Did you know? Festivals were used to affirm the image of the state. For example, during the Ascension Day celebrations, the Doge dropped a gold ring into the sea and declared, ‘We wed you, sea, in token of true dominion.’
5.5 SkillBuilder activity HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES AND INTERPRETATIONS 1. a. Read the interpretation of Lane in SOURCE6 and describe double-entry bookkeeping. b. According to Lane, explain how this financial practice assisted Venice merchants to trade. c. According to Lane, explain how the introduction of double-entry booking changed the habits of merchants. 2. Read SOURCE7 . Analyse the suggested reasons for the spread of double-entry bookkeeping. 3. Double-entry bookkeeping was used by other Renaissance merchants and bankers. Think carefully about your search terms and use the internet to research the impact of this accounting practice on the expansion of the Medici Bank.
SOURCE6 Frederic C. Lane, Venice: A Maritime Republic
The use of resident agents instead of travelling merchants was facilitated by number of improvements in commercial technique. One was the system of double-entry bookkeeping. This way of grouping and checking the records of every transaction made it easier for a resident merchant to keep track accurately of what his partners or agents were doing. Tradition has assigned its invention to Venice: but . . . earlier examples have been found in Genoa and Tuscany. The Venetians seemed to have been responsible for . . . features of arrangement, for example the placing of all debits on the left, credits on the right in parallel columns. Bookkeeping and arithmetic, using Arabic instead of Roman numerals, was taught in Venice by ‘masters of the Abacus’. . . This kind of bookkeeping enabled a merchant operating simultaneously on many marketplaces to know the extent of his liabilities and . . . of his assets. Andrea Barbargio . . . bought standard commodities, such as cotton, wool, spices, copper or cloth. He kept his books carefully in double entry . . . He had been aboard in his youth, but for years he never went further than the Rialto. He had to go there to make payments and above all collect the news.
SOURCE7 Geofrey T. Mills, Early accounting in northern Italy
Double-entry developed in three Northern Italian city-states between approximately 1200 and 1350. The need for a new accounting system stemmed from the economic forces of the commercial revolution. From Northern Italy, double-entry spread along European trading routes to other commercial centers through demonstration and the use of new business manuals from the printing industry. The increase in economic activity was fueled by commercial contacts from the Crusades, advancements in agriculture and trade, population growth and the rise of urban areas.
Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator