Ledger

“ A general ledger, showing generally the accounts of the bank, including the account in totals of the deposits made and checked out daily; a cash book, giving each day's business; a daily balance book, which was a summary of the general ledger; these three books were kept by Schardt; and an individual ledger, which showed in detail the deposit account of each individual depositor, and was kept by a clerk, who had no other duties, and was known as individual bookkeeper. ”

“ And yet, what would become of us if these cares absorbed us entirely? if, mere accountants, we should wish to measure our effort by the money it brings, do nothing that does not end in a receipt, and consider as things worthless or pains lost whatever cannot be drawn up in figures on the pages of a ledger? ”

“ At her side lay an open ledger, and a brace of bills, which were to be delivered to his Grace and the Marquis later in the afternoon. As she sipped and munched, the lady compared the items in the bills with the figures in the ledger, and with this reading solaced her morning meal. ”

“ They represent the merchant: their interests are his interests; he is solvent upon the excess of their credits over their debits, insolvent upon the excess of their debits over their credits. It is exactly the reverse in all the other accounts. If a malicious person were to get at the ledger, and put on a cipher to the pounds in various items, with a view of making the concern appear worse than it really is, he would make his alterations on the debtor sides of the stock and profit-and-loss accounts, and on the creditor sides of all the others. ”

“ All who receive must be debited; all who give must be credited.
No cancel is ever made. If cash received be afterwards repaid, the sum paid is not struck off the receipts (or debtor-side of the cash account) , but a discharge, or credit, is written on the expenditure (or credit) side. [Pg 183]
The book in which the accounts are kept is called a ledger. It has double columns, or else the debtor-side is on one page, and the creditor side on the opposite, of each account. The debtor-side is always the left. Other books are used, but they are only to help in keeping the ledger correct. ”

“ Dividends declared, capital subscribed, investments of a special nature, or amount of assets of any kind, can all be kept from the knowledge of employes.
20. How Operated. Accounts in the private ledger must not conflict with accounts in general or personal ledgers, and the fact that private accounts are kept should not interfere with the balance of the general books. To insure against any such conflict, a private ledger controlling account is kept in the general ledger.
In the general cash book, and sometimes in the journal, debit and credit columns headed Private Ledger are provided. ”

“ But strength did not return. Week after week passed, and it seemed farther away than ever. The storekeepers’ accounts remained unsettled. The matter was becoming a serious one for them. What should they do?
At this point one of them opened his ledger, went over every item set down there, and, after footing up the total amount, calculated the interest on it to the last cent. Then he sat thinking about what he could do with the money if he only had it in hand; and this was the standpoint from which he looked at the debt. ”

“ They talk big enough, especially if a creditor [19] of their own happens to be listening; or if, more urgent still, they get poked in the ribs by one who has brought a huge ledger to claim a doubtful debt. ”

“ Ledger. “I already have the security of the lands in addition to your personal obligation. My advice to you is to try and sell them—or, at least, so much of them as will enable you to discharge your debts. There are one or two men up in your section who have plenty of money.—This man Leech—and that man Still—they are land-buyers. Why don’t you sell to them?”
“What!” exclaimed both Dr. Cary and General Legaie, [222] in one breath. “Sell our old family places to that man Leech?” ”

“ A business man often points with pride to the fact that he has transferred a number of items from his regular customers ledger to a suspense ledger, implying thereby a policy of conservatism in the value at which he carries his customers’ accounts on his books. ”

“ Assets = Liabilities + Proprietorship,
of which the left side is represented in the accounts by debits and the right side by credits, the equality of the debit balances and the credit balances of the accounts in the ledger is readily seen. If, now, for all succeeding transactions an entry is made having an equal debit and credit, evidently the equilibrium of the total debits and credits in the accounts is maintained and the two sides of the ledger are in agreement. The making of an equal debit and credit for every entry is fundamental and must be strictly observed. ”

“ One of the great advantages of the loose-leaf and card ledgers over the solid-bound ledger is their flexibility. They lend themselves easily to any desired grouping of the accounts; they may be numerically arranged where accounts are numbered instead of named; they may be arranged as to classes and each class made self-indexing; or a geographical grouping may be made. Another great advantage of this form of ledger is the ability to discard or file away in other binders all “dead” accounts, thus making for ease and facility in the use of the “live” ledger. ”

“ I explained to him that my partner Nisbet had been educated and trained in that very house of Page, Bacon & Co.; that we kept our books exactly as they did; that every day the ledger was written up, so that from it one could see exactly how much actual money was due the depositors and certificates; and then by counting the money in the vault, estimating the bullion on hand, which, though not actual money, could easily be converted into coin, and supplementing these amounts by "bills receivable," they ought to arrive at an approximate-result. ”

“ But in two important respects their position differed from that of the organized workers of more recent times. The master weavers and spinners were small capitalists in respect of the implements of their calling, and they stood to their employer in the twofold relation of debtor and of creditor. Normally each had a ledger account opened for him where he was debited on the one hand with the materials given out to him and credited on the other hand with his labour. ”

“ The customers ledger is usually the most active of the various ledgers, i.e., more postings are made in it because the majority of business transactions involve dealings of various sorts with customers, and more accounts are required to keep the records with customers. ”

