Nearly all historians, when tracing the growth of an art or science from mere empiricism to the establishment of recognized principles, are confronted with an apparent insurmountable gap or complete silence during the period known in history as the Dark Ages.
Archaeological and historical researches have convinced this civilization that in Ancient Babylon, Greece and Rome there was a high state of civilization—both industrial and social.
Today we may study Aristotle's politics with great profit in our attempts to understand the political and economic conditions confronting this generation. An acquaintance with the Greek philosophers is essential in understanding our present philosophical thought.
It would seem that, since we find so much help in consulting these ancient writers in an attempt to solve the political problems of today which are presented by this complex civilization, in a large measure at least our mentors must have been confronted with the same economic and industrial difficulties that we are attempting to solve now as accountants.
One is convinced that the ancient writers on political economy and commerce were closely allied with the scribes or accountants who recorded the business transactions of those days. This allegiance seems to have been lost after the Roman supremacy (and the consequent growth and spread of commerce), and it is only within recent years that the modern economist and accountant has acknowledged that a truer understanding of modern commerce can be had with cooperation and that the two sciences (economics and accounting) are finding so much in common that each is dependent upon the other for a full understanding of modern business conditions.
Mr. John P. Young, Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, ably presented accounting in antiquity before the convention of the American Association of Public Accountants at San Francisco (Year Book 1911, page 153). He showed that Rome in Cicero's time was dependent upon the independent verification of accounts and statements thereof by one skilled in accountancy. The familiarity with which he mentions the accountant would seem to indicate that his place in the Roman social organization was well established.
However, after the recorded utterances of Cicero the historian finds in the pages of history no further mention of those individuals acknowledged to be skilled in accounts, which we are pleased to call accountants, until the writings of Pacioli in 1494 and Stevin in 1604.
