OF THE TRADESMAN'S KEEPING HIS BOOKS, AND CASTING UP HIS SHOP
It was an ancient and laudable custom with tradesmen in England always
to balance their accounts of stock, and of profit and loss, at least
once every year; and generally it was done at Christmas, or New-year's
tide, when they could always tell whether they went backward or forward,
and how their affairs stood in the world; and though this good custom is
very much lost among tradesmen at this time, yet there are a great many
that do so still, and they generally call it _casting up shop. _To speak
the truth, the great occasion of omitting it has been from the many
tradesmen, who do not care to look into things, and who, fearing their
affairs are not right, care not to know how they go at all, good or bad;
and when I see a tradesman that does not cast up once a-year, I conclude
that tradesman to be in very bad circumstances, that at least he fears
he is so, and by consequence cares not to inquire.
As casting up the shop is the way to know every year whether he goes
backward or forward, and is the tradesman's particular satisfaction, so
he must cast up his books too, or else it will be very ominous to the
tradesman's credit.
Now, in order to doing this effectually once a-year, it is needful the
tradesman should keep his books always in order; his day-book duly
posted, his cash duly balanced, and all people's accounts always fit for
a view. He that delights in his trade will delight in his books; and, as
I said that he that will thrive must diligently attend his shop or
warehouse, and take up his delight there, so, I say now, he must also
diligently keep his books, or else he will never know whether he thrives
or no.
Exact keeping his books is one essential part of a tradesman's
prosperity. The books are the register of his estate, the index of his
stock. All the tradesman has in the world must be found in these three
articles, or some of them:--
Goods in the shop; Money in cash; Debts abroad.
The shop will at any time show the first of these upon a small stop to
cast it up; the cash-chest and bill-box will show the second at demand;
and the ledger when posted will show the last; so that a tradesman can
at any time, at a week's notice, cast up all these three; and then,
examining his accounts, to take the balance, which is a real trying what
he is worth in the world.
It cannot be satisfactory to any tradesman to let his books go
unsettled, and uncast up, for then he knows nothing of himself, or of
his circumstances in the world; the books can tell him at any time what
his condition is, and will satisfy him what is the condition of his
debts abroad.
In order to his regular keeping his books, several things might be said
very useful for the tradesman to consider:
I. Every thing done in the whole circumference of his trade must be set
down in a book, except the retail trade; and this is clear, if the goods
are not in bulk, then the money is in cash, and so the substance will be
always found either there, or somewhere else; for if it is neither in
the shop, nor in the cash, nor in the books, it must be stolen and lost.
II. As every thing done must be set down in the books, so it should be
done at the very time of it; all goods sold must be entered in the books
before they are sent out of the house; goods sent away and not entered,
are goods lost; and he that does not keep an exact account of what goes
out and comes in, can never swear to his books, or prove his debts, if
occasion calls for it.
I am not going to set down rules here for book-keeping, or to teach the
tradesman how to do it, but I am showing the necessity and usefulness of
doing it at all. That tradesman who keeps no books, may depend upon it
he will ere long keep no trade, unless he resolves also to give no
credit. He that gives no trust, and takes no trust, either by wholesale
or by retail, and keeps his cash all himself, may indeed go on without
keeping any books at all; and has nothing to do, when he would know his
estate, but to cast up his shop and his cash, and see how much they
amount to, and that is his whole and neat estate; for as he owes
nothing, so nobody is in debt to him, and all his estate is in his shop;
but I suppose the tradesman that trades wholly thus, is not yet born, or
if there ever were any such, they are all dead.
A tradesman's books, like a Christian's conscience, should always be
kept clean and clear; and he that is not careful of both will give but a
sad account of himself either to God or man. It is true, that a great
many tradesmen, and especially shopkeepers, understand but little of
book-keeping; but it is as true that they all understand something of
it, or else they will make but poor work of shopkeeping.
I knew a tradesman that could not write, and yet he supplied the defect
with so many ingenious knacks of his own, to secure the account of what
people owed him, and was so exact doing it, and then took such care to
have but very short accounts with any body, that he brought up his
method to be every way an equivalent to writing; and, as I often told
him, with half the study and application that those things cost him, he
might have learned to write, and keep books too. He made notches upon
sticks for all the middling sums, and scored with chalk for lesser
things. He had drawers for every particular customer's name, which his
memory supplied, for he knew every particular drawer, though he had a
great many, as well as if their faces had been painted upon them; he had
innumerable figures to signify what he would have written, if he could;
and his shelves and boxes always put me in mind of the Egyptian
hieroglyphics, and nobody understood them, or any thing of them, but
himself.
