Early Accounting Northern Italy, The last leg of Northern Italy

Well as some would say, all good things come to an end. As we ventured all throughout Northern Italy we had come across some great cities, from Genoa to Vernaza then to Cavalese finally ending up in the lovely city of Venice. Along the way we have had great tour guides show us around these amazing cities. From learning about the rich history  
of Genoa to hiking through a winery in the Cinque Terrian mountains to touring a beautiful museum in Cavalese, to say I was in awe would be an understatement. We have learned about many different aspects that go into these communities which makes them so unique and interesting. Some examples of these would be the overseas trades going through the port of Genoa while also learning that families with the most money had power. While in Vernaza we learned while going through terrace after terrace on an owner’s private winery on a mountain side how many wine bottles he produces a year. We also learned some of the economics behind him selling his bottles of wine such as him not selling to local restaurants because they can afford to buy cheaper wine outside of Cinque Terra. And in Cavalese we learned the economics of their beautiful forest. An example of this was how the community only allows residents after living there for 20 years to use the forest for their own personal use, in moderation. Now that we are in the last leg of Northern Italy we get the chance to experience one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

           The article that I got the chance to read on my way to Venice with my partner Jackson Leech was titled Early Accounting in Northern Italy. This article mainly focused on the medieval times and how advanced Northern Italy was, more specifically Genoa, Venice, and Florence within in accounting. It talked about double entries, which can be defined as a method of bookkeeping in which a transaction is entered both as a debit into one account and a credit to another account. This related with all of Northern Italy for the most part because of how much trade they were doing that the time. This related with trading outside of the family clan or overseas, it built a kind of trading system that would be documented and the sellers/buyers would not have to be as concerned with getting the materials or the coin that they deserved. So the trading from larger families, from port to port, would be documented and would be easily accessible if needed if something were to actually go wrong with the trade.