Arts and ChartsMain MenuIntroductionAn Age of PanicsNineteenth Century TrackAn Age of EconomicsTwentieth Century TrackGalleryCreditsDaniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359d
Bookkeeping
12017-07-12T08:39:32-07:00Daniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359d118621version 1plain2017-07-12T08:39:32-07:00Daniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359dIn antebellum decades, most business was conducted by individuals or small firms run by people with personal connections. These businesses tended to rely on account books that used single- or, increasingly, double-entry bookkeeping methods. These books of tables kept track of business’s income and expenditures, each of which were tallied up at the bottom of every page. Double-entry bookkeeping was designed to create balance in the account books, so that every dollar spent was also a dollar earned in some kind of asset. Some accountants got a little more creative; James Bennett summarized a few different accounts simultaneously in his “Balance Charts” diagram, something that long tables were not well-equipped to do. But many firms were content to leave this information within the accountant's books.
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1media/What a Graphic Chart Is 1921.png2017-07-12T08:20:52-07:00Daniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359dArts & Charts: Picturing the Economy in Modern AmericaDaniel Platt and Rachel Knecht5version 2plain4788172017-07-13T08:41:01-07:00Daniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359d
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12017-03-19T13:40:24-07:00Balance Chart2James Arlington Bennett, The American System of Bookkeeping (1836)media/Bennett Balance Chart 1836-opt.jpgplain2017-09-03T16:41:53-07:00
