Comment by c3534l

Traditionally history is said to start where we have written records, the time before the being relegated to anthropology and archeology. But they say that the scope of economic history is larger because we have accounting records before we have written records. Before we had any clay tablets telling legends and recording the events of kings, we have the exchange rate between fish and barley, records of indebtedness, estimates for how many customers a shop might get in a day. Writing in the near-east was essentially developed as a more sophisticated accounting tool. So before I even clicked on the link, I was placing all my bets on a shopkeep. However, as a nitpick accounting as an individual profession really didn't develop until the industrial revolution when large corporations requiring high investment costs to leverage economies of scale led to changes in corporations and bankruptcy proceedings, establishing accounting as a specialty and profession in it's own right, rather than a skill that a business person was expected to learn. So Kushim wasn't an accountant, that's a very modern idea of a job. Kushim was a businessman who kept books to keep track of trade.