, and manage the finances under his jurisdiction. Today, Mr. Bookkeeper is an Internet financial management platform under Hunan Jiu Internet City Internet Information Consulting.

Historical origin: Yu for public welfare to build the earliest national tax system, with the tax system naturally has accounting and auditing work, in Shaoxing's Huiji Mountain Yu gathered the country's princes, held the first accounting and auditing conference in Chinese history and even the history of the world, and created the accounting and auditing system. The oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty also contain texts about accounting matters.

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was an official position dedicated to accounting for official financial revenues and expenditures, the Sihui, and the method of "monthly annual accounting" (sporadic calculation is counted, and total calculation is a meeting) was adopted for financial revenue and expenditure.

In the Western Han Dynasty, there were also account books called "counting books" or "books" to register accounting matters. Later dynasties had officials to manage the revenue and expenditure of money, grain, taxes, and goods.

In the official hall of the Song Dynasty, to handle the reimbursement or transfer of money and grain, it was necessary to compile a "four-pillar inventory". At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, with the development of handicrafts and commerce, the "Longmen Ledger" based on the four pillars appeared, and after that, the "Four-legged Ledger" (also known as the "Heaven and Earth Combined Account") appeared.

Because the account book records the flow of accounts, and there are some information and code words between each other. All the customer information of the merchant, the cost of raw materials, channels, salary information and other important content.

In the case of this search for Hu Yu, once the account is lost, the bookkeeper sometimes cannot recall it in time, which can only be particularly sad, so for the ancients, the account is very important and must not be lost. <>

Requirements for the ledger

Pure wood is the production and manufacturing characteristics of logs, durable, good water absorption, not easy to turn yellow, and used in the account book writing, the long-term preservation of the account page discoloration less, miscellaneous paper that is mixed to make leather paper production and manufacturing characteristics of the paper is acidic, water absorption time is long, the moisture in the air turns yellow, thereby changing the color of the account book, affecting the account writing preservation time is more obvious.

The account page paper is made of imported paper, and the water absorption of the paper has strict requirements, the standard paper is not easy to turn yellow, the paper color is white, the account format is clear, and the writing and accounting look easy and effortless.

1. There are generally two kinds of measurement and recording methods and methods adopted by human beings in the middle and late Paleolithic Age, one is a simple engraving method or method, and the other is an intuitive drawing counting method or method of empty belt recording.

2. Archaeological discoveries of early Neolithic objects and a considerable number of carved symbols are universal in a large area of Dou Malu, and some of them have made significant progress as measurement and recording symbols compared with the past. By the middle and late Neolithic period, the matrilineal clan was highly socio-economically developed, and people began to create and widely adopt sets of carved symbols. Nowadays, the most representative and relatively complete set of carved symbols found by archaeology is the carving used by the people of Banpo Village in Xi'an and Jiangzhai Village in Lintong.

3. At the end of primitive society, human beings used primitive accounting measurement and recording methods.

Ancient merchants engaged in a variety of businesses, some engaged in the sale of silk products, some sold agricultural products and agricultural tools, ceramic stoves, tea, salt, iron are also popular businesses engaged in ancient merchants, in addition to some merchants will open money houses, taverns, pawnshops, etc. There are also some merchants who sell some handicrafts imported from abroad.

In ancient times, silk, tea, ceramics and other products were more used for export, and a large number of caravans carried silk, tea, etc. across the Silk Road to trade with some countries on the Silk Road. At that time, tea, silk, and ceramics in China were the most popular in foreign countries, especially the love of foreign nobles with deep silk. Merchants led caravans into the Silk Road to trade abroad and bring back special crafts from other countries.

The artworks brought back were relatively rare in China at that time, so they were deeply loved by some nobles at that time, so some merchants specialized in selling some products from other countries in China.

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was an official position dedicated to accounting for the official financial revenue and expenditure - the secretary of the meeting, and the method of "monthly calculation of the annual meeting" (sporadic calculation is the calculation, and the total calculation is the meeting) was adopted for the financial revenue and expenditure. In the Western Han Dynasty, there were also account books called "counting books" or "books" to register accounting matters. Later dynasties had officials to manage the revenue and expenditure of money, grain, taxes, and goods.

In the official hall of the Song Dynasty, to handle the reimbursement or transfer of money and grain, it was necessary to compile a "four-pillar inventory", and settle the accounts through the balance formula of "old management (opening balance) + new income (current income) = dismissal (current expenditure) + see in (ending balance)", and settle the changes in the increase and decrease of property and materials in the current period and their results. This is a major achievement in the development of accounting discipline in China.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, with the development of handicrafts and commerce, there was a "Longmen Account" based on the four pillars, which divided all the accounts into four categories: "in" (various incomes), "payment" (various expenditures), "deposits" (various assets), and "the" (various liabilities), and used the balance formula of "payment = deposit" for accounting, set up a general ledger for "classified records", and prepared a "income statement" (i.e., income statement) and "deposit the table" (i.e., balance sheet), and implemented a dual-track calculation of profit and loss. The profit and loss calculated on the two tables should be equal, which is called "Helongmen", so as to check the correctness and falsehood of all accounts.

Later, the "four-legged account" (also known as the "heaven and earth account") was produced, which was to register both "incoming account" and "going account" for each account to reflect the ins and outs of the same account. The "Four-Pillar Inventory", "Longmen Account" and "Four-legged Account" show the development of accounting revenue and expenditure methods in different historical periods in China, and embody the traditional and rigorous Chinese characteristics.