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MONTEAGE, Stephen (c.1623-1687). Debtor and Creditor made easie: or, A short Instruction for the attaining the Right Use of Accounts after the Best Method used by Merchants. London: printed by J.R. and sold by Benjamin Billingsley, 1675. 4° (193 x 150mm). Engraved portrait frontispiece by Davis. (Lacking the half-title, frontispiece mounted on a blank, marginal spotting, faint dampstaining in the margins, light soiling.) 19th-century sheep-backed cloth preserving contemporary calf sides, red morocco spine label. Provenance: John Norburn (signature).
FIRST EDITION of this rare accounting book, and one of the earliest in English for a general audience. 'Most of the writings on accounting then available were written for wealthy merchants, who kept a variety of journals, cash books, petty-charge lists, and invoice registers. Ordinary people were not familiar with such procedures, and if they kept accounts at all they probably used a charge-discharge system. Monteage's treatise addressed middle-class merchants. They were advised to keep detailed accounts in a simplified system, based only upon two records, a 'waste' book, or record of first entry, and a general ledger, where these entries were reconciled in a double-entry system' (ODNB). EXCEEDINGLY RARE. ESTC locates only the BL copy. The sale of the Phillipps copy of the third edition (Sotheby's, 30 June 1976, lot 4197, £500) is the most recent auction record we have traced. Wing M-2487; not in Goldsmiths' or Kress.
FIRST EDITION of this rare accounting book, and one of the earliest in English for a general audience. 'Most of the writings on accounting then available were written for wealthy merchants, who kept a variety of journals, cash books, petty-charge lists, and invoice registers. Ordinary people were not familiar with such procedures, and if they kept accounts at all they probably used a charge-discharge system. Monteage's treatise addressed middle-class merchants. They were advised to keep detailed accounts in a simplified system, based only upon two records, a 'waste' book, or record of first entry, and a general ledger, where these entries were reconciled in a double-entry system' (ODNB). EXCEEDINGLY RARE. ESTC locates only the BL copy. The sale of the Phillipps copy of the third edition (Sotheby's, 30 June 1976, lot 4197, £500) is the most recent auction record we have traced. Wing M-2487; not in Goldsmiths' or Kress.