Abstract This article focuses on the practice of Italian double entry system of accounting in early England as of June 1926. It appears that the early ledger entries were fairly complete sentences expressing complete ideas. They were in fact memoranda of what the writer wanted to avoid forgetting and probably were cast into the forms of expression of ordinary speech. What we find written in the old books gives us therefore some idea of how 15th century merchants thought their transactions through for recording purposes. The social background, so different from the independent life of the individual in Italy, would be expected to produce a very different kind of "recording-need" and a very different attitude toward the ends to be accomplished by the records. Feudalism produced an atmosphere of agency and stewardship rather than ownership and proprietors hip, such as was engendered in the more commercial Italy. None but the King was absolute sovereign over his property with full, free, and untrammeled power to dispose of it without consulting the plans or will of another. The nobles held their lands under the King's pleasure and the noble's peasant tenants held such land as they used solely tinder their master's pleasure. English "business" in the 13th and 14th centuries was confined to small artisans and peddlers-nothing to call up any sort of record-keeping. The largest activity was the maintenance of the manor house and its self-sufficing community.

THE necessity for monthly data for an adequate study of the business conditions of any period is generally recognized. Up to the present, however, no general monthly index of wholesale prices for the decade I890-99 has been available. It is the purpose of this article to present a general index of prices which was developed in connection with a study of price maladjustment for this decade. The new monthly index for I890-99 together with quarterly indexes for I859-89 and the monthly index of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics for I900-26 are given in Chart i.

IN the case of most statistical series the abnormal features of the war and early postwar years made extraordinarily difficult the calculation of which could be projected into the future for forecasting purposes. In no other case, however, has this difficulty been so great as in the statistics of the building industry. Today, 7 years after the close of the war, we are still not only in the dark as to what the trend of the industry is likely to be during the next few years, but also equally confused, because lacking adequate standards of judgment, as to the significance of the intense activity of the recent past. In the present paper brief reference will be made to certain recent studies which have calculated or assumed building normal for the purpose of estimating the extent to which the accumulated building shortage of the war and post-war years has been made up, and consideration will be given to the factors which will affect the building normal of the future. Most of the earlier attempts' to calculate building followed the course of endeavoring, by the method of least squares, to fit straight line to the data representing the annual value of building permits issued in large number of cities over long period of time. Because of the difficulties involved in determining normal period of adequate length and of making allowance for the effect of changes brought about by the war, none of these studies have produced long-term trend lines which have been received with any large measure of confidence, especially for forecasting purposes. A second group of investigators have sought the elusive of the building industry by plotting building permits against population growth instead of solely against time. For instance, Mr. H. B. Byer of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics has recently published the results of an investigation in which he assumed that the line of population increase is the normal line of increase. 2 The validity of this assumption is to be considered later. At the present time it is sufficient to note that his investigation resulting in the conclusion that at the end of I924 had not only made up for the war shortage but was actually about four-tenths ahead of current needs is subject to the obvious criticism that the author used as the basis of his calculations the value of permits issued in single, and by no means typical year, namely, I9I4. The same general assumption that building varies directly and proportionately with population is the starting point of another investigation into the building shortage by the research staff of the National Bank of Commerce.3 Starting with the more normal year, I9I3, as the base, this study developed a trend of building requirements or a line of normal growth of construction which was based simply on the annual population of the 66 urban centers selected. Incidentally, the conclusion reached was that at the end of I924, building shortage of over 3 billion dollars still remained. Of this same general type was the well-known study of the building shortage made by Col. L. P. Ayres, in I922.4 His was found by fitting line, by the method of least squares, to the data representing the annual value of building permits per capita of population for 50 cities for the period I900 to I9I6. It therefore assumed that building operations varied directly with population. The period chosen, moreover, was subject to the criticism that it began with year of abnormally low activity and ended with one of fairly high activity. To the present writer the underlying assumption of this second type of investigation does

The publications reviewed: Bauer, Lyndon, Maltbie, Nash, Raymond. — I. Retrospective and prospective regulation as affecting the basis of valuation, 297. — II. Valuation as a means of controlling profits and as a means of controlling charges, 302. — III. The market value fallacy in the determination of "fair value, " 307. — IV. Consistency in the development of a valuation theory, 314. — V. Conclusions, 325.

I. Statement of theory, 509. — The propositions to be subjected to verification in the Chinese case, 601. — II. The gold price of silver, 605. — The periods 1891–94 and 1903–06, 608. — III. Export and import prices, 609. — IV. The merchandise trade and trade balances, 619. — V. Silver movements, 626. — Gold movements, 629. — VI. Recapitulation and conclusion, 631. — Verification of theory during the periods 1891–94 and 1903–06, 632. — The general course of prices and silver movements in accordance with expectation, 632. — The failure of verification in the general course of the trade, 633. — The explanation of the failure, 633. — A final comment on the theory, 640.

Abstract The teachers of accounting as a group have made the major contribution, to the subject in the last thirty years. Yet, in spite of this, the technique of imparting a knowledge of accounting principles and practices, has been given very little constructive thought. Experts in educational psychology have been able to accomplish wonders in primary education by studying the technique of learning by children and of teaching for children. Certainly research might well be made in analyzing the ways of criminals and the methods under which they have operated in the past, as well as methods for preservation and especially methods of detection. Method of interpretation research in developing the best methods for presenting accounting data - the development of non-traditional statement forms, the application of graphics to accounting, the art of simplifying the essentials for report presentation and so on. The public accountant naturally enough perhaps gives so large a portion of his time to the balance sheet and other statements as of a given moment of time or at best for the fiscal period, that he has not had much opportunity to give thought to the methods of analyzing accounting data over a considerable period.

Abstract it is sometimes said that the basic principles of bookkeeping have not changed since the origin of double-entry in the middle ages. The statement is true if the term "basic principles" be closely construed but the casual reader is likely to interpret it broadly and thus carry away the impression that bookkeeping has to all intents and purposes stood still for 500 years. That idea would be erroneous, of course, because the forces of evolution act upon man's tools as well as upon man himself. Fundamental ideas regarding the nature of business transactions and theft recording have not changed in centuries but that is not equivalent to saying that progress has been absent or that evolution has not been at work. It is with the idea of noting the direction of some of these developments that a series of ledger accounts extending over nearly 500 years is studied here. A few of the available examples come from old ledgers, more of them are from the textbooks of the day. The illustrations given in such books are accepted as reasonably dependable examples of the then current practices, and in but few cases is there more than a fifty-year break in the date sequence of the texts examined.