An Accounting History of Credit Money

Accounting, money, credit-money, history of central banks, debt, finance, history of credit.

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July 27, 2021
July 27, 2021

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This article seeks to demonstrate that the invention of double-entry accounting, during the 13th and 14th centuries in the cities of northern Italy, was at the origin of the emergence of our monetary system: the credit money system. By showing the limits of the monetary histories that currently exist, this article shows that these limits are the consequence of a theoretical unthought: that of the different dimensions of money. It then shows that this problem is particularly well defined by double-entry accounting, which explains its decisive historical importance for the history of money.