BOOKS. 



I 



the waste-book, the journal, and the 

 ledger ; but besides these three, which 

 are absolutely necessary, there are several 

 others, to the number of thirteen, or even 

 more, called subservient, or auxiliary 

 books, which are used in proportion to 

 the business a man has, or to the nature 

 of the business a man carries on. These 

 books are, the cash-book, the debt- 

 book, the book of numeros, the book of 

 invoices, the book of accounts current, 

 the book of commissions, orders, or ad- 

 vices, &c. 



The -waste-book may be defined a regis- 

 ter, containing an inventory of a mer- 

 chant's effects and debts, with a distinct 

 record of all his transactions and deal- 

 ings, in a way of trade, related in a plain 

 simple style, and in order of time as they 

 succeed one another. 



The waste-book opens with the inven- 

 tory, which consists of two parts ; first, 

 the effects, that is, the money a merchant 

 has by him, the goods he has in hand, his 

 part of ships, houses, farms, &c. with the 

 debts due to him ; the second part of the 

 inventory is the debts due by him to 

 others : the difference between which 

 and the effects is what the merchants 

 call neat stock. When a man begins the 

 world, and first sets up to trade, the in- 

 ventory is to be gathered from a survey 

 of the particulars that make up his real 

 estate ; but ever after is to be collected 

 from the balance of his old books, and 

 carried to the new. 



After the inventory is fairly related in 

 the waste-book, the transactions of trade 

 come next to be entered down ; which is 

 a daily task, to be performed as they oc- 

 cur. The narrative ought to exhibit 

 transactions, with all the circumstances 

 necessary to be known, and no more. It 

 should contain the names of persons with 

 whom the merchant deals upon trust, the 

 conditions of bargains, the terms of pay- 

 ment, the quantity, quality, and prices of 

 goods, with every thing that serves to 

 make the record distinct, and nothing 

 else. The waste-book, if no subsidiary 

 books are kept, should contain a record 

 of all the merchant's transactions and 

 dealings in the way of trade; and that 

 notonly of such as are properly and purely 

 mercantile, but of every occurrence that 

 affects his stock, so as to impair or in- 

 crease it, such as private expences, ser- 

 vants' fees, house-rents, money gained, &c. 



The journal, or day book, is the book 

 wherein the transactions recorded in the 

 waste-book are prepared to be carried to 

 the ledger, by having their proper debt- 



VOL. II. 



ors and creditors ascertained and pointed 

 out ; whence it may be observed, that the 

 great design of the journal is to prevent 

 errors in the ledger: again, after the 

 ledger is filled up, the journal facilitates 

 the work required in revising and cor- 

 recting it ; for, first, the waste-book and 

 journal are compared, and then the jour- 

 nal and ledger ; whereas, to revise the 

 ledger immediately from the waste-book 

 would be a matter of no less difficulty, 

 than to form it without the help of a jour- 

 nal : lastly, the journal is designed as a 

 fair record of a merchant's business ; for 

 neither of the two other books can serve 

 this purpose ; not the ledger, by reason 

 of the order that obtains in it, and also on 

 account of its brevity, being little more 

 than a large index : nor can the waste- 

 book answer this design, as it can neither 

 be fair nor uniform, nor very accurate, 

 being commonly written by different 

 hands, and in time of business. Hence it 

 is, that in case of differences between a 

 merchant and his dealers, the journal is 

 the book commonly called for, and in- 

 spected by a civil judge. 



In the journal, persons and things are 

 charged deotors to other persons and 

 things as creditors ; and in this it agrees 

 with the ledger, where the same style is 

 used, but differs from it as to forms and 

 order; so that it agrees wilh the waste- 

 book in those very things where it differs 

 from the ledger; and on the other hand, 

 it agrees with the latter in the very point 

 wherein it differs from the former. 



It may be observed, that every case or 

 example of the waste-book, when enter- 

 ed into the journal, is called a journal 

 post, or entrance ; thus the examples 

 above make three direct posts. 



Accounts in the ledger consist of two 

 parts, which in their own nature are di- 

 rectly opposed to, and the reverse of one 

 another, and are therefore set fronting 

 one another, and on opposite sides of the 

 same folio. Thus all the articles of the 

 money received go to the left side of the 

 cash account ; and all the articles or sums 

 laid out are carried to the right. In like 

 manner, the purchase of goods is posted 

 to the left side of the accounts of the said 

 goods, and the sale or disposal of them to 

 the right. 



Transactions of trade, or cases of the 

 waste-book, are also made up of 'wo 

 parts, which belong to different accounts, 

 and to opposite sides of the ledger, e. g. 

 If goods are bought for ready money, the 

 two parts are, the goods received, and the 

 money delivered ; the former of which 



G rr 



