The historical significance of double-entry bookkeeping: Some non-Sombartian claims

Werner Sombart's views on the connection between double-entry bookkeeping and the rise of capitalism are well known and have been influential. In recent decades other views - independent of Sombart's - claiming historical significance for double entry have also been published. Three of these disparate claims are considered in this article: the connection between double entry and Manichaeism; the influence of the rhetoric of double entry; and double entry and the recognition in Western Europe of zero as a number.