Pratiques comptables en Grèce hellénistique
(2014) Comptabilités: revue d’histoire des comptabilités — Vol. 6, p. 1-25 (2014)
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- (en) During the Hellenistic period, Greek accountants had to manage silver coins relating to different monetary standards, as well as subsidiary gold and bronze coins, taking into account any modifications in the exchange rate between silver coins or in the metallic ratios, or even both phenomena combined. Moreover, the problem of the coexistence of homonymous monetary denominations in the different monetary standards is solved by calculating a grand total, which involves adding at par value monetary units of different masses and values, and by distinguishing in subtotals the exact content of each cash reserve. This practice began at Delphi in Spring 335 BC, and was still in use in 2nd-century Boeotia. In general, the Hellenistic accounts are very careful, despite the lack of completeness and precision of some documents, particularly in mentioning the positive or negative account balance. In addition, the accountants were able to transcend the day-to-day logic of cashiers and adopt the longer-term logic of managers: at Delphi, the Amphictionic treasurers attempted first to stabilize their cash reserve by issuing the “new Amphictionic”, before applying the epikatallage with the same objective; in Boeotia, the agonothetes prepared precise and detailed budgets, and adhered to them; at Messene, the secretary of the synedroi established in advance a type and rate of taxation that enabled the Messenians to gather the sums of money demanded by the Roman authorities as quickly and fairly as possible.
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Doyen, C. (2014). Pratiques comptables en Grèce hellénistique. Comptabilités: revue d’histoire des comptabilités, 6, 1-25. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/163184 (Original work published 2014)