Medieval Accounting
The thousand years between the fall of the Roman Empire and the publication of Luca Pacioli's Summa
are widely viewed as a period of accounting stagnation, and medieval practices outside Italy are often
ignored in historical summaries. Yet, as historian Michael Chatfield has observed, medieval agency
accounting, "laid the foundations for the doctrines of stewardship and conservatism, and the medieval
era created the conditions for the rapid advance in accounting technology that occurred during the
Renaissance."
While accounting under the Roman Empire was prescribed by the centralized legal codes of the time,
medieval bookkeeping was localized and centered on the specialized institutions of the feudal manor.
The systems of exchequer and manor necessitated numerous delegations of authority over property
from the owners to actual possessors and users. The central task of accounting during this era was to
allow the government or property owners to monitor those in the lower portions of the socio-economic
"pyramid."
When William the Conqueror invaded England, he took possession of all property in the name of the
king. In 1086, he conducted a survey of all real estate and the taxes due on them, known as the
Domesday Book. The oldest surviving accounting record in the English language is the Pipe Roll, or
"Great Roll of the Exchequer," which provides an annual description of rents, fines and taxes due the
King of England, from A.D. 1130 through 1830.
Compiled from valuations in the Domesday Book and from statements of sheriffs and others collecting
for the royal treasury, the Pipe Roll was the final record on parchment of a "proffer" system which
extensively used a wooden stick as a basis of account-keeping. Twice a year, at Easter and Michaelmas
(September 29), the various county sheriffs were called before the Exchequer at Westminster. At Easter,
a sheriff would pay about half of the total annual assessments his county owed. In accepting a sheriff's
payment on account (the proffer), the treasurer would have a wooden tally stick prepared and cut as a
record of the transaction.
Used even before the introduction of the Pipe Roll, the tally stick was a nine-inch long, narrow,
hazelwood stick, cut with notches of varying size to indicate the amount received. A cut the size of a
human hand was 1,000 pounds; a thumb's width, 100 pounds; a cut the thickness of a "grain or ripe
barley," one pound; and a shilling, just a notch.
Chatfield describes the way in which the tally stick was used to make a receipt in an age when few could
read or write:
After the amount of the sheriff's proffer had been carved, a diagonal cross cut was
made an inch or two from the thicker end of the tally, and the whole stick was split
down the middle into two identically notched parts of unequal length. The flat
sides of both pieces were inscribed in Latin to show that they related to the same
debt, and as additional protection, the cross cuts were made at various angles on
different tallies, so that no "foil" or shorter piece could possibly be fitted to any
"stock" but its own. The sheriff then departed with the stock as his receipt for
payments rendered, and the foil was kept by the treasurer for the Exchequer
archives.
At Michaelmas, each sheriff returns for the final accounting, at which he pays the
whole year's revenues. The treasurer reads the amount due from the Pipe Roll, and
the sheriff must justify any unusual expenses claimed. Final settlement occurs at a
table covered by a checkered cloth, for which the Exchequer is named. "Counters" are placed on the squares to visually represent the amount due the king from that
county. Another row of counters represents the Easter payment, which is verified
by fitting together the sheriff's tally stock with the Exchequer's foil to demonstrate
that the notches and cuttings correspond.
are widely viewed as a period of accounting stagnation, and medieval practices outside Italy are often
ignored in historical summaries. Yet, as historian Michael Chatfield has observed, medieval agency
accounting, "laid the foundations for the doctrines of stewardship and conservatism, and the medieval
era created the conditions for the rapid advance in accounting technology that occurred during the
Renaissance."
While accounting under the Roman Empire was prescribed by the centralized legal codes of the time,
medieval bookkeeping was localized and centered on the specialized institutions of the feudal manor.
The systems of exchequer and manor necessitated numerous delegations of authority over property
from the owners to actual possessors and users. The central task of accounting during this era was to
allow the government or property owners to monitor those in the lower portions of the socio-economic
"pyramid."
When William the Conqueror invaded England, he took possession of all property in the name of the
king. In 1086, he conducted a survey of all real estate and the taxes due on them, known as the
Domesday Book. The oldest surviving accounting record in the English language is the Pipe Roll, or
"Great Roll of the Exchequer," which provides an annual description of rents, fines and taxes due the
King of England, from A.D. 1130 through 1830.
Compiled from valuations in the Domesday Book and from statements of sheriffs and others collecting
for the royal treasury, the Pipe Roll was the final record on parchment of a "proffer" system which
extensively used a wooden stick as a basis of account-keeping. Twice a year, at Easter and Michaelmas
(September 29), the various county sheriffs were called before the Exchequer at Westminster. At Easter,
a sheriff would pay about half of the total annual assessments his county owed. In accepting a sheriff's
payment on account (the proffer), the treasurer would have a wooden tally stick prepared and cut as a
record of the transaction.
Used even before the introduction of the Pipe Roll, the tally stick was a nine-inch long, narrow,
hazelwood stick, cut with notches of varying size to indicate the amount received. A cut the size of a
human hand was 1,000 pounds; a thumb's width, 100 pounds; a cut the thickness of a "grain or ripe
barley," one pound; and a shilling, just a notch.
Chatfield describes the way in which the tally stick was used to make a receipt in an age when few could
read or write:
After the amount of the sheriff's proffer had been carved, a diagonal cross cut was
made an inch or two from the thicker end of the tally, and the whole stick was split
down the middle into two identically notched parts of unequal length. The flat
sides of both pieces were inscribed in Latin to show that they related to the same
debt, and as additional protection, the cross cuts were made at various angles on
different tallies, so that no "foil" or shorter piece could possibly be fitted to any
"stock" but its own. The sheriff then departed with the stock as his receipt for
payments rendered, and the foil was kept by the treasurer for the Exchequer
archives.
At Michaelmas, each sheriff returns for the final accounting, at which he pays the
whole year's revenues. The treasurer reads the amount due from the Pipe Roll, and
the sheriff must justify any unusual expenses claimed. Final settlement occurs at a
table covered by a checkered cloth, for which the Exchequer is named. "Counters" are placed on the squares to visually represent the amount due the king from that
county. Another row of counters represents the Easter payment, which is verified
by fitting together the sheriff's tally stock with the Exchequer's foil to demonstrate
that the notches and cuttings correspond.