No abstract

This paper uses the logic of double-entry bookkeeping, as it is universally used in the economic life of banks, central banks and companies, to precisely define the nature of claims and money. First, it shows that these two forms of value are always distinct in accounting, but that the claim is by nature unstable, ambivalent, and can evolve towards the monetary form under certain conditions. Then, in a second step, we show that the claim has three sources in return for which it is issued: the loan by money creation, the loan of existing money, and the forward sale of goods. These accounting relationships, which are in fact a definition of book value, then allow us to sketch out an analysis of contemporary financial and monetary crises and how to respond to them effectively.

This article seeks to demonstrate that the invention of double-entry accounting, during the 13th and 14th centuries in the cities of northern Italy, was at the origin of the emergence of our monetary system: the credit money system. By showing the limits of the monetary histories that currently exist, this article shows that these limits are the consequence of a theoretical unthought: that of the different dimensions of money. It then shows that this problem is particularly well defined by double-entry accounting, which explains its decisive historical importance for the history of money.

This article seeks to demonstrate that the invention of double-entry accounting, during the 13th and 14th centuries in the cities of northern Italy, was at the origin of the emergence of our monetary system: the credit money system. By showing the limits of the monetary histories that currently exist, this article shows that these limits are the consequence of a theoretical unthought: that of the different dimensions of money. It then shows that this problem is particularly well defined by double-entry accounting, which explains its decisive historical importance for the history of money.

Based on the work of Jean Fourastié, accountant and economist, this paper seeks to show that the origins of double-entry bookkeeping are the result of several successive innovations that appeared in Italian commercial enterprises between the 13 th and 14 th centuries in response to the development of credit and receivables. The three successful innovations that led to the invention of double-entry bookkeeping are thus analyzed in detail from an accounting and logical point of view. This invention, which will have considerable consequences for the emergence of our modern monetary and banking systems, leads to a precise and efficient definition of value, which we still depend on today, especially to understand financial crises.