Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance

Fascinating. One of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while. Takes a seemingly dry topic: bookkeeping and shows how one innovation in bookkeeping—double entry— most likely made capitalism possible, the destruction of our natural world inevitable, and the potential salvation of our world tenable. Just a remarkable journey. Luca Picioli is the polymath hero who in renaissance Venice was the first to explain Arabic numbers and double entry bookkeeping to the masses. The sweep of this book is amazing. It touches on the history of math, commerce, book history, the Industrial Age, and climate change. Just an incredible scope for a mere 250 pages. Wow. We’re in trouble. We better hope the powers that be let us use double entry show more to account in REAL terms the health and wealth of nations. show less

I didn't feel like the author found enough material to justify the whole book. It was a little fuzzy on how bookkeeping actually works, which is understandable since the topic is dry, but it would have been nice to get just enough information to help you understand why it was revolutionary.

Late in the book bookkeeping is criticized for leading people to focus too much on commerce. Though the book is called Double Entry, it sweeps things like GDP into its domain, criticizing it for failing to measure human flourishing. This is a standard line on the left and, though I lean left myself, I think it's kind of dumb. But, whether you agree with the point or not, it bespeaks a certain lack of focus.

Somewhat interesting but the author does skip around the timeline a bit. Going back and forth and repeating certain facts like we would not be able to understand it if it wasn't repeated. Towards the end it does become a bit of a rant about how we need to find a way to take natural resources and quality of life into account. But basically no one has found a better way to balance the books since 15th century Venice.

Can't really recommend this book. A few interesting facts here and there. She spends time on the Renaissance and on Pacioli's background. There's a quick gloss on what double-entry bookkeeping/accounting is and how it works. She then discusses how it changed in 1800s. Then on to accounting scandals then & now. Last was a lot about GDP, GNP, National Systems of Accounts and how they are inadequate. For all the time and attention she spends on this last part, she makes no effort at all to show how this is tied to double-entry accounting.

A surprisingly poor attempt to explore the history of accounting, built around an account of the traditional father of modern accounting leading into a superficial plan for using accounting to advance modern environmental concerns.

The author appears to be neither an expert in history or accounting, and this book will not enlighten non-accountants who come to understand the importance of accounting in the modern world.