These two volumes represent a great contribution for a better understanding of the development of double-entry bookkeeping as a traditional accounting method used in East Asia. The chapters that follow compare the perspectives of scholars from South Korea, China, Japan, and Europe who argue that the economic history of East Asia can contribute to unveiling an aspect of modernity focusing on their use of double-entry bookkeeping, so far neglected by mainstream scholars.

The Federal Accountant Australia in 1917 remained epilogues "Who first thought of bookkeeping as a business method? One would never think of Korea, and yet it was there that Double-Entry Bookkeeping (DEB) was invented and put into use. This was in the twelfth century, while it was not until the fifteenth century that a similar system was devised in Venice, then the commercial centre of the world. Kaesŏng Double Entry Bookkeeping(KDEB) in a Global Perspective brings new insight to one of the debatable questions of global history: Why did globally developed DEB, despite surprising divergence between the West advanced areas and the East?

Jun Seong Ho

Faculty: The Academy of Korean Studies, Economics Department
Position: Associate Professor

Lewis James B.

Faculty: Oriental Institute, Wolfson College
Position: University Lecturer in Korean History; Fellow of Wolfson College