The Complete English Tradesman (1839 ed.) by Daniel Defoe

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The like misfortune attends the not balancing his cash, a thing which
such book-keepers as Mr G. do not think worth their trouble; nor do they
understand the benefit of it. The particulars, indeed, of this article
are tedious, and would be too long for a chapter; but certainly they
that know any thing of the use of keeping an exact cash-book, know that,
without it, a tradesman can never be thoroughly satisfied either of his
own not committing mistakes, or of any people cheating him, I mean
servants, or sons, or whoever is the first about him.

What I call balancing his cash-book, is, first, the casting up daily, or
weekly, or monthly, his receipts and payments, and then seeing what
money is left in hand, or, as the usual expression of the tradesman is,
what money is in cash; secondly, the examining his money, telling it
over, and seeing how much he has in his chest or bags, and then seeing
if it agrees with the balance of his book, that what is, and what should
be, correspond.

And here let me give tradesmen a caution or two.

1. Never sit down satisfied with an error in the cash; that is to say,
with a difference between the money really in the cash, and the balance
in the book; for if they do not agree, there must be a mistake
somewhere, and while there is a mistake in the cash, the tradesman
cannot, at least he ought not to be, easy. He that can be easy with a
mistake in his cash, may be easy with a gang of thieves in his house;
for if his money does not come right, he must have paid something that
is not set down, and that is to be supposed as bad as if it were lost;
or he must have somebody about him that can find the way to his money
besides himself, that is to say, somebody that should not come to it;
and if so, what is the difference between that and having a gang of
thieves about him?--for every one that takes money out of his cash
without his leave, and without letting him know it, is so far a thief to
him: and he can never pretend to balance his cash, nor, indeed, know any
thing of his affairs, that does not know which way his money goes.

2. A tradesman endeavouring to balance his cash, should no more be
satisfied if he finds a mistake in his cash one way, than another--that
is to say, if he finds more in cash than by the balance of his cash-book
ought to be there, than if he finds less, or wanting in cash. I know
many, who, when they find it thus, sit down satisfied, and say, 'Well,
there is an error, and I don't know where it lies; but come, it is an
error on the right hand; I have more cash in hand than I should have,
that is all, so I am well enough; let it go; I shall find it some time
or other.' But the tradesman ought to consider that he is quite in the
dark; and as he does not really know where it lies, so, for ought he
knows, the error may really be to his loss very considerably--and the
case is very plain, that it is as dangerous to be over, as it would be
to be under; he should, therefore, never give it over till he has found
it out, and brought it to rights. For example:

If there appears to be more money in the cash than there is by the
balance in the cash-book, this must follow--namely, that some parcel of
money must have been received, which is not entered in the book; now,
till the tradesman knows what sum of money this is, that is thus not
entered, how can he tell but the mistake may be quite the other way, and
the cash be really wrong to his loss? Thus,

My cash-book being cast up for the last month, I find, by the foot of
the leaf, there is cash remaining in hand to balance L176, 10s. 6d.

To see if all things are right, I go and tell my money over, and there,
to my surprise, I find L194, 10s. 6d. in cash, so that I have L18 there
more than I should have. Now, far from being pleased that I have more
money by me than I should have, my inquiry is plain, 'How comes this to
pass?'

Perhaps I puzzle my head a great while about it, but not being able to
find out, I sit down easy and satisfied, and say, 'Well, I don't much
concern myself about it; it is better to be so than L18 missing; I
cannot tell where it lies, but let it lie where it will, here is the
money to make up the mistake when it appears.'

But how foolish is this! how ill-grounded the satisfaction! and how weak
am I to argue thus, and please myself with the delusion! For some months
after, it appears, perhaps, that whereas there was L38 entered, received
of Mr B.K., the figure 3 was mistaken, and set down for a figure of 5,
for the sum received was L58; so that, instead of having L18 more in
cash than there ought to be, I have 40s. wanting in my cash, which my
son or my apprentice stole from me when they put in the money, and made
the mistake of the figures to puzzle the book, that it might be some
time before it should be discovered.

