Cely shipping accounts: Accountability and the transition from oral to written records, The

Accounting Historians Journal, The, Dec 1995 by Hooper, Keith

The reason for increasing merchant diversification was the chance of better profits in overseas trade. Power

1941

estimates the Celys and other wool traders made between one and two pounds per sack of wool which, after allowing for rebates and expense, is a gross return of around ten percent.

At the time the Celys were drawn to shipping and overseas trade, the English wool exports 1279-1547 as shown in the graph below were declining. Staplers, like the Celys, were slowly being pressured to look for new outlets and diversify

Power and Postan, 1966, p.68

.

From material surviving from the first 12 years of Edward IV's reign and the first 12 years of Henry VIII's reign, Burwash

1969, p. 145

has been able to show the definite increase in English shipping activity in the two chief ports from 1463 to 1520.

Taking these two main ports together, the volume of English shipping had not only increased more than 100% but the proportion of English ships to foreign ships entering or leaving harbour had also increased from 56% to 76% of total shipping -- a substantial increase in 60 years. Ramsay

1957

also observed that the port of London, in spite of its communities of wealthy foreign merchants, was increasingly used by ships of native ownership and construction in the late fifteenth century

p. 4

.

Power and Postan

1966, p. 238

refer to the growth of mutual partnerships and the typical shipping partnership involved the contribution of capital and or labour. Thus the co-ownership of boats enabled a merchant to invest his capital in several boats taking the form of share holdings, rather than being the sole owner of one boat. This common practice helped to take some of the risk out of shipping investment. Hanham

1975

cites George Cely, Richard Cely and William Maryon as financial co-owners of their boat the Margaret Cely. As joint owners, the Cely partners could not be joint managers, as some management necessarily devolved upon an overseas agent or ship's purser. Shipping imposed a necessary separation of ownership from management and, as the following accounts reveal, posed a new problem of accountability between agent and principal. With reference to this problem of accountability encountered by fifteenth century shipping partnerships, Power and Postan

1966, p. 236

commented: "Much loss must have been suffered through the dishonesty of some of these agents, who had been trusted to carry on business abroad with little supervision from home." Perhaps because he was aware of the possibility of dishonesty, George Cely tried to maintain overall control and supervision by summarising the accounts himself, and insisting on written accounts from his agents. As a further precaution which, perhaps, reflects the uneasiness of the transition from an oral tradition to written records, George Cely sent his family servant, John Sperying, with the ship to act as banker and dole out funds in small increments. Nevertheless, the problem of delegating some management and financial control to the ship's purser could not be entirely avoided.