Accounting in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Published: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 12.1: 92-112, 1999.

Description: Documents Chaucer's knowledge of medieval accounting practice, explaining the principal-agent relation of the Reeve and his lord in GP and discussing debt in the description of the Merchant. Examines the role of accounting in ShT and demonstrates that, though Chaucer probably was not familiar with double-entry accounting, the Tale "can be read as a series of transactions expressible in terms of debits and credits." Provides a chart of these transactions.

Chaucer Subjects: General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.; Reeve and His Tale.; Merchant and His Tale.; Shipman and His Tale.