The"Three-Legged"Bookkeeping of the Chefoo Maritime Tollhouse in the Late Qing Dynasty-A Comparison with Early Western Double-Entry Bookkeeping
Western double-entry bookkeeping originated in the financial industry of northern Italian cities in the 13 th century and matured in commercial activities.Luca Pacioli's treatise on bookkeeping shows that the early Western double-entry bookkeeping,under its bookkeeping form,contains the commercial spirit of equal rights and responsibilities.The government of Genoa was actively engaged in commercial and credit activities,and treasury bond was its main financial revenue,which made the government have extensive responsibilities and rights to the public.When the government adopted double-entry bookkeeping,these rights and responsibilities became the main accounting objects,and double-entry bookkeeping thus had the connotation of equal government rights and responsibilities.The Chefoo Maritime Tollhouse in the late Qing Dynasty adopted a bookkeeping method called"three-legged".It had a similar form to the Western double-entry bookkeeping.But the Qing government did not engage in commercial and credit activities,and there were no external responsibilities and rights in the government's fiscal system.The internal financial responsibilities and cash flows of the government were the main accounting objects,so its bookkeeping spirit-cash control under financial responsibility-was completely different from the Western.This comparison between China and the West shows the difference between the two fiscal systems.
Double-Entry BookkeepingTraditional Chinese Government BookkeepingBookkeeping FormBookkeeping Spirit"Three-Legged"Bookkeeping
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