SHORT ARTICLES AND MEMORANDA MEDIEVAL TREATISES ON ESTATE ACCOUNTING
N i o survey of estate accounting in England in the Middle Ages has yet been made; there exists so far only the fine study of the financial organization of the manor by A. E. Levett.1 In order to write such a survey it would be necessary to turn both to the wealth of manorial accounts preserved in archives all over the country and to the didactic treatises on the subject. Of these two sources the actual accounts, extant from the early thirteenth century, are at present best known. These show that, notwithstanding the variety of accounting methods in use, there were certain salient features which were common to all accounts. Before turning to the didactic treatises it may be helpful to summarize these features and to give a short characterization of the account itself. It was a record on which the accountant stated all the goods both in kind and in money which had been received by him or had been paid out by him during the period of account, together with his liabilities at the beginning and at the end .of the period. Thus it was essentially a statement of the receipts and expenses of the accountant and not of the manor. The account, as we know it best, consisted of'two parts: the money account and the corn and stock account, the latter comprising the entries for corn, beasts and dairy produce. This division tends to obscure a very characteristic feature of the manorial account, that is that each of the entries in the corn and stock account represents as much an independent account as the money account itself. Because of the importance of money in the working of the manor the money account had many subdivisions and subheadings-such as rents, moneys from sales or for purchases, court-dues, money liveries to the head of the estate etc.-for which there was no necessity in the corn and stock account. For each accountable item-money as well as corn, oats, rye, horses, cattle, poultry, etc.we have first a statement of the arrears at the beginning of the year and then the receipts during the year and a total of both; from this the expenses are deducted and the remainder at the end of the year completes the picture. The heading gives the name of the manor for which the account was drawn up, the names of the accountants, that is the reeve, the bailiff or both, and sometimes also of the auditors. It gives the place and possibly the date of the audit and, most important of all, the period of the account, which with few exceptions runs from Michaelmas to Michaelmas. The cash arrears seldom meant cash in hand but more often moneys which the reeve owed through his default or because he had not yet received them; both cash and stock arrears showed what should have been in the possession of the accountant. The manor was an economic unit; therefore any receipts or expenditure for which neither produce nor services were rendered