It was an odd thing to see him, when a country-chap, came up to settle
accounts with him; he would go to a drawer directly, among such a number
as was amazing: in that drawer was nothing but little pieces of split
sticks, like laths, with chalk-marks on them, all as unintelligible as
the signs of the zodiac are to an old school-mistress that teaches the
horn-book and primer, or as Arabic or Greek is to a ploughman. Every
stick had notches on one side for single pounds, on the other side for
tens of pounds, and so higher; and the length and breadth also had its
signification, and the colour too; for they were painted in some places
with one colour, and in some places with anther; by which he knew what
goods had been delivered for the money: and his way of casting up was
very remarkable, for he knew nothing of figures; but he kept six spoons
in a place on purpose, near his counter, which he took out when he had
occasion to cast up any sum, and, laying the spoons in a row before him,
he counted upon them thus:
One, two, three, and another, one odd spoon, and t'other | | | | | |
By this he told up to six; if he had any occasion to tell any farther,
he began again, as we do after the number ten in our ordinary
numeration; and by this method, and running them up very quick, he would
count any number under thirty-six, which was six spoons of six spoons,
and then, by the strength of his head, he could number as many more as
he pleased, multiplying them always by sixes, but never higher.
I give this instance to show how far the application of a man's head
might go to supply the defect, but principally to show (and it does
abundantly show it) what an absolute necessity there is for a tradesman
to be very diligent and exact in keeping his books, and what pains those
who understand their business will always take to do it.
This tradesman was indeed a country shopkeeper; but he was so
considerable a dealer, that he became mayor of the city which he lived
in (for it was a city, and that a considerable city too), and his
posterity have been very considerable traders in the same city ever
since, and they show their great-grandfather's six counting spoons and
his hieroglyphics to this day.
After some time, the old tradesman bred up two of his sons to his
business, and the young men having learned to write, brought books into
the counting-house, things their father had never used before; but the
old man kept to his old method for all that, and would cast up a sum,
and make up an account with his spoons and his drawers, as soon as they
could with their pen and ink, if it were not too full of small articles,
and that he had always avoided in his business.
However, as I have said above, this evidently shows the necessity of
book-keeping to a tradesman, and the very nature of the thing evidences
also that it must be done with the greatest exactness. He that does not
keep his books exactly, and so as that he may depend upon them for
charging his debtors, had better keep no books at all, but, like my
shopkeeper, score and notch every thing; for as books well kept make
business regular, easy, and certain, so books neglected turn all into
confusion, and leave the tradesman in a wood, which he can never get out
of without damage and loss. If ever his dealers know that his books are
ill kept, they play upon him, and impose horrid forgeries and falsities
upon him: whatever he omits they catch at, and leave it out; whatever
they put upon him, he is bound to yield to; so that, in short, as books
well kept are the security of the tradesman's estate, and the
ascertaining of his debts, so books ill kept will assist every knavish
customer or chapman to cheat and deceive him.
Some men keep a due and exact entry or journal of all they sell, or
perhaps of all they buy or sell, but are utterly remiss in posting it
forward to a ledger; that is to say, to another book, where every parcel
is carried to the debtor's particular account. Likewise they keep
another book, where they enter all the money they receive, but, as
above, never keeping any account for the man; there it stands in the
cash-book, and both these books must be ransacked over for the
particulars, as well of goods sold, as of the money received, when this
customer comes to have his account made up; and as the goods are
certainly entered when sold or sent away, and the money is certainly
entered when it is received, this they think is sufficient, and all the
rest superfluous.
