Attività economica e dimensione “tempo” nei conti dei mercanti medievali

ABSTRACT: (TIME AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN THE MEDIEVAL MERCHANTS’ ACCOUNTS). This paper has the aim to examine the historical period in which “time” started to be considered a relevant dimension of the economic activity. This age, identified in the period starting in the Thirteenth Century and finishing at the end of the Fifteenth Century, corresponds to the development of international trade. The relevance assigned to time in the economic activity is one of the factors to which is due the rise of accounting information related to a recurring accounting period. Furthermore the present work identifies the reasons supporting the need for a periodical accounting information and the ways used to achieve this aim in the merchants’ accounts. In the paper a synchronic methodology supports a vertical interpretation of the social and economic context and the knowledge existing in trade. This methodology has allowed us consider how the usage and practice in bookkeeping spreading at that age favoured the development of periodical accounting information. The scarce availability of documents and recording concerning the accounting merchants’ practices over the considered period causes the main limit of the research, consisting in the partial investigation about the degree of diffusion of the specific accounting practices analysed in this paper.

KEYWORDS: medieval companies, accounting period, merchants’ accounts