BOOK CLtTB. 291 BOOKKEEPING. made or in preparation. In the sixties? there was a veritable mania for club publication, and ab- surd ventures were numerous, charging extrava- gant prices for their subscription books. The revival of club publication dates from about 1870. since when it has been carried forward in a di,!,'nitied and rational manner. The Historical Printing Club of Brooklyn deserves a foremost place in this jK'riod. Founded in 1876, it has published, chiefly under the editorship of Paul Leicester Ford, over seventy valuable historical documents. But the best-known and most impor- tant of all is the Grolier Club, founded in New York in 1884 by a number of well-known makers and collectors of books. It has been very suc- cessful, not only in its distinctive purpose, but also in drawing together men of scholarly culture in the delightful home which it built for itself in 1889. Its membership was originally limited to fifty, but has now been extended to nearly four hundred. It has published in elaborate and beautiful form thirty important literary and bib- liographical works, besides catalogues of the valuable exhibitions given by it at frequent inter- vals. Consult: Hume and Evans, Learned So- cieties and Printing C'luhs of the United King- dom (London, 185.3): Growoll, American Book Clubs (New York, 1897). BOOKKEEPING. The application of the general principles of debit and credit, and of classification of accounts, to the details of busi- ness. The object of bookkeeping is to furnish a complete and systematic record which may en- able the proprietor readily to ascertain any de- sired facts regarding the progress and condition of his business and his financial relations with others. Without the knowledge thus gained, business cannot safely be carried on, and suc- cess or failure is often very closely related to the character of the work done at the bookkeeper's desk. In order that it may meet all the demands which are likely to be made upon it, bookkeeping must be practiced in such a way as to be intel- ligible, not only to the one who performs the work, but also to others. For if a dispute arises and it becomes necessary to place the books in evidence, suspicion naturally attaches to meth- ods that can be understood and explained only by the interested party. There are two systems of bookkeeping which" satisfy the requirements named, and which are accepted and used by prac- tically the entire commercial world. They are known respectively as single-entry bookkeeping and double-entry bookkeeping. Business records of some form or other were doubtless employed in the earliest times in the history of trade" and credit. Of the early forms of bookkeeping, however, practically nothing is known. From the works of Leonardo of Pisa it appears certain that the merchants of Italy, France, and Spain practiced systematic book- keeping for some time prior to the Thirteenth Century. It is, however, to the Italian traders of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries, the enterprising merchants of Genoa, Florence, and Venice, that we owe the system of bookkeep- ing which takes the lead at the present time. In the year 1495 Luca Pacioli, or Luca di Burgo, a Tuscan friar, published a work which contained a treatise upon double-entry bookkeep- ing. This is the first systematic treatment of the subject of which we have any record. From Italy the system spread to the Netherlands, thence to England, and from there to all parts of the world. And it is worthy of remark that the more complete system of double entry was per- fected and brought into general use considerably before the system of single entry. Double E.vtrv. In double-entry bookkeeping, sometimes called the Italian method on account of its origin, every transaction requires equal entries on both sides of the ledger. The number of entries on the two sides need not correspond, but the amounts must. This representation of every transaction on both sides of the ledger arises from keeping account, not with persons alone, but also with property and allowances. It is this feature which gives the system its name and constitutes its essential characteristic. Prop- ertj' is conceived of as debtor or creditor, accord- ing as it has required outlay or has brought in value or discharged indebtedness. The simplest combination of books suited to double-entry bookkeeping consists of a daybook, journal, and ledger, ruled in accordance with the forms given below. Daybook and journal may be combined to form the daybook-journal. The daybook is the one in which are entered the de- tails of each transaction at the time it occurs. This is the original entry, and should l)e made with the greatest care. It is this which must be brought into court in ease of legal dispute. In this book, therefore, as in all original entry, erasures should be avoided, and all changes, for whatever reason made, should be so managed that their nature can readily be determined. In the journal are entered the names or titles of the ledger which are to be debited and credited, to- gether with the proper dates and amounts. These are determined from the daybook record, and the process is termed journalizing. This is a very important part of the bookkeeper's work, and makes the largest demands upon his ability to think correctly. The remainder of his work, with the exception of making out the balance- sheet, is to a large extent mechanical. The ledger is the book of accounts. From the journal the various items are carried to the ledger, items having the same name or title being gathered together under that title, each on its proper side, debits to debit side, credits to credit side; the left-hand side in this, as in all other books, being debit, and the right credit. The ledger, on ac- count of the classified and summarized nature of its contents, is the business man's principal book of reference. If he wishes to find out how much John Doe owes him. it is to his ledger that he goes for information. Should he wish to pay Richard Roe the balance due him, it is from the ledger he will determine the amount which he must remit. In short, when he desires full, up- to-date information regarding any matter con- nected with his business, it is generally the ledger which is called into requisition. Toward the perfection of the contents of this book, there- fore, all the bookkeeper's work is aimed. The process of carrying the items of the journal to the ledger is termed 'posting.' In performing this work, the careful bookkeeper will follow an invariable order, that the process may be made as nearly mechanical as possible. First, the year should appear in the column at the left on the side to which the item is to be posted; the year need not be entered again until it changes. Next come month, day, explanation, the page of the journal from which the entry is brought.