I doubt not such tradesmen often suffer as much by their slothfulness
and neglect of book-keeping, as might, especially if their business is
considerable, pay for a book-keeper; for what is such a man's case,
when his customer, suppose a country dealer, comes to town, which
perhaps he does once a-year (as in the custom of other tradesmen), and
desires to have his account made up? The London tradesman goes to his
books, and first he rummages his day-book back for the whole year, and
takes out the foot[32] of all the parcels sent to his chapman, and they
make the debtor side of the account; then he takes his cash-book, if it
deserves that name, and there he takes out all the sums of money which
the chapman has sent up, or bills which he has received, and these make
the creditor side of the account; and so the balance is drawn out, and
this man thinks himself a mighty good accountant, that he keeps his
books exactly; and so perhaps he does, as far as he keeps them at all;
that is to say, he never sends a parcel away to his customer, but he
enters it down, and never receives a bill from him, but he sets it down
when the money is paid; but now take this man and his chap, together, as
they are making up this account. The chapman, a sharp clever tradesman,
though a countryman, has his pocket-book with him, and in it a copy of
his posting-book, so the countrymen call a ledger, where the London
tradesman's accounts are copied out; and when the city tradesman has
drawn out his account, he takes it to his inn and examines it by his
little book, and what is the consequence?
If the city tradesman has omitted any of the bills which the country
tradesman has sent him up, he finds it out, and is sure to put him in
mind of it. 'Sir,' says he, 'you had a bill from me upon Mr A.G. at such
a time, for thirty pounds, and I have your letter that you received the
money; but you have omitted it in the account, so that I am not so much
in your debt by thirty pounds, as you thought I was.'
'Say you so!' says the city tradesman; 'I cannot think but you must be
mistaken.'
'No, no!' says the other, 'I am sure I can't be mistaken, for I have it
in my book; besides, I can go to Mr A.G., whom the bill was drawn upon,
and there is, to be sure, your own endorsement upon it, and a receipt
for the money.'
'Well,' says the citizen, 'I keep my books as exact as any body--I'll
look again, and if it be there I shall find it, for I am sure if I had
it, it is in my cash-book.'
'Pray do, then,' says the countryman, 'for I am sure I sent it you, and
I am sure I can produce the bill, if there be occasion.'
Away goes the tradesman to his books, which he pretends he keeps so
exact, and examining them over again, he finds the bill for thirty
pounds entered fairly, but in his running the whole year over together,
as well he might, he had overlooked it, whereas, if his cash-book had
been duly posted every week, as it ought to have been, this bill had
been regularly placed to account.
But now, observe the difference: the bill for thirty pounds being
omitted, was no damage to the country tradesman, because he has an
account of it in his book of memorandums, and had it regularly posted in
his books at home, whatever the other had, and also was able to bring
sufficient proof of the payment; so the London tradesman's omission was
no hurt to him.
But the case differs materially in the debtor side of the account; for
here the tradesman, who with all his boasts of keeping his books
exactly, has yet no ledger, which being, as I have said, duly posted,
should show every man's account at one view; and being done every week,
left it scarce possible to omit any parcel that was once entered in the
day-book or journal--I say, the tradesman keeping no ledger, he looks
over his day-book for the whole year past, to draw up the debtor side of
his customer's account, and there being a great many parcels, truly he
overlooks one or two of them, or suppose but one of them, and gives the
chapman the account, in which he sums up his debtor side so much,
suppose £136, 10s.: the chapman examining this by his book, as he did
the cash, finds two parcels, one £7, 15s., and the other £9, 13s.,
omitted; so that by his own book his debtor side was £153, 18s.; but
being a cunning sharp tradesman, and withal not exceeding honest, 'Well,
well,' says he to himself, 'if Mr G. says it is no more than £136, 10s.
what have I to do to contradict him? it is none of my business to keep
his books for him; it is time enough for me to reckon for it when he
charges me.' So he goes back to him the next day, and settles accounts
with him, pays him the balance in good bills which he brought up with
him for that purpose, takes a receipt in full of all accounts and
demands to such a day of the month, and the next day comes and looks out
another parcel of goods, and so begins an account for the next year,
like a current chapman, and has the credit of an extraordinary customer
that pays well, and clears his accounts every year; which he had not
done had he not seen the advantage, and so strained himself to pay, that
he might get a receipt in full of all accounts.
It happens some years after that this city tradesman dies, and his
executors finding his accounts difficult to make up, there being no
books to be found but a day-book and a cash-book, they get some skilful
book-keeper to look into them, who immediately sees that the only way to
bring the accounts to a head, is to form a ledger out of the other two,
and post every body's account into it from the beginning; for though it
were a long way back, there is no other remedy.
In doing this, they come to this mistake, among a great many others of
the like kind in other chapmen's accounts; upon this they write to the
chapman, and tell him they find him debtor to the estate of the deceased
in such a sum of money, and desire him to make payment.
