<P> Accounting records dating back more than 7,000 years have been found in Mesopotamia, and documents from ancient Mesopotamia show lists of expenditures, and goods received and traded . The development of accounting, along with that of money and numbers, may be related to the taxation and trading activities of temples: </P> <P> "another part of the explanation as to why accounting employs the numerical metaphor is (...) that money, numbers and accounting are interrelated and, perhaps, inseparable in their origins: all emerged in the context of controlling goods, stocks and transactions in the temple economy of Mesopotamia ." </P> <P> The early development of accounting was closely related to developments in writing, counting, and money . In particular, there is evidence that a key step in the development of counting--the transition from concrete to abstract counting--was related to the early development of accounting and money and took place in Mesopotamia </P> <P> Other early accounting records were also found in the ruins of ancient Babylon, Assyria and Sumeria, which date back more than 7,000 years . The people of that time relied on primitive accounting methods to record the growth of crops and herds . Because there was a natural season to farming and herding, it was easy to count and determine if a surplus had been gained after the crops had been harvested or the young animals weaned . </P>

The british system of accounting is based on