After the LEDGER has been duly examined, and it is seen that the balances are struck and brought down correctly, proceed to observe if those balances are transferred properly to the general BALANCE SHEET at page 213, which is the last operation of all. Beyond this, Book-keeping by SINGLE ENTRY "can no further go." It is only a confined system, and its results are never demonstrated or proved. Errors of omission, of addition, and of wrong posting, may, and in large establishments de fre quently occur without any means of detection, except the tire. some and frequently fallacious method of a re-examination of the entire books by another person. But by DOUBLE ENTRY, provided the system be a correct one, no error of any kind can escape without detection, because everything is verified by an infallible rule. Nevertheless the diligent study of the method of Single Entry is absolutely necessary as a preparatory step towards acquiring a knowledge of the other No one can keep a set of books by Double Entry who does not understand Single Entry. because the one is based upon the other. When the learner has well studied what has already been laid before him, let him pass on to the following pages, where he will find the same transactions registered by Double Entry. BOOK-KEEPING BY DOUBLE ENTRY. This method differs from the former chiefly in making cash, stock, goods, &c., parties, as well as persons, and in making a debtor and creditor account in every transaction. Thus, if cloth is sold to A, A is made debtor to cloth, and cloth creditor to A; if cash is received from B, cash is made debtor to B, and B creditor to cash; and in every case the party whether animate or inanimate, which receives is debtor to that which pays, and inversely. In Single Entry the record is sin there it ends, whereas in Double Entry every transactio. has a debit and credit, and every account in which it is not so represented is imperfect. Two parties are necessarily engaged in every transaction, and therefore each of them requires in his Ledger two separate accounts, one for himself, and a sec ond for his customer or furnisher, as the case may be. Now, by the use of what are called nominal accounts representing the proprietor in his own Ledger, the double receptacle is provided which every transaction requires The nominaj accounts receive the counter entries of all the personal accounts, and through their operation the merchant is enabled to ascer tain whether his business is profitable or the reverse These accounts are those or Stock Proht and Loss, and its branches. Stock is a term used to represent the proprietor, and it con. tains on the credit side the amount of the money goods o other property brought into trade and on the debtor the owner's liabilities. In Profit and Loss the credit side exhibit: the gain of the business, and the debit the loss. in Single Entry, nominal accounts have no place. There is a record only of the side of the accounts belonging to the person dealing with the concern, and none whatever of that which repre sents the owner. Such a method enables us to balance the accounts of each party, but exhibits no register by which the state of the stock in trade, and the balances of capita! and cash, can be at once ascertained without a separate and inde pendent investigation. We have seen, that by Single Entry the items are transferred from the Cash Book, Day Book, and Bill Books, at once, into the Ledger; but in Double Entry, another book, called the JOURNAL, is necessarily used, in which the items from all the others are first arranged in proper form, and then passed into the Ledger. Thus, posting by Single Entry is done from several books; whereas by Double Entry from the Journal alone. The old Italian method of keeping a Journal is fraught with so many crudities, useless repetitions, and technical jargon, that it has been long abandoned for one a thousand told more simple in its construction, and perfect in its results. Instead of continually entering "Sundries Dr. to Cash," "Interest Dr. to Sundries," "Commission Dr. to A. B. C.," and "D E. F. Dr. to Commission," with a multitude of such anomalies, the Journal is divided into two parts, (the right and left hand side of the book) the one called the Debtor side and the other the Creditor side. Under the Debtor side must be entered uninterruptedly everything that is to be debited; and under the Creditor side, everything that is to be credited, and both sides must agree, if the entering has been done correctly. In addition to the simplicity of this arrangement, there are other advantages which may not be overlooked. In the first place, all the entries on one side of the Journal are posted upon the same side in the Ledger, a convenience which every bookkeeper will know how to prize. Next, all the items for each account in a month are consolidated in one entry previous to posting, thus greatly reducing that labor, and offering the phenomenon of a Ledger wherein no account for one year can have more than twelve lines, one for each month and, nnally, the totals of each month in the Journal added together must correspond with the gross amount of all the totals in the Ledger, the last and surest demonstration of correctness which figures can offer. Let us proceed to Journalize according to this method all the entries contained in the preceding DAY BOOK, CASH BOOK, BILLS PAYABLE BOOK and BILLS RECEIVABLE BOOK, (for which see pages 213 214) begging the learner meanwhile, to recollect the following rules.— 1st. When GOODS are sold, the buyers must be debited and TRADE Account credited with the amount. 2d. When goods are bought Trade Account must be debited and the sellers credited for the amount. 3d. When CASH is paid, the parties receiving it must be debited and CASH ACCOUNT credited, and when it is received the Account must be debited and the payers credited 4th. When Acceptances are given, the persons on whose account they are drawn must be debited and BILLS PAYABLE credited and when they are received BILIS RECEIVABLE must be debited and the party on whose account they a received must be credited. 5th. When Accepted Bills become due and are paid. BILLS PAYABLE must be debited and CASH credited; and when Bills to be received become due and are paid, CASH must be debited with the amount, and BILLS RECEIVABLE credited. Finally. No entry can be made in the Ledger unless it be extracted from the Journal, consequently everything must go into the Journal first. These rules must be most carefully heeded in order to rapidly acquire the science of book-keeping. 4. 74 32 A. D. F. Randolph. A. S. Barnes & Co. D. Appleton & Co. 1. ditto 300 124 186 W. H. Vernon. J. W. Bouton. Dodd, Mead & Co. A. S. Barnes & Co. D. Appleton & Co. Bills Receivable. Trade Acount. 