The country shopkeeper huffs them, tells them he always made up accounts
with Mr. G., the deceased, once a-year, as he did with all his other
chapmen, and that he took his receipt in full of all accounts and
demands, upon paying the balance to him at such a time; which receipt he
has to show; and that he owes him nothing, or but such a sum, being the
account of goods bought since.
The executors finding the mistake, and how it happened, endeavour to
convince him of it; but it is all one-he wants no convincing, for he
knows at bottom how it is; but being a little of a knave himself, or if
you please, not a little, he tells them he cannot enter into the
accounts so far back--Mr G. always told him he kept his books very
exactly, and he trusted to him; and as he has his receipt in full, and
it is so long ago, he can say nothing to it.
From hence they come to quarrel, and the executors threaten him with
going to law; but he bids them defiance, and insists upon his receipt in
full; and besides that, it is perhaps six years ago, and so he tells
them he will plead the statute of limitations upon them; and then adds,
that he does not do it avoid a just debt, but to avoid being imposed
upon, he not understanding books so well as Mr G. pretended to do; and
having balanced accounts so long ago with him, he stands by the balance,
and has nothing to say to their mistakes, not he. So that, in short, not
finding any remedy, they are forced to sit down by the loss; and perhaps
in the course of twenty years' trade, Mr G. might lose a great many such
parcels in the whole; and had much better have kept a ledger; or if he
did not know how to keep a ledger himself, had better have hired a
book-keeper to have come once a-week, or once a-month, to have posted
his day-book for him.
The like misfortune attends the not balancing his cash, a thing which
such book-keepers as Mr G. do not think worth their trouble; nor do they
understand the benefit of it. The particulars, indeed, of this article
are tedious, and would be too long for a chapter; but certainly they
that know any thing of the use of keeping an exact cash-book, know that,
without it, a tradesman can never be thoroughly satisfied either of his
own not committing mistakes, or of any people cheating him, I mean
servants, or sons, or whoever is the first about him.
What I call balancing his cash-book, is, first, the casting up daily, or
weekly, or monthly, his receipts and payments, and then seeing what
money is left in hand, or, as the usual expression of the tradesman is,
what money is in cash; secondly, the examining his money, telling it
over, and seeing how much he has in his chest or bags, and then seeing
if it agrees with the balance of his book, that what is, and what should
be, correspond.
And here let me give tradesmen a caution or two.
1. Never sit down satisfied with an error in the cash; that is to say,
with a difference between the money really in the cash, and the balance
in the book; for if they do not agree, there must be a mistake
somewhere, and while there is a mistake in the cash, the tradesman
cannot, at least he ought not to be, easy. He that can be easy with a
mistake in his cash, may be easy with a gang of thieves in his house;
for if his money does not come right, he must have paid something that
is not set down, and that is to be supposed as bad as if it were lost;
or he must have somebody about him that can find the way to his money
besides himself, that is to say, somebody that should not come to it;
and if so, what is the difference between that and having a gang of
thieves about him?--for every one that takes money out of his cash
without his leave, and without letting him know it, is so far a thief to
him: and he can never pretend to balance his cash, nor, indeed, know any
thing of his affairs, that does not know which way his money goes.
2. A tradesman endeavouring to balance his cash, should no more be
satisfied if he finds a mistake in his cash one way, than another--that
is to say, if he finds more in cash than by the balance of his cash-book
ought to be there, than if he finds less, or wanting in cash. I know
many, who, when they find it thus, sit down satisfied, and say, 'Well,
there is an error, and I don't know where it lies; but come, it is an
error on the right hand; I have more cash in hand than I should have,
that is all, so I am well enough; let it go; I shall find it some time
or other.' But the tradesman ought to consider that he is quite in the
dark; and as he does not really know where it lies, so, for ought he
knows, the error may really be to his loss very considerably--and the
case is very plain, that it is as dangerous to be over, as it would be
to be under; he should, therefore, never give it over till he has found
it out, and brought it to rights. For example:
If there appears to be more money in the cash than there is by the
balance in the cash-book, this must follow--namely, that some parcel of
money must have been received, which is not entered in the book; now,
till the tradesman knows what sum of money this is, that is thus not
entered, how can he tell but the mistake may be quite the other way, and
the cash be really wrong to his loss? Thus,
My cash-book being cast up for the last month, I find, by the foot of
the leaf, there is cash remaining in hand to balance £176, 10s. 6d.
