Arts and ChartsMain MenuIntroductionAn Age of PanicsNineteenth Century TrackAn Age of EconomicsTwentieth Century TrackGalleryCreditsDaniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359d
Balance Chart
12017-02-10T10:07:24-08:00Daniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359d118622James Arlington Bennett, The American System of Bookkeeping (1836)plain2017-09-03T16:41:23-07:00Daniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359d
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12017-07-20T11:16:53-07:00Daniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359dAn Age of EconomicsDaniel Platt and Rachel Knecht2gallery2017-07-20T11:20:16-07:00Daniel Platt and Rachel Knecht3ebb098c099a4564606054ddd3beb814ce8f359d
To manage their daily economic lives, many Americans relied on account books that they kept to document the many transactions that added up to a successful or struggling livelihood. These ledgers, which were increasingly mass produced in the antebellum period, featured rows and rows of sales and expenditures, each of which were tallied at the bottom of each page. Double-entry ledgers modified this basic model by recording each exchange as both a liability and an asset, lending potentially erratic businesses an aura of stability and balance. Account books also helped employers manage their employees. This pre-printed account book from 1828 shows columns for a six-day work week, suggesting that some of these mass-produced items helped shaped what aspects of economic life were normal.
In 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 Chart” 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.
In 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.
12017-07-20T10:58:47-07:00An Age of Panics1plain2017-07-20T10:58:47-07:00
