3 ms·

Can you elaborate on how double entry accounting enabled debt? Debt existed way before Pacioli invented (borrowed?) double entry accounting. For instance, in

• pdkl95 8y ago
  Debt existed several thousand years before money was invented[1]. Regarding the bible's many references to debt: note that it doesn't talk about inventing debt. The concept of debt - and the problems it creates - were already commonplace enough that for priests to add social commentary about debt into religious texts. Predating the book of Proverbs by ~700 years, Leviticus 25:8-13 discuses the concept of a "Jubilee" every 50 years where slaves/prisoners were freed and debts were forgiven. Double entry bookkeeping was a great idea that expanded many aspects of business and finance because it was a type of error detection for complex accounts that could be done - in the era before calculating machines - by hand using only addition. [1] See David Graeber's writings/talk for a good overview of the ancient history of debt and the invention of early forms of money from the need to standardize debts/payments/etc.