Researched
Banks & Double-Entry Bookkeeping
Credit, bills of exchange and double-entry bookkeeping (Genoa ~1340, Pacioli 1494) make wealth calculable and trade financeable.
Open in the interactive tree →Italian city-states developed banking houses (the Medici from 1397), bills of exchange and double entry, where every transaction is recorded twice so errors show up. Luca Pacioli described it in a printed textbook in 1494. Without reliable books there would be no joint-stock companies, tax audits or auditors.
Prerequisites
- Writing~3200 BC
- Number Systems & Place Value~3000-2000 BC
- Money~600 BC
- Zero, Decimals & Algebra~820Italian merchants adopted Indo-Arabic numerals (Fibonacci, 1202) for their accounts