Upon the whole, take it as a rule, the tradesman ought to be as
unsatisfied when he finds a mistake to his gain in his cash, as when he
finds it to his loss; and it is every whit as dangerous, nay, it is the
more suspicious, because it seems to be laid as a bait for him to stop
his mouth, and to prevent further inquiries; and it is on that account
that I leave this caution upon record, that the tradesman may be duly
alarmed.

The keeping a cash-book is one of the nicest parts of a tradesman's
business, because there is always the bag and the book to be brought
together, and if they do not exactly speak the same language, even to a
farthing, there must be some omission; and how big or how little that
omission may be, who knows, or how shall it be known, but by casting and
recasting up, telling, and telling over and over again, the money?

If there is but twenty shillings over in the money, the question is,
'How came it there?' It must be received somewhere, and of somebody,
more than is entered; and how can the cash-keeper, be he master or
servant, know but more was received with it, which is not, and should
have been, entered, and so the loss may be the other way? It is true, in
telling money there may have been a mistake, and he that received a sum
of money may have received twenty shillings too much, or five pounds too
much--and such a mistake I have known to be made in the paying and
receiving of money--and a man's cash has been more perplexed, and his
mind more distracted about it, than the five pounds have been worth,
because he could not find it out, till some accident has discovered
it;[33] and the reason is, because not knowing which way it could come
there, he could not know but some omission might be made to his loss
another way, as in the case above mentioned.

I knew, indeed, a strong waterman, who drove a very considerable trade,
but, being an illiterate tradesman, never balanced his cash-book for
many years, nor scarce posted his other books, and, indeed, hardly
understood how to do it; but knowing his trade was exceedingly
profitable, and keeping his money all himself, he was easy, and grew
rich apace, in spite of the most unjustifiable, and, indeed, the most
intolerable, negligence; but lest this should be pleaded as an exception
to my general rule, and to invalidate the argument, give me leave to
add, that, though this man grew rich in spite of indolence, and a
neglect of his book, yet, when he died, two things appeared, which no
tradesman in his wits would desire should be said of him.

I. The servants falling out, and maliciously accusing one another, had,
as it appeared by the affidavits of several of them, wronged him of
several considerable sums of money, which they received, and never
brought into the books; and others, of sums which they brought into the
books, but never brought into the cash; and others, of sums which they
took ready money in the shop, and never set down, either the goods in
the day-book, or the money into the cash-book; and it was thought,
though he was so rich as not to feel it, that is, not to his hurt, yet
that he lost three or four hundred pounds a-year in that manner, for the
two or three last years of his life; but his widow and son, who came
after him, having the discovery made to them, took better measures
afterwards.

II. He never did, or could know, what he was worth, for the accounts in
his books were never made up; nor when he came to die, could his
executors make up any man's account, so as to be able to prove the
particulars, and make a just demand of their debt, but found a
prodigious number of small sums of money paid by the debtors, as by
receipts in their books and on their files, some by himself, and some by
his man, which were never brought to account, or brought into cash; and
his man's answer being still, that he gave all to the master, they could
not tell how to charge him by the master's account, because several
sums, which the master himself received, were omitted being entered in
the same manner, so that all was confusion and neglect; and though the
man died rich, it was in spite of that management that would have made
any but himself have died poor.

Exact book-keeping is to me the effect of a man whose heart is in his
business, and who intends to thrive. He that cares not whether his books
are kept well or no, is in my opinion one that does not much care
whether he thrives or no; or else, being in desperate circumstances,
knows it, and that he cannot, or does not thrive, and so matters not
which way it goes.

It is true, the neglect of the books is private and secret, and is
seldom known to any body but the tradesman himself, at least till he
comes to break, and be a bankrupt, and then you frequently hear them
exclaim against him, upon that very account. 'Break!' says one of the
assignees; 'how should he but break?--why, he kept no books; you never
saw books kept in such a scandalous manner in your life; why, he has not
posted his cash-book, for I know not how many months; nor posted his
day-book and journal at all, except here and there an account that he
perhaps wanted to know the balance of; and as for balancing his cash, I
don't see any thing of that done, I know not how long. Why, this fellow
could never tell how he went on, or how things stood with him: I wonder
he did not break a long time ago.'

