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Explanations of accounting, taxes and audit in Uzbekistan. Articles not yet translated are shown in Uzbek.
How was cost accounting born: from Wedgwood's pottery to the railways
Pacioli's ledger answered the question "how much money came in and went out". The Industrial Revolution posed a new question: "How much does a single item cost me?" We look at how the English potter Josiah Wedgwood and the American railway engineer Albert Fink sought an answer to this question.
How did income tax become permanent in the USA: the 16th Amendment of 1913 and the 20th century
The USA introduced income tax twice and lost it twice. For the third attempt to succeed, the Constitution itself had to be changed. The events of 1913 and how, in the 20th century, income tax became a tax paid by most people.
Central Asian scholars and the science of calculation: an overview
Al-Khwarizmi, al-Bukhari, al-Biruni, Ulugh Beg: four names, six centuries. What unites them, and what can today's accountant, finance professional or statistician take from them? A short map without exaggeration, based only on confirmed facts.
Trade and honest dealing in the legacy of Imam al-Bukhari
The famous collection of the Bukhara scholar Imam al-Bukhari contains a separate book devoted to buying and selling. We take an impartial look at how its idea of truthfulness and not concealing defects is in harmony with today's market and accounting discipline.
Mirzo Ulugh Beg: the Samarkand observatory and the star table
Gathering the positions of nearly a thousand stars into a single table was a great achievement not only of astronomy but also of collecting, checking and preserving data. Ulugh Beg's observatory, the "Zij-i Sultani" and the lessons it left for today's accountant.
Abu Rayhan al-Biruni: measurement, calculation and scientific accuracy
What do weighing a single ring and writing a book about an entire country have in common? For al-Biruni both obeyed one rule: measure it yourself, compare, check the source. Statistics needs exactly the same.
Al-Khwarizmi's "al-jabr" book: inheritance, trade and land-measurement calculations
"Algebra" brings to mind the x's and y's of school. But the author of the book that gave the subject its name said himself that he wrote it for people's everyday practical calculations. We look at the book's structure and at the operations of "al-jabr" and "al-muqabala" using a market example.
Where does the word "algorithm" come from, and who gave rise to it?
Every app on your phone and every calculation in accounting software works on the basis of an "algorithm". The word comes from the name of al-Khwarizmi, a scholar from Khwarazm. We look at how a person's name became a scientific term and how much Hindu-Arabic numerals eased calculation.
Statistics from digital traces: how is big data changing official statistics?
Today data comes not only from questionnaires but also from phones, payment terminals and satellites. In 2014 the UN Statistical Commission set up a separate group to use this "big data" in official statistics.
From Enron to artificial intelligence: how has audit changed in the 21st century?
The collapse of one large company changed the entire audit profession. Today auditors are moving from sample testing to reviewing all the data with software. The main turning points of 21st-century audit.
Behavioural economics: why do people make "wrong" choices?
Psychologists entered economics: prospect theory in 1979, the prizes of 2002 and 2017. The newest direction of modern economic thought in short key points.
Knowing without asking everyone: how did the sampling method win out in the 20th century?
In 1934 Jerzy Neyman presented the theory of how to construct a sample correctly, and in 1936 a huge but badly constructed poll got the US election embarrassingly wrong. These two events taught statistics the lesson: "choose not many, but correctly".
Quetelet's "average man": how did statistics begin to measure society in the 19th century?
The Belgian scholar Adolphe Quetelet applied the methods of astronomy to people and put forward the idea of the "average man". The international statistical congresses he started helped make countries' figures comparable.
Keynes and the 20th century: when should the state intervene in the economy?
The General Theory of 1936, the Bretton Woods conference of 1944 and the economics prize first awarded in 1969. The main turning points of 20th-century economic thought compared with today.
How international standards on auditing were born: from New York to Munich
In the 20th century audit went through two major changes: first the USA required by law an independent audit for listed companies, then accountants all over the world began working on unified auditing standards.
The London Bills of Mortality: how did statistics become a science?
In 1662 the haberdasher John Graunt compiled the churches' weekly bills of mortality and drew conclusions from them that nobody had expected. His friend William Petty named this method "political arithmetic".
From clay tablets to the Domesday Book: why were people counted in ancient times?
Statistics began not at a university but at the state granary: rulers needed to know how many people to feed, how many to tax and how many soldiers they could muster.
A policy on your smartphone: how has insurance changed in the 21st century?
Insurance, which began in a coffee house, has today moved into an app: policies are issued online, the price is calculated according to driving style, and some payouts are made automatically without waiting for a claim.
Adam Smith and the classical school: how did a book of 1776 turn economics into a science?
The pin factory, the division of labour and the "invisible hand". Why Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and David Ricardo's idea of comparative advantage still stand at the beginning of textbooks.
From the life table to the state pension: how did insurance become available to everyone?
A mortality table drawn up by the astronomer Edmond Halley gave life insurance a mathematical basis, and laws passed in Germany in the 1880s turned insurance into compulsory protection for millions of workers.
The 19th century: when did audit become mandatory and where was the first society of accountants founded?
As joint-stock companies multiplied, owners and managers grew further apart. Who guarantees the trust between them? 19th-century Britain answered this question with law and professional institutions.
The coffee house and the fire: how did London turn insurance into a business?
At the end of the 17th century two things in London changed the fate of insurance: the Great Fire of 1666, which turned the city to ashes, and Edward Lloyd's coffee house, where seafarers gathered.
Medieval Genoa: how were the first insurance contracts drawn up?
In the 14th century, in the trading cities of Italy, risk separated from the loan and became a contract of its own. These documents written by notaries are regarded as the grandfather of today's insurance policy.
Where did insurance begin: who paid the merchant whose cargo was thrown overboard?
Insurance was born at sea long before the policy: if one merchant's cargo was thrown overboard to keep the ship from sinking, everyone shared the loss. This rule, preserved in ancient Roman law, still works today.
Ibn Khaldun and the Muqaddimah: the higher the tax, the fuller the treasury?
The Muqaddimah, written in the 14th century, contains a thought about the relationship between the tax rate and state revenue. This idea from the medieval Islamic world and its modern interpretation in short key points.
The chequered cloth: how were state accounts checked in medieval England?
The British finance minister's post is still called "Chancellor of the Exchequer" today. The word Exchequer comes from a chequered cloth resembling a chessboard. We look at how the sheriffs' accounts were checked at that table.
Financial history: how did digital payments and cryptocurrency come about?
Money moved from coins to paper and from paper to an entry in an account. And in 2008 the idea of digital money working without bank intermediation appeared. Today's stage in key points.
Financial history: what was the Bretton Woods system (1944–1971)?
Before the Second World War had ended, representatives of more than 40 countries gathered in a hotel to rebuild the world's monetary system. The birth and end of the Bretton Woods system in key points.
Financial history: how did VOC shares and the Amsterdam exchange come about?
If one ship sinks, one merchant is ruined. What if a thousand people share the risk? About the shares of the Dutch East India Company of 1602 and the first stock market.
The roots of the word "economics": what did Xenophon and Aristotle say about the household?
The English word economics comes from an ancient Greek meaning "managing the household". The first steps of economic thought and Aristotle's distinction between "two kinds of wealth-getting" in short key points.