Accounting has a reputation for being dry. Its history, though, is anything but — it's full of the strange, the petty and the surprisingly consequential. A few of our favourites.
1. Double-entry bookkeeping is 500+ years old
The system every modern business runs on was codified by a Franciscan friar, Luca Pacioli, in 1494. He didn't invent it — Venetian merchants were already using it — but he wrote it down, and we've barely improved on the core idea since.
2. There was once a tax on beards
In 1698, Peter the Great of Russia taxed beards to push his nobility towards a clean-shaven European look. Those who paid carried a token to prove it. Britain flirted with the idea too.
3. 'Bankrupt' comes from broken benches
The word derives from the Italian ‘banca rotta’ — broken bench. Moneylenders worked from benches, and when one failed, the bench was reputedly broken to signal it. Whether literally true or not, the etymology stuck.
4. Windows were once taxed
Britain's 18th-century window tax charged property owners by the number of windows — which is why some old buildings have bricked-up window spaces to this day. A tax quite literally written into the architecture.
5. The first income tax was temporary
Britain introduced income tax in 1799 to fund the Napoleonic Wars, on the firm understanding it was a temporary measure. Here we are.
6. Al Capone fell to accounting
Not murder, not racketeering — tax evasion. The bookkeeping brought him down where everything else failed, which is either reassuring or terrifying depending on your paperwork.
7. 'Audit' means 'he hears'
From the Latin ‘audire’, to hear — because early audits were done aloud, with accounts read out and listened to. The next time an audit sounds tedious, remember it used to be a performance.
None of this will lower your tax bill. But it might make the subject slightly more fun at a dinner party — and we'll take our wins where we can.