Welcome to beautiful Italy, birthplace of many of the world’s most important historical figures like Michelangelo
Leonardo da Vinci
Christopher Columbus
And Luca Pacioli. Wait…you haven’t heard of Pacioli? In fact he is one of the most influential men of the Renaissance and yet few have heard
of him. His work influenced many in his day and still does today
for he is often referred to as the Father of Accounting.
Hi, I'm Dave Alldredge. Welcome to this series on Financial Accounting.
The fact is that some sort of recordkeeping has been around ever since the first hunter wanted to trade with the first gather…
But Pacioli took many of the different ideas about mathematics and recordkeeping and published a book which included 27 pages called
"Details of Calculation and Recording" this section has become the basis for modern double entry accounting.
In fact many of the terms you will hear in accounting like debit, credit, journal and ledger all originate from his 1494 text.
So when you think of Italy as the birthplace of science, art and culture add accounting to that list.
So grazie Italia and arrivederci. I’m off to Scotland.
Welcome to London.
I intended to shoot this segment in Scotland but it turns that there is nothing to see in Scotland other than sheep.
And they weren’t the friendliest sheep. . .
(screaming and sheep bleats)
I know what you're thinking - terrifying!
In the mid-1800’s, England was in the Economic Capital of the World
and in the midst of the Industrial Revolution.
With industry moving from agriculture to manufacturing, a need arose for
business owners to have a good understanding of the financial health of their businesses.
During that time accountants from Scotland petitioned the Queen to grant them
a charter providing them legal rights in the provides profession of accounting.
In fact the term chartered accountants comes from this event.
So with the industrial revolution in high gear and a charter in place granting credibility and rights, modern accountancy was born.
Today the largest body of accountants in the United States is the AICPA which represents the CPA profession nationally.
The AICPA's founding established accountancy as a profession distinguished by rigorous educational requirements,
high professional standards,
a strict code of professional ethics, a licensing status and a commitment to serving the public interest.
In a recent survey done by the Department of Labor is estimated that more than one million people work as accountants in the United States
with many more working in accounting clerical and support positions.
So, you can see that accounting has come a long way in 500 years since Pacioli first published his text.
Accounting has grown out of obscurity into a well respected career path and profession.
In fact, a recent survey conducted by the Roy Morgan Research Firm listed accountant as
the eleventh most respected career in the world one spot behind college professor.
Today the Economic Capital of the World is New York City, and specifically Wall Street -
accounting is present here as well.
Accountants provide the financial data that help investors analyze companies for potential investing decisions.
Behind me is the New York Stock Exchange which is the largest stock exchange in the world in terms of market capitalization.
By the end of 2013, companies whose stock trading on his exchange were worth approximately 16 trillion dollars.
On average a hundred and seventy billion dollars of securities or stocks are traded here daily
and none of that will be possible without accounting.
So that concludes this short video on the Brief History of Accounting. I hope you enjoyed as much as I have.