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Traditionally history is said to start where we have written records, the time before the being relegated to anthropology and archeology. But they say that the

by c3534l 10y ago

Traditionally history is said to start where we have written records, the time before the being relegated to anthropology and archeology. But they say that the scope of economic history is larger because we have accounting records before we have written records. Before we had any clay tablets telling legends and recording the events of kings, we have the exchange rate between fish and barley, records of indebtedness, estimates for how many customers a shop might get in a day. Writing in the near-east was essentially developed as a more sophisticated accounting tool. So before I even clicked on the link, I was placing all my bets on a shopkeep. However, as a nitpick accounting as an individual profession really didn't develop until the industrial revolution when large corporations requiring high investment costs to leverage economies of scale led to changes in corporations and bankruptcy proceedings, establishing accounting as a specialty and profession in it's own right, rather than a skill that a business person was expected to learn. So Kushim wasn't an accountant, that's a very modern idea of a job. Kushim was a businessman who kept books to keep track of trade.

huuu 10y ago
"that's a very modern idea of a job" I don't agree. A vizier [1] is very related to an accountant. For example: Joseph (book of Genesis) became a vizier and had to account for the supplies in storehouses. Maybe he didn't do the accounting himself, but I'm sure they had a way to write down what was in stock and what not. They also traded with surrounding countries that were out of stock, so I'm sure this was bigger than the work of a small businessman. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizier_(Ancient_Egypt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizier_(Ancient_Egypt)
- c3534l 10y ago
  "The vizier's paramount duty was to supervise the running of the country, such as a prime minister, at times even small details of it such as sampling the city's water supply." That doesn't sound like much of an accountant to me. It would be even more strange that Kushim could be called an accountant at a time where double-entry bookkeeping hadn't been invented. There were always people who kept records, sure. But a person who went to school to learn specifically about keeping and organizing financial records and, in all likelihood, is licensed by the state to ensure that all records are kept in a consistent manner - that's what's modern. It took a very long time for accounting to be a job instead of a task you did in certain jobs. There were even auditors who worked for the government and were basically tax-collectors. But they would actually go to a business and have the owners read aloud their financial records to ensure that they were being kept and they made sense ("audit" basically means to hear).
madaxe_again 10y ago
businessman Am I the only one disheartened had by the fact that all of the comments on the article are people angrily calling the author a misogynist and racist? Does it matter if Kushim was male or female? Is it not enough that they were human, and had a name? Or do we have to keep at this until one gender or race "wins", whatever that means?
amelius 10y ago
> Traditionally history is said to start where we have written records Well, written records always describe something which happened before they were written. So technically, I'm not sure what to make of it.
alanwatts 10y ago
>Writing in the near-east was essentially developed as a more sophisticated accounting tool. The ancient Greeks also developed their alphabet and coinage systems around roughly the same time.

by c3534l 10y ago

huuu 10y ago

"that's a very modern idea of a job" I don't agree. A vizier [1] is very related to an accountant. For example: Joseph (book of Genesis) became a vizier and had to account for the supplies in storehouses. Maybe he didn't do the accounting himself, but I'm sure they had a way to write down what was in stock and what not. They also traded with surrounding countries that were out of stock, so I'm sure this was bigger than the work of a small businessman. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizier_(Ancient_Egypt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizier_(Ancient_Egypt)

c3534l 10y ago
"The vizier's paramount duty was to supervise the running of the country, such as a prime minister, at times even small details of it such as sampling the city's water supply." That doesn't sound like much of an accountant to me. It would be even more strange that Kushim could be called an accountant at a time where double-entry bookkeeping hadn't been invented. There were always people who kept records, sure. But a person who went to school to learn specifically about keeping and organizing financial records and, in all likelihood, is licensed by the state to ensure that all records are kept in a consistent manner - that's what's modern. It took a very long time for accounting to be a job instead of a task you did in certain jobs. There were even auditors who worked for the government and were basically tax-collectors. But they would actually go to a business and have the owners read aloud their financial records to ensure that they were being kept and they made sense ("audit" basically means to hear).

madaxe_again 10y ago

businessman Am I the only one disheartened had by the fact that all of the comments on the article are people angrily calling the author a misogynist and racist? Does it matter if Kushim was male or female? Is it not enough that they were human, and had a name? Or do we have to keep at this until one gender or race "wins", whatever that means?

amelius 10y ago

> Traditionally history is said to start where we have written records Well, written records always describe something which happened before they were written. So technically, I'm not sure what to make of it.

alanwatts 10y ago

>Writing in the near-east was essentially developed as a more sophisticated accounting tool. The ancient Greeks also developed their alphabet and coinage systems around roughly the same time.