To see if all things are right, I go and tell my money over, and there,
to my surprise, I find £194, 10s. 6d. in cash, so that I have £18 there
more than I should have. Now, far from being pleased that I have more
money by me than I should have, my inquiry is plain, 'How comes this to
pass?'
Perhaps I puzzle my head a great while about it, but not being able to
find out, I sit down easy and satisfied, and say, 'Well, I don't much
concern myself about it; it is better to be so than £18 missing; I
cannot tell where it lies, but let it lie where it will, here is the
money to make up the mistake when it appears.'
But how foolish is this! how ill-grounded the satisfaction! and how weak
am I to argue thus, and please myself with the delusion! For some months
after, it appears, perhaps, that whereas there was £38 entered, received
of Mr B.K., the figure 3 was mistaken, and set down for a figure of 5,
for the sum received was £58; so that, instead of having £18 more in
cash than there ought to be, I have 40s. wanting in my cash, which my
son or my apprentice stole from me when they put in the money, and made
the mistake of the figures to puzzle the book, that it might be some
time before it should be discovered.
Upon the whole, take it as a rule, the tradesman ought to be as
unsatisfied when he finds a mistake to his gain in his cash, as when he
finds it to his loss; and it is every whit as dangerous, nay, it is the
more suspicious, because it seems to be laid as a bait for him to stop
his mouth, and to prevent further inquiries; and it is on that account
that I leave this caution upon record, that the tradesman may be duly
alarmed.
The keeping a cash-book is one of the nicest parts of a tradesman's
business, because there is always the bag and the book to be brought
together, and if they do not exactly speak the same language, even to a
farthing, there must be some omission; and how big or how little that
omission may be, who knows, or how shall it be known, but by casting and
recasting up, telling, and telling over and over again, the money?
If there is but twenty shillings over in the money, the question is,
'How came it there?' It must be received somewhere, and of somebody,
more than is entered; and how can the cash-keeper, be he master or
servant, know but more was received with it, which is not, and should
have been, entered, and so the loss may be the other way? It is true, in
telling money there may have been a mistake, and he that received a sum
of money may have received twenty shillings too much, or five pounds too
much--and such a mistake I have known to be made in the paying and
receiving of money--and a man's cash has been more perplexed, and his
mind more distracted about it, than the five pounds have been worth,
because he could not find it out, till some accident has discovered
it;[33] and the reason is, because not knowing which way it could come
there, he could not know but some omission might be made to his loss
another way, as in the case above mentioned.
I knew, indeed, a strong waterman, who drove a very considerable trade,
but, being an illiterate tradesman, never balanced his cash-book for
many years, nor scarce posted his other books, and, indeed, hardly
understood how to do it; but knowing his trade was exceedingly
profitable, and keeping his money all himself, he was easy, and grew
rich apace, in spite of the most unjustifiable, and, indeed, the most
intolerable, negligence; but lest this should be pleaded as an exception
to my general rule, and to invalidate the argument, give me leave to
add, that, though this man grew rich in spite of indolence, and a
neglect of his book, yet, when he died, two things appeared, which no
tradesman in his wits would desire should be said of him.
I. The servants falling out, and maliciously accusing one another, had,
as it appeared by the affidavits of several of them, wronged him of
several considerable sums of money, which they received, and never
brought into the books; and others, of sums which they brought into the
books, but never brought into the cash; and others, of sums which they
took ready money in the shop, and never set down, either the goods in
the day-book, or the money into the cash-book; and it was thought,
though he was so rich as not to feel it, that is, not to his hurt, yet
that he lost three or four hundred pounds a-year in that manner, for the
two or three last years of his life; but his widow and son, who came
after him, having the discovery made to them, took better measures
afterwards.
II. He never did, or could know, what he was worth, for the accounts in
his books were never made up; nor when he came to die, could his
executors make up any man's account, so as to be able to prove the
particulars, and make a just demand of their debt, but found a
prodigious number of small sums of money paid by the debtors, as by
receipts in their books and on their files, some by himself, and some by
his man, which were never brought to account, or brought into cash; and
his man's answer being still, that he gave all to the master, they could
not tell how to charge him by the master's account, because several
sums, which the master himself received, were omitted being entered in
the same manner, so that all was confusion and neglect; and though the
man died rich, it was in spite of that management that would have made
any but himself have died poor.
