Works on Bookkeeping of Hermling and Rademan

Das ist Deutliche…, was published in Danzig in 1685, and Rademan's first work, Ein Neues zur itzigen Kauf=und Handlung…, was published in Hamburg in 1682 and his second work, Der Wehrt - geschatzte Handels?Mann…, was published in Hamburg in 1714. First, I will try to explain the theories and examples of the accounting of the works of Hermling and Rademan, and I will write some points of similarity and difference between the works of Hermling and Rademan, and then I want to make clear the value of accounting history in the works of the two authors. Hermling and Rademan explained and illustrated three accounting books, a daybook, a journal and a ledger that Luca Pacioli explained. Many works on bookkeeping such as those by Manzoni, Casanova and Moschetti in Italy, and Schweicker, Gammersfelder, and Goessens in Germany, were influenced by Pacioli but did not make the example of the daybook. The three accounting book system of the daybook, the journal and the ledger of Luca Pacioli was established as an accounting example in Germany in the 17th century. Although Rademan showed the accounting example of the period of three years in his second work, Hermling and Rademan (in his first work) illustrated how to calculate the profit for the period of one year that is from January to December. Goessens adopted the method of calculating the profit and loss for the period of one year from January to December in North Germany in the 16th century, before Simon Stevin did in the Netherlands in the 17th century. The concept of calculation of profit and loss of an accounting period of one year, which was adopted in Venice in the 15th and 16th century, was established in Germany during the 16th and 17th century. The method of the continental form of closing the ledger had great influence in the method of the closing ledgers of Hermling and Rademan. The methods of closing the ledger of Hermling and Rademan are not the same, but a little different. Although they used the balance account and the profit and loss account in order to close the ledger, the content of their balance accounts were not the same. Hermling showed the balance account as a kind of balance sheet, but Rademan wrote the balance account as the total sheet. It seems that the continental form of closing the ledger was not yet established in Germany in the 17th century. Hermling adopted the warehouse (Speicher Raum) account in order to control various merchandise accounts. This warehouse account was a new method in the history of German acounting, because before Hermling's work, the various merchandise accounts were recorded individually. Rademan classified all the merchant's business into three transaction, that is, personal transaction, commission transaction and company transaction by using Hager's work. Although Hermling adopted Debet and An as the words for the debit side and credit side of the journal, Rademan used per and an. And Hermling and Rademan adopted the common words Debet and Credit as the words for the debit side and credit side of the ledger. I think that German works on bookkeeping in the 17th century, preserved the brilliant German bookkeeping theory that was built up in the 16th century, and had part in enabling it to continue until the 18th century.