on for commerce. The successful merchant, declares Pacioli, needs three things: sufficient cash or credit, good bookkeepers and an accounting system that allows him to view his finances at a glance. Before commencing business, one should prepare an inventory listing all business and personal assets and debts. This inventory must be completed within one day. Property also should be appraised at current market values and arranged according to mobility and value, with cash and other valuables listed first since they are most easily lost. The memorandum, or memorial, was Pacioli's equivalent of a daybook, for recordation in chronological order business transactions as they occurred. The transaction could be entered in any of the various monetary units then in use in the Italian city-states of the time, with conversion to a common currency for double entry left for later. The journal was the merchant's private account book. Entries consisted of a narrative debit, credit and explanation in one continuous paragraph. The journal had only one column, which was not totaled. There were no compound entries. Pacioli's ledger was, of his three books, the most like its modern equivalent. The money and date columns were almost identical to those in modern ledgers, with entries consisting of brief paragraphs, debits on the left side of a double page (deve dare) and credits on the right (deve avere). The bookkeeper posts Cash in Hand as a debit on page one of the ledgers, just as it was entered first in the journal. As ledger postings are made, two diagonal lines are drawn through each journal entry, one from left to right when the debit is posted and the other from right to left when the credit is posted. The first 16 chapters of De Computis describe this basic system of books and accounts, while the remaining 20 are devoted to specialized accounting issues of merchants. These include bank deposits and withdrawals, brokered purchases, drafts, bart...