4. Paid them Bill Receiv able, No. 102. .......30 80 Idem 103.........74 32 4. Goods, as per invoice.. 2. Bill Payable, No. 101...40 00 Cash paid them ........80 ∞ 2. Bill Payable, No. 102.. 90 00 Cash paid them.......120 00 2. Bill Payable, No. 103.. 60 00 Cash paid them.......r50 00 2. Bill Payable, No. 104...40 00 Cash paid them........62 oo 31. Amount received this month as per Bill Receivable book 31. Amount received this month as per Cash Book. Goods bought this month. 1. Of J. W. Bouton... 150 20 Dodd, Mead & Co..241 00 A. S. Barnes & Co..300 00 120 210 00 210 A. D. F. Randolph. W. H. Vernon. Bills Payable. Tenter & Co. B. Flock. Robert Bros. Trade Account. 1. I. I. D. Appleton & Co.. 124 60 4. A. D. F. Randolph. 186 60 W. H. Vernon. 170 00 Cash paid charges as per Cash Book.... 10 28 1,182 68 4.430 28 February, 40 ∞ 1880. Cash. 31. Amount paid this month, as per Cash Book... 1880. Cash. Bills Receivable. 30. Amount paid this month, as per Cash Book.. 6. Cash received No. 101..... Bills Payable. B. Flock. Charges on Trade. Cash. 5. Cash paid No. 103.... 7. His bill returned unpaid.... 8. Cash for rent.... .80 00 Taxes 20 24 Taxes 15 20 Ramsden & Co. 1. Goods sold them. S. Green. G. Barrows. 1. Goods sold him.. 1. Goods sold him. 888 74 20 312 312 は 1,544 But in partnership accounts, such a plan would not do, because domestic expenses cannot be charged to trade, nor should the respective capitals be included. In such cases separate accounts must be opened for each individual, which must be credited with their separate capitals and debited with their relative charges. At the end of the year, a balance is struck the profit or loss determined, and the sum total divided into proper proportions, and transferred from the general Trade or Profit and Loss Account, to each individual's gebit or credit, as the case may be. BROS Dec. 20 By Goods.... MIFFLIN & Co. Dec. 20 By Goods. WELLS Dec. 20 By Goods...... & Co. Dec. 20 By Goods........ Cr. 192 40 Cr. 170 80 N B-A Profit and Loss Account is merely another name for a Trade Account. All bad debts must be charged to that Account which shows the Profit and Loss (whatever the name may be), and the bad Accounts themselves closed by transfer. Let us now see if the Ledger is correct. To determine this, first extract all the totals, Dr. Cr. (before the balances are struck) which must not only agree with each other, but corre spond as well with the sums total in the Journal. Put all the amounts at debit on one side, and the amounts at credit on the other. The totals must agree with the totals in the Journal. It this prove to be the fact, it is thus demonstrated that everything in the Journal has been posted in the Ledger. Having thus seen that the totals on both sides of the Ledger not only agree with each other, but correspond as well with those of the Journal, which is proof positive that the books are correct, the next and last care will be to see that the balances are properly struck and brought down, which is done by extracting them, and observing that both sides are alike. If they agree, the balancing has been properly done. This is the final operation at the end of a year; and the Journal of the next should have for its first entries Debtor and Creditor, an exact copy of the Balance Sheet, registered the same as all other items and included in the monthly total HE numerals now in use, with the mode of causing them by peculiar situation to express any number, and whereby the processes of arithmetic have been rendered so highly convenient, have heretofore been supposed to be of Indian origin, transmitted through the Persians to the Arabs, and by them introduced into Europe in the tenth century, when the Moors invaded and became masters of Spain. Such in reality appears to have been in a great measure the true history of the transmission of these numerals; but as it has been lately found that the ancient hieroglyphical inscriptions of Egypt contain several of them, learned men are now agreed that they originated in that early seat of knowledge, between which and India there exist more points of resemblance, and more traces of intercourse, than is generally supposed. In the eleventh century. Gerbert, a Benedictine monk of Fleury, and who afterwards ascended the Papal throne under the designation of Sylvester II., traveled into Spain, and studied for several years the sciences there cultivated by the Moors. Among other acquisitions, he gained from that singular people a knowledge of what are now called the Arabic numerals, and of the mode of arithmetic founded on them, which he forthwith disclosed to the Christian world, by whom at first his learning caused him to be accused of an alliance with evil spirits. The knowledge of this new arithmetic was about the same time extended, in consequence of the intercourse which the Crusaders opened between Europe and the East. For a long time, however, it made a very slow and obscure progress. The characters themselves appear to have been long considered in Europe as dark and mysterious. Deriving their whole efficacy from the use made of the cipher, so called from the Arabic word tsaphara, denoting empty or void, this term came afterwards to express, in general, any secret mark. Hence, in more troublous times than the present, a mode of writing was practiced, by means of marks pre viously concerted, and called writing in cipher. The Arabia characters occur in some arithmetical tracts composed in Eng. land during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, particu larly in a work by John of Halifax, or De Sacrobosco; but another century elapsed before they were generally adopted, They do not appear to have settled into their present form till about the time of the invention of printing. It would be impossible to calculate, even by their own tran. scendent powers, the service which the Arabic numerals have rendered to mankind. HE Arabic numerals take the following wellknown forms:-1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0. The first nine of these, called digits, or digital numbers, represent each one of the numbers between one and nine, and when thus employed to represent single numbers, they are considered as units. The last (0), called a nought, nothing or cipher, is, in reality, taken by itself, expressive of an absence of number, or nothing; but, in connection with other numbers, it becomes expressive of number in a very remarkable manner. The valuable peculiarity of the Arabic notation is the enlargement and variety of values which can be given to the fig. ures by associating them. The number ten is expressed by 1 and o put together-thus, 10; and all the numbers from this up to a hundred can be expressed in like manner by the asso |