Exact book-keeping is to me the effect of a man whose heart is in his
business, and who intends to thrive. He that cares not whether his books
are kept well or no, is in my opinion one that does not much care
whether he thrives or no; or else, being in desperate circumstances,
knows it, and that he cannot, or does not thrive, and so matters not
which way it goes.
It is true, the neglect of the books is private and secret, and is
seldom known to any body but the tradesman himself, at least till he
comes to break, and be a bankrupt, and then you frequently hear them
exclaim against him, upon that very account. 'Break!' says one of the
assignees; 'how should he but break?--why, he kept no books; you never
saw books kept in such a scandalous manner in your life; why, he has not
posted his cash-book, for I know not how many months; nor posted his
day-book and journal at all, except here and there an account that he
perhaps wanted to know the balance of; and as for balancing his cash, I
don't see any thing of that done, I know not how long. Why, this fellow
could never tell how he went on, or how things stood with him: I wonder
he did not break a long time ago.'
Now, the man's case was this: he knew how to keep his books well enough,
perhaps, and could write well enough; and if you look into his five or
six first years of trade, you find all his accounts well kept, the
journal duly posted, the cash monthly balanced; but the poor man found
after that, that things went wrong, that he went backwards, and that all
went down-hill, and he hated to look into his books. As a profligate
never looks into his conscience, because he can see nothing there but
what terrifies and affrights him, makes him uneasy and melancholy, so a
sinking tradesman cares not to look into his books, because the prospect
there is dark and melancholy. 'What signify the accounts to me?' says
he; 'I can see nothing in the books but debts that 1 cannot pay, and
debtors that will never pay; I can see nothing there but how I have
trusted my estate away like a fool, and how I am to be ruined for my
easiness, and being a sot:' and this makes him throw them away, and
hardly post things enough to make up when folks call to pay; or if he
does post such accounts as he has money to receive from, that's all, and
the rest lie at random, till, as I say, the assignees come to reproach
him with his negligence.
Whereas, in truth, the man understood his books well enough, but had no
heart to look in them, no courage to balance them, because of the
afflicting prospect of them.
But let me here advise tradesmen to keep a perfect acquaintance with
their books, though things are bad and discouraging; it keeps them in
full knowledge of what they are doing, and how they really stand; and it
brings them sometimes to the just reflections on their circumstances
which they ought to make; so to stop in time, as I hinted before, and
not let things run too far before they are surprised and torn to pieces
by violence.
And, at the worst, even a declining tradesman should not let his books
be neglected; if his creditors find them punctually kept to the last, it
will be a credit to him, and they would see he was a man fit for
business; and I have known when that very thing has recommended a
tradesman so much to his creditors, that after the ruin of his fortunes,
some or other of them have taken him into business, as into partnership,
or into employment, only because they knew him to be qualified for
business, and for keeping books in particular.
But if we should admonish the tradesman to an exact and regular care of
his books, even in his declining fortunes, much more should it be his
care in his beginning, and before any disaster has befallen him. I doubt
not, that many a tradesman has miscarried by the mistakes and neglect of
his books; for the losses that men suffer on that account are not easily
set down; but I recommend it to a tradesman to take exact care of his
books, as I would to every man to take care of his diet and temperate
living, in order to their health; for though, according to some, we
cannot, by all our care and caution, lengthen out life, but that every
one must and shall live their appointed time,[34] yet, by temperance and
regular conduct, we may make that life more comfortable, more agreeable,
and pleasant, by its being more healthy and hearty; so, though the
exactest book-keeping cannot be said to make a tradesman thrive, or that
he shall stand the longer in his business, because his profit and loss
do not depend upon his books, or the goodness of his debts depend upon
the debtor's accounts being well posted, yet this must be said, that the
well keeping of his books may be the occasion of his trade being carried
on with the more ease and pleasure, and the more satisfaction, by having
numberless quarrels, and contentions, and law-suits, which are the
plagues of a tradesman's life, prevented and avoided; which, on the
contrary, often torment a tradesman, and make his whole business be
uneasy to him for want of being able to make a regular proof of things
by his books.
A tradesman without his books, in case of a law-suit for a debt, is like
a married woman without her certificate. How many times has a woman
been cast, and her cause not only lost, but her reputation and
character exposed, for want of being able to prove her marriage, though
she has been really and honestly married, and has merited a good
character all her days? And so in trade, many a debt has been lost, many
an account been perplexed by the debtor, many a sum of money been
recovered, and actually paid over again, especially after the tradesman
has been dead, for want of hits keeping his books carefully and exactly
when he was alive; by which negligence, if he has not been ruined when
he was living, his widow and children have been ruined after his
decease; though, had justice been done, he had left them in good
circumstances, and with sufficient to support them.