“ The marks // indicate that the item has been transferred to journal or cash book.
4. The ledger used is one with journal ruling. In posting, each item is entered in the ledger. This is a very satisfactory plan for a small business, as the items of which each charge is composed can be seen at a glance. More space is required for an account, but the saving in time in making statements is a distinct advantage, especially when the proprietor is his own bookkeeper. With the ordinary style of ledger, it is necessary to refer to books of original entry to find the items.
Ledger with Journal Ruling
5. ”

“ Walk in the business section of Bombay, Calcutta, or Karachi and there you will find transactions amounting to hundreds of thousands carried on day after day without a receipt taken or given. An entry in the ledger books of both parties is all that is held necessary in such cases. In my own family, low-paid household servants drawing salaries up to a couple of hundreds a year were intrusted in the course of their duties with the handling of many thousands of dollars. ”

“ When the journal is so used it is provided with additional debit and credit analysis columns on each side according to the subsidiary ledgers employed. A divided-column journal with three debit and three credit columns is shown in Form 14. There is always a general money column on each side, the other columns depending on the kind of analysis required by the business. ”

“ And yet you are about to put yourself under that tyranny, when you run in debt for such dress! Your creditor has authority, at his pleasure, to deprive you of your liberty, by confining you in gaol for life, or by selling you for a servant, if you should not be able to pay him. When you have got your bargain, you may perhaps think little of payment; but, as Poor Richard says, "Creditors have better the memories than debtors; creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set-days and times." ”

“ The borrower runs in his own debt. Has a man gained any thing who has received a hundred favors and rendered none? Has he gained by borrowing, through indolence or cunning, his neighbour's wares, or horses, or money? There arises on the deed the instant acknowledgment of benefit on the one part, and of debt on the other; that is, of superiority and inferiority. The transaction remains in the memory of himself and his neighbour; and every new transaction alters, according to its nature, their relation to each other. ”

“ You will go off with your six bushels of money, to the kingdom that I have told you of, and there enter the service of the king. When the time comes near for his debt becoming due you will be able to notice by his manner that he is ill at ease. You shall then say to him that you know well enough what it is that is weighing upon him—that it is the debt which he owes to the troll and cannot pay, but that you can lend him the money. ”

“ The man who has purchased any article—say a horse—on credit, at one hundred dollars, when there are two hundred millions circulating in the country, if the quantity be reduced to one hundred millions by the arrival of pay-day, will find the horse but sufficient to pay half the debt; and the other half must either be paid out of his other means, and thereby become a clear loss to him, or go unpaid, and thereby become a clear loss to his creditor. ”

“ That is to say, the creditors could now employ in commerce the money due them from the public, and make from it an annual profit of five per cent., or four millions of dollars. But observe, that the public were at the same time paying on it an interest of exactly the same amount of four millions of dollars. Where then is the gain to either party, which makes it a public blessing? There is no change in the state of things, but of persons only. A has a debt due to him from the public, of which he holds their certificate as evidence, and on which he is receiving an annual interest. ”

“ If a banker can loan on a bill of lading or a warehouse receipt, or a trader can buy the same, or if a man can give a trust receipt to his banker agreeing that all his general shipments or stock in trade shall be the property of that banker until his debt is paid, it makes enormously for the rapid turning over of capital, and the extension of credit. ”

“ You confess yourself in debt to him, over and above an uncertain sum, which it suits you not to define, because such an investigation would expose ugly gaps and patches in that same snug competitive and property world of yours; and, therefore, being the stronger party, you compel your debtor to give up the claim which you confess, for an annuity of half-a-crown a week—that being the just-above-starving-point of the economic thermometer. ”

“ If these definitions of debt, debtor, and the obligation of a debt, are correct, they prove that from the time the contract (by which the debt is created) is entered into, up to the time the value due is to be delivered, the debtor is the mere bailee of the creditor; for a man, who continues to hold property, that he has sold to another, is merely the bailee of the pur­chaser; lie is the mere holder, user, and hirer of the value, which he himself has sold, but not delivered; and all the necessary consequences of bailment follow ”

“ It is surely something to know that in your little self a hundred are subject to hopes, fears, anxieties, speculations, aspirations, and a world of such like poetry. The greater the number of creditors, the greater must be the sensation produced; and the production of a sensation is every thing in fashionable society.
The old proverb was, "Out of debt out of danger;" but modern arithmetic teaches, "In debt out of danger;" the law of debtor and creditor being fashioned according to this maxim, which is now the Lex Scripta of the courts. ”

“ In all discussions of the subject the creditors attempt to brush aside the equities involved by sneering at the debtors. But, Mr. President, debt is the distinguishing characteristic of modern society. It is through debt that the marvelous developments of nineteenth century civilization have been effected. Who are the debtors in this country? Who are the borrowers of money? The men of enterprise, of energy, of skill, the men of industry, of foresight, of calculation, of daring. In the ranks of the debtors will be found a large preponderance of the constructive energy of every country. ”

“ Most of the creditors of the public have parted with their securities at a great discount, and are thus robbed of the monies which they earned by the sweat of the brow. Men of property have purchased them for a trifle, and in some States receive the interest in specie. In Massachusetts, this is the case with respect to some part of the State debt. When a man buys a note of twenty shillings value for five, and receives the interest, six per cent. in specie, he in fact receives twenty four per cent. on his money. ”

“ Merchant: Mr. Banker, from what you have been telling us it is perfectly clear that every promissory note, check, draft, or bill of exchange, which are acknowledgments of debt, are just as much property as land, houses, cattle, corn, iron, or anything else material that can be bought and sold. ”