Accounting records in the books of factory of the cathedral of Segovia during its building: 1524-1685

Abstract

The accounting history research presented here has been carried out at the Archive of the Cathedral of Segovia and covers the period in which it was built, that is between the years 1524 and 1685. According to their contents and importance, the accounting documents found at the above mentioned archive have been sorted into two categories: Main books and Auxiliary books. We call Main books those kept to record the general accounts of the financing and expenditure of the works of construction of the building of the Segovia Cathedral. They were periodically presented to the approval of the bishop. The office responsible for keeping all account books and, in general, for the administration of the income of the Cathedral was called “Fábrica”, that is, Factory. The Auxiliary books were used as daily registers to record in detail the different operations carried out by the administrators. They were the documentary basis for the later elaboration of the Main books. The Auxiliary books received different names, according to the type of operations -collections and payments basically- registered on them.

First of all, we analyze in this article the contents of each type of Auxiliary books still remaining in the archive of the cathedral. By doing it, we observe some practices taken over afterwards by double-entry bookkeeping, such as the use of two opposed pages to record respectively the debit side (Debe) and the credit side (Adeaver). Then, we proceed to the study in accounting terms of the Main books of the cathedral. They were kept following the Charge and Discharge method. Finally, we describe in detail the system that the “Fabrica” of the Segovia Cathedral had implemented to keep its records. It was a pure Charge and Discharge method, although the Auxiliary books show some practices and terms used by double-entry bookkeeping.