And this brings me to another principal reason why a tradesman should
not only keep books, but be very regular and exact in keeping them in
order, that is to say, duly posted, and all his affairs exactly and duly
entered in his books; and this is, that if he should be surprised by
sudden or unexpected sickness, or death, as many are, and as all may be,
his accounts may not be left intricate and unsettled, and his affairs
thereby be perplexed.
Next to being prepared for death, with respect to Heaven and his soul, a
tradesman should be always in a state of preparation for death, with
respect to his books; it is in vain that he calls for a scrivener or
lawyer, and makes a will, when he finds a sudden summons sent him for
the grave, and calls his friends about him to divide and settle his
estate; if his business is in confusion below stairs, his books out of
order, and his accounts unsettled, to what purpose does he give his
estate among his relations, when nobody knows where to find it?
As, then, the minister exhorts us to take care of our souls, and make
our peace with Heaven, while we are in a state of health, and while life
has no threatening enemies about it, no diseases, no fevers attending;
so let me second that advice to the tradesman always to keep his books
in such a posture, that if he should be snatched away by death, his
distressed widow and fatherless family may know what is left for them,
and may know where to look for it. He may depend upon it, that what he
owes to any one they will come fast enough for, and his widow and
executrix will be pulled to pieces for it, if she cannot and does not
speedily pay it. Why, then, should he not put her in a condition to have
justice done her and her children, and to know how and of whom to seek
for his just debts, that she may be able to pay others, and secure the
remainder for herself and her children? I must confess, a tradesman not
to leave his books in order when he dies, argues him to be either.
1. A very bad Christian, who had few or no thoughts of death upon him,
or that considered nothing of its frequent coming unexpected and sudden
without warning; or,
2. A very unnatural relation, without the affections of a father, or a
husband, or even of a friend, that should rather leave what he had to be
swallowed up by strangers, than leave his family and friends in a
condition to find, and to recover it.
Again, it is the same case as in matters religious, with respect to the
doing this in time, and while health and strength remain. For, as we say
very well, and with great reason, that the work of eternity should not
be left to the last moments; that a death-bed is no place, and a sick
languishing body no condition, and the last breath no time, for
repentance; so I may add, neither are these the place, the condition,
nor the time, to make up our accounts. There is no posting the books on
a death-bed, or balancing the cash-book in a high fever. Can the
tradesman tell you where his effects lie, and to whom he has lent or
trusted sums of money, or large quantities of goods, when he is
delirious and light-headed? All these things must be done in time, and
the tradesman should take care that his books should always do this for
him, and then he has nothing to do but make his will, and dispose of
what he has; and for the rest he refers them to his books, to know where
every thing is to be had.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] [The sum at the bottom, or _foot_, of the account.]
[33] [This reminds the editor of an amusing anecdote he has heard,
illustrative of the diseased accuracy, as it may be called, of a certain
existing London merchant. On reckoning up his household book one year,
he found that he had expended one penny more than was accounted for, and
there was accordingly an error to that extent in his reckoning. The very
idea of an error, however trifling the amount, gave him great
uneasiness, and he set himself with the greatest anxiety to discover, if
possible, the occasion. He employed the by-hours of weeks in the vain
attempt; but at length, having one day to cross Waterloo Bridge, where
there is a pontage of a penny for foot passengers, he all at once, to
his inconceivable joy, recollected having there disbursed the coin in
question about a twelvemonth before.]
[34] [The correct doctrine is, we _may_ not, by our utmost care and
diligence, avoid the causes of an early and premature death; but he who
acts according to the rules which promote health, and avoids all things
which tend to endanger it, has a much better chance of living to the
natural period appointed for human life than he who acts
otherwise--besides, as stated in the text, making his life more
agreeable. The author's illustration would be more properly drawn if we
were to say, 'The tradesman, by keeping exact accounts, may not succeed
in contending against certain unfavourable circumstances, no more than
the man who lives according to the just rules of nature may thereby
succeed in eviting other evils that tend to cut short life; but as the
temperate man is most likely to be healthy, so is the tradesman, who
keeps exact accounts, most likely to thrive in business.']