クリストファー・プランタンの会計帳簿 (1563〜1567年)

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Christopher Plantin's name has gone down in history for his activities as a printer and publisher in mid-16th century Antwerp. From low circumstances, Plantin singlehandedly established a printing business, courted investment and enjoyed great success in printing and publishing. At his peak, he had more than 16 printing presses and 100 employees, and printed 1, 500 titles over a period of 34 years. At the time, these figures were so astonishing that he became known as the "The King's Printer" or the "Prince of Printers." The building that housed Plantin's presses is preserved today as the Museum Plantin Moretus in present day Antwerp, Belgium. It houses many exhibits concerned with Plantin's business, such as printing plant, type room, foundry, correctors' room, etc. The museum keeps Plantin's journal and ledger (the grand livre) covering the period from December 1563 to July 1567. In the history of accounting, these two account books are extremely important pieces in two respects : first, for cost accounting history, and secondly, for double-entry bookkeeping in the 16th century Netherlands. Littleton asserted that cost accounting is a product of the 19th century. This is not strictly true, however. We know that the germ of cost accounting was already found in many account books in Europe from the middle ages. For example, the beginnings of cost accounting can be seen in the account books of the Del Bene Company in early 14th century Florence, of Francisco Marco Datini in the later 14th century (again in Florence), of the Medici family from the 14th to 16th centuries, of the Fugger family (South Germany) and of Plantin himself in the 16th century, etc. It is said that Plantin's account books, in particular, left a very important mark in the history of cost accounting. In 1548, Jan Ympyn Christoffels' Dutch-language work on double-entry bookkeeping was published in Antwerp. Ympyn's book was the first document to appear in the Dutch language regarding the Italian method of cost accounting based on Pacioli's bookkeeping theory. In this way, it can be said that Pacioli's bookkeeping theory was spread through the Netherlands by Ympyn's book. While Plantin started keeping records in his account book twenty years after the appearance of Ympyn's work, however, it cannot be said that he always depended on Ympyn's accounting. First, Plantin's account book shows a great variance from the method introduced by Ympyn. Moreover, if he did depend on Ympyn, then why didn't he keep his records in Dutch? In fact, he kept his records in Italian and according to the Venetian bookkeeping method. After spotlighting the figure of Christopher Plantin, this paper aims to show the cost accounting and the connection between the Venetian bookkeeping method and double-entry bookkeeping methods exhibited in account books of mid-16th century Antwerp. Plantin's cost accounting method for printers was performed in a very sophisticated manner. Items were recorded in real accounts : varieties of paper accounts as raw material accounts ; "spese de marchantia" as labor costs and expense accounts ; various book account (e.g., "Virgilio in 16°") as manufacturing accounts; books in stock ( "libri in monte" ) account as finished product accounts ; and books currently printing account as goods in process accounts, etc. These various accounts show systematic connections with each other, much like modern day cost accounting connecting plans. Print costs for hundreds to thousands of copies of each book were calculated from paper costs to "spese de marchantia", and these costs were shown for every title in the books in stock account. However, deducting the manufacturing costs from the sales figures for each book did not produce a sales profit calculation method. Nor did the 45 folio Balance ("Bilanzo") account, by simply adding the balances of each account, produce an overall profit and loss calculation. It is believed that Plantin's accounts aimed at clarifying the relations among the five investors including Plantin, calculating the print costs of each book, and moreover as some sort of profit and loss calculation for all the assets, liabilities and capital owned by Plantin, for each amount of money and each transaction. Edler de Poover said that both account books were kept according to the Venetian method of double-entry bookkeeping as described and exemplified in Luca Pacioli's Summa. While there is some truth to the claim, it is not as simple as that. Of course, Plantin's account books show many similarities to Pacioli's bookkeeping theory. For example, debit side and credit side of the journal and the ledger, the posting of evidence from the journal into the ledger, and the ledger's closing method, etc., are all the same or similar to Pacioli. There are many differences too, however, such as the lack of a day book or opening inventory, the rejection of the use of a capital (''capitale'') account, etc. It would seem rather that Plantin's bookkeeping method has more in common with Andrea Barbarigo's accounting method. We can think that Plantin's accounts books were not written using the Venetian bookkeeping method based on Pacioli's bookkeeping theory, but the double-entry bookkeeping method used by businessmen in Venice and other Italian cities such as Florence. So while it is certainly possible that the accountant had read Ympyn's recently published Dutch-language work, there is also the very strong possibility that he based his records not on Ympyn, but on the double-entry bookkeeping method born out of practical necessity by Italian businessmen. While there is one opinion that says the Italian bookkeeping method was spread through the Netherlands after being translated into Dutch, a second opinion must be considered : that the spread of the Italian bookkeeping method through the Netherlands was due to the interchange of Italian and Dutch people.
2001-02-25

著者

片岡泰彦
大東文化大学

クリストファー・プランタンの会計帳簿 (1563〜1567年)

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