Now, the man's case was this: he knew how to keep his books well enough,
perhaps, and could write well enough; and if you look into his five or
six first years of trade, you find all his accounts well kept, the
journal duly posted, the cash monthly balanced; but the poor man found
after that, that things went wrong, that he went backwards, and that all
went down-hill, and he hated to look into his books. As a profligate
never looks into his conscience, because he can see nothing there but
what terrifies and affrights him, makes him uneasy and melancholy, so a
sinking tradesman cares not to look into his books, because the prospect
there is dark and melancholy. 'What signify the accounts to me?' says
he; 'I can see nothing in the books but debts that 1 cannot pay, and
debtors that will never pay; I can see nothing there but how I have
trusted my estate away like a fool, and how I am to be ruined for my
easiness, and being a sot:' and this makes him throw them away, and
hardly post things enough to make up when folks call to pay; or if he
does post such accounts as he has money to receive from, that's all, and
the rest lie at random, till, as I say, the assignees come to reproach
him with his negligence.

Whereas, in truth, the man understood his books well enough, but had no
heart to look in them, no courage to balance them, because of the
afflicting prospect of them.

But let me here advise tradesmen to keep a perfect acquaintance with
their books, though things are bad and discouraging; it keeps them in
full knowledge of what they are doing, and how they really stand; and it
brings them sometimes to the just reflections on their circumstances
which they ought to make; so to stop in time, as I hinted before, and
not let things run too far before they are surprised and torn to pieces
by violence.

And, at the worst, even a declining tradesman should not let his books
be neglected; if his creditors find them punctually kept to the last, it
will be a credit to him, and they would see he was a man fit for
business; and I have known when that very thing has recommended a
tradesman so much to his creditors, that after the ruin of his fortunes,
some or other of them have taken him into business, as into partnership,
or into employment, only because they knew him to be qualified for
business, and for keeping books in particular.

But if we should admonish the tradesman to an exact and regular care of
his books, even in his declining fortunes, much more should it be his
care in his beginning, and before any disaster has befallen him. I doubt
not, that many a tradesman has miscarried by the mistakes and neglect of
his books; for the losses that men suffer on that account are not easily
set down; but I recommend it to a tradesman to take exact care of his
books, as I would to every man to take care of his diet and temperate
living, in order to their health; for though, according to some, we
cannot, by all our care and caution, lengthen out life, but that every
one must and shall live their appointed time,[34] yet, by temperance and
regular conduct, we may make that life more comfortable, more agreeable,
and pleasant, by its being more healthy and hearty; so, though the
exactest book-keeping cannot be said to make a tradesman thrive, or that
he shall stand the longer in his business, because his profit and loss
do not depend upon his books, or the goodness of his debts depend upon
the debtor's accounts being well posted, yet this must be said, that the
well keeping of his books may be the occasion of his trade being carried
on with the more ease and pleasure, and the more satisfaction, by having
numberless quarrels, and contentions, and law-suits, which are the
plagues of a tradesman's life, prevented and avoided; which, on the
contrary, often torment a tradesman, and make his whole business be
uneasy to him for want of being able to make a regular proof of things
by his books.

A tradesman without his books, in case of a law-suit for a debt, is like
a married woman without her certificate. How many times has a woman
been cast, and her cause not only lost, but her reputation and
character exposed, for want of being able to prove her marriage, though
she has been really and honestly married, and has merited a good
character all her days? And so in trade, many a debt has been lost, many
an account been perplexed by the debtor, many a sum of money been
recovered, and actually paid over again, especially after the tradesman
has been dead, for want of hits keeping his books carefully and exactly
when he was alive; by which negligence, if he has not been ruined when
he was living, his widow and children have been ruined after his
decease; though, had justice been done, he had left them in good
circumstances, and with sufficient to support them.

And this brings me to another principal reason why a tradesman should
not only keep books, but be very regular and exact in keeping them in
order, that is to say, duly posted, and all his affairs exactly and duly
entered in his books; and this is, that if he should be surprised by
sudden or unexpected sickness, or death, as many are, and as all may be,
his accounts may not be left intricate and unsettled, and his affairs
thereby be perplexed.

