by JOHN R. PALMER/Research Associate, National Association of Accountants
In this bicentennial year, volumes seem to have been written about all aspects of life in colonial America except one—its accounting. The reason may be that no new develop-ments in the art of accounting took place in America 200 years ago to interest historians.
But the fact is that even if colonial America had little influence on accounting, accounting was an important factor in the life of the eighteenth century. Fortunately, the account books of colonial American businessmen, ranging from its rich and powerful citizens to obscure country merchants, still exist and provide a clear insight into the
commerce and life styles of the period.
The accounts of Ben Franklin's print shop—and the audit done prior to its sale by the first recorded American "public accountant"— have been preserved. The meticulous and voluminous accounts of George Washington's expenses, not only as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army but also as a leading planter, land speculator, and businessman, reveal new insights about the "father of our country."
As an impoverished American government conducted an expensive war against the leading
superpower of the eighteenth century, accounting records show behind-the-scenes problems never mentioned in chronicles of battles and troop movements. One of the great leaders of the Revolution was Robert Morris, a Philadelphia merchant and financier who never fought in a battle but who handled the accounts that financed the rations, uniforms, and weapons of victory.
On the technical side, colonial accounting bore many similarities to modern accounting, but more interesting are the differences. The two best-known and most widely used accounting documents today
The Revolution Was Not in Accounting