Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "History of accounting" in English language version.
it is also possible that Indian merchants originally developed the art. In the eighteenth century the British traveller Alexander Hamilton wrote: 'We would remark that the Banias [traders] of India have been, from time immemorial, in possession of the method of bookkeeping by double-entry' and noted that in the Middle Ages Venice was 'the emporium of Indian commerce'—implying that Venice was the gateway through which double entry reached Italy from India. Although there is very little surviving documentary evidence of ancient Indian commercial practice, it seems that this Indian double-entry system—known there as bahi-khata—was used by its merchants for possibly thousands of years.
Double-entry accounting made it possible to calculate profit and capital and for managers, investors, and authorities to verify books. But at the time, it also had a moral implication. Keeping one's books balanced wasn't simply a matter of law, but an imitation of God, who kept moral accounts of humanity and tallied them in the Books of Life and Death. [...] Accounting was closely tied to the notion of human audits and spiritual reckonings.
Double-entry accounting made it possible to calculate profit and capital and for managers, investors, and authorities to verify books. But at the time, it also had a moral implication. Keeping one's books balanced wasn't simply a matter of law, but an imitation of God, who kept moral accounts of humanity and tallied them in the Books of Life and Death. [...] Accounting was closely tied to the notion of human audits and spiritual reckonings.