Next to being prepared for death, with respect to Heaven and his soul, a
tradesman should be always in a state of preparation for death, with
respect to his books; it is in vain that he calls for a scrivener or
lawyer, and makes a will, when he finds a sudden summons sent him for
the grave, and calls his friends about him to divide and settle his
estate; if his business is in confusion below stairs, his books out of
order, and his accounts unsettled, to what purpose does he give his
estate among his relations, when nobody knows where to find it?

As, then, the minister exhorts us to take care of our souls, and make
our peace with Heaven, while we are in a state of health, and while life
has no threatening enemies about it, no diseases, no fevers attending;
so let me second that advice to the tradesman always to keep his books
in such a posture, that if he should be snatched away by death, his
distressed widow and fatherless family may know what is left for them,
and may know where to look for it. He may depend upon it, that what he
owes to any one they will come fast enough for, and his widow and
executrix will be pulled to pieces for it, if she cannot and does not
speedily pay it. Why, then, should he not put her in a condition to have
justice done her and her children, and to know how and of whom to seek
for his just debts, that she may be able to pay others, and secure the
remainder for herself and her children? I must confess, a tradesman not
to leave his books in order when he dies, argues him to be either.

1. A very bad Christian, who had few or no thoughts of death upon him,
or that considered nothing of its frequent coming unexpected and sudden
without warning; or,

2. A very unnatural relation, without the affections of a father, or a
husband, or even of a friend, that should rather leave what he had to be
swallowed up by strangers, than leave his family and friends in a
condition to find, and to recover it.

Again, it is the same case as in matters religious, with respect to the
doing this in time, and while health and strength remain. For, as we say
very well, and with great reason, that the work of eternity should not
be left to the last moments; that a death-bed is no place, and a sick
languishing body no condition, and the last breath no time, for
repentance; so I may add, neither are these the place, the condition,
nor the time, to make up our accounts. There is no posting the books on
a death-bed, or balancing the cash-book in a high fever. Can the
tradesman tell you where his effects lie, and to whom he has lent or
trusted sums of money, or large quantities of goods, when he is
delirious and light-headed? All these things must be done in time, and
the tradesman should take care that his books should always do this for
him, and then he has nothing to do but make his will, and dispose of
what he has; and for the rest he refers them to his books, to know where
every thing is to be had.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] [The sum at the bottom, or _foot_, of the account.]

[33] [This reminds the editor of an amusing anecdote he has heard,
illustrative of the diseased accuracy, as it may be called, of a certain
existing London merchant. On reckoning up his household book one year,
he found that he had expended one penny more than was accounted for, and
there was accordingly an error to that extent in his reckoning. The very
idea of an error, however trifling the amount, gave him great
uneasiness, and he set himself with the greatest anxiety to discover, if
possible, the occasion. He employed the by-hours of weeks in the vain
attempt; but at length, having one day to cross Waterloo Bridge, where
there is a pontage of a penny for foot passengers, he all at once, to
his inconceivable joy, recollected having there disbursed the coin in
question about a twelvemonth before.]

[34] [The correct doctrine is, we _may_ not, by our utmost care and
diligence, avoid the causes of an early and premature death; but he who
acts according to the rules which promote health, and avoids all things
which tend to endanger it, has a much better chance of living to the
natural period appointed for human life than he who acts
otherwise--besides, as stated in the text, making his life more
agreeable. The author's illustration would be more properly drawn if we
were to say, 'The tradesman, by keeping exact accounts, may not succeed
in contending against certain unfavourable circumstances, no more than
the man who lives according to the just rules of nature may thereby
succeed in eviting other evils that tend to cut short life; but as the
temperate man is most likely to be healthy, so is the tradesman, who
keeps exact accounts, most likely to thrive in business.']

