Analysis of the use of current accounting terminology in The Quixote

Abstract

Nowadays, it is now widely recognized that the history of accounting is an essential part of economic history and history in general, since the historical-accounting approach represents a very useful tool for the study of economic events throughout history. Although some works have confirmed a certain experience of Miguel de Cervantes as an accountant, it is interesting and opportune to advance in the knowledge of the accounting thought of this character and of his presence in the writing of the text of his universal novel "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha", in order to deepen the analysis of the reciprocal repercussion between accounting and its socioeconomic and cultural environment.

The present paper studies the presence of accounting terminology in the language of this literary work, in order to find out whether it may represent an antecedent of the current economic and accounting lexicon, especially of some of the words used in the accounting standards in force today. The methodology used consisted of a comparative analysis of the paragraphs, phrases and expressions of an economic and accounting nature included in the text of this novel with the criteria and models of current accounting standards. For this purpose, our work is based on the economic and accounting terms used in the current General Accounting Plan, as explained in the first section.

Our conclusions show the use of accounting terminology by Miguel de Cervantes, in his form and lexicon for telling stories, in his vision of commercial and social phenomena, and in his interpretation of their economic background. The expressions analyzed allow us to visualize the use at the time this work was published (1604 and 1615) of approximations to some criteria, principles and definitions that today occupy an essential place in current accounting standards, verifying the social roots of accounting through the use of its lexicon in popular language.