The traces of accounting records have been discovered as early as in ancient civilizations and mostly in the field of banking. As early as in the XVIII century B.C. in Babylon in the Law of King Hammurabi it is indicated what kind of records had to be kept in the field of debt-trust relations. In ancient Greece, banks did not only deal with credit transactions, but also payment operations for the account of clients, that is, payment transactions. It is claimed that the banks had led two books, "ephemerid" and "trapeziticagrammata". The first book presents chronological records of all business events, while the other book accounts of clients.
After the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Greatbanks have started developing in Egypt as well. This also led to the emergence of bookkeeping records which included credit relations between banks and credit relations between a bank and a private entity.
In Rome, private banks were also developed. In addition to banks, wealthy slave owners, knights, philosophers etc.also dealt with credits. When it comes to books, day books are mentioned ("libercalendarii"), which recorded borrowed money and maturities of principal and interest, journal book ("adversaria"), in which business changes were recorded chronologically, the book of receipts and issues ("codex accepti et expensi") and the book in which the accounts were kept (''codex rationum'').
The first accountant is thought to had been AmatinoManucci, the author of the first note on the double accounting system, which was perfected during the Italian Renaissance and the trade revolution, and Luca Pacioli described it in detail in "Summa et Aritmetica, Geometria, Propotioni et Proportionalita".
Today, accounting is a modern science, integrated into the business system as its base for looking at the past, and as a window into the future ...