CHAPTER XXI

OF THE TRADESMAN LETTING HIS WIFE BE ACQUAINTED WITH HIS BUSINESS

It must be acknowledged, that as this chapter seems to be written in
favour of the women, it also seems to be an officious, thankless
benefaction to the wives; for that, as the tradesman's ladies now
manage, they are above the favour, and put no value upon it. On the
contrary, the women, generally speaking, trouble not their heads about
it, scorn to be seen in the counting house, much less behind the
counter; despise the knowledge of their husbands' business, and act as
if they were ashamed of being tradesmen's wives, and never intended to
be tradesmen's widows.

If this chosen ignorance of theirs comes some time or other to be their
loss, and they find the disadvantage of it too late, they may read their
fault in their punishment, and wish too late they had acted the humbler
part, and not thought it below them to inform themselves of what it is
so much their interest to know. This pride is, indeed, the great
misfortune of tradesmen's wives; for, as they lived as if they were
above being owned for the tradesman's wife, so, when he dies, they live
to be the shame of the tradesman's widow. They knew nothing how he got
his estate when he was alive, and they know nothing where to find it
when he is dead. This drives them into the hands of lawyers, attorneys,
and solicitors, to get in their effects; who, when they have got it,
often run away with it, and leave the poor widow in a more disconsolate
and perplexed condition than she was in before.

It is true, indeed, that this is the women's fault in one respect, and
too often it is so in many, since the common spirit is, as I observed,
so much above the tradesman's condition; but since it is not so with
every body, let me state the case a little for the use of those who
still have ther senses about them; and whose pride is not got so much
above their reason, as to let them choose to be tradesmen's beggars,
rather than tradesmen's widows.

When the tradesman dies, it is to be expected that what estate or
effects he leaves, is, generally speaking, dispersed about in many
hands; his widow, if she is left executrix, has the trouble of getting
things together as well as she can; if she is not left executrix, she
has not the trouble indeed, but then it is looked upon that she is
dishonoured in not having the trust; when she comes to look into her
affairs, she is more or less perplexed and embarrassed, as she has not
or has acquainted herself, or been made acquainted, with her husband's
affairs in his lifetime.

If she has been one of those gay delicate ladies, that valuing herself
upon her being a gentlewoman, and that thought it a step below herself,
when she married this mechanic thing called a tradesman, and
consequently scorned to come near his shop, or warehouse, and by
consequence acquainting herself with any of his affairs,[35] or so much
as where his effects lay, which are to be her fortune for the future--I
say, if this has been her case, her folly calls for pity now, as her
pride did for contempt before; for as she was foolish in the first, she
may be miserable in the last part of it; for now she falls into a sea of
trouble, she has the satisfaction of knowing that her husband has died,
as the tradesmen call it, well to pass, and that she is left well
enough; but she has at the same time the mortification of knowing
nothing how to get it in, or in what hands it lies. The only relief she
has is her husband's books, and she is happy in that, but just in
proportion to the care he took in keeping them; even when she finds the
names of debtors, she knows not who they are, or where they dwell, who
are good, and who are bad; the only remedy she has here, if her husband
had ever a servant, or apprentice, who was so near out of his time as to
be acquainted with the customers, and with the books, then she is forced
to be beholden to him to settle the accounts for her, and endeavour to
get in the debts; in return for which she is forced to give him his time
and freedom, and let him into the trade, make him master of all the
business in the world, and it may be at last, with all her pride, has to
take him for a husband; and when her friends upbraid her with it, that
she should marry her apprentice boy, when it may be she was old enough
to be his mother, her answer is, 'Why, what could I do? I see I must
have been ruined else; I had nothing but what lay abroad in debts,
scattered about the world, and nobody but he knew how to get them in.
What could I do? If I had not done it, I must have been a beggar.' And
so, it may be, _she is_ at last too, if the boy of a husband proves a
brute to her, as many do, and as in such unequal matches indeed most
such people do. Thus, that pride which once set her above a kind,
diligent, tender husband, and made her scorn to stoop to acquaint
herself with his affairs, by which, had she done it, she had been
tolerably qualified to get in her debts, dispose of her shop-goods, and
bring her estate together--the same pride sinks her into the necessity
of cringing to a scoundrel, and taking her servant to be her master.

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