Financial accounting is now generally recognized as being primarily historical in character and as having for its most important function the extraction and presentation of the essence of the financial experience of businesses, so that decisions affecting the present and the future may be taken in the light of the past. The rules of accounting, even more than those of law, are the product of experience rather than of logic.
Similarly, this book is an attempt to extract and present the essence of an experience in financial accounting in the hope that it may be helpful to those called upon to deal with the problems of the future. It is not the result of a study and appraisal of authorities, and the views that are expressed are those of its author alone-indeed, publication has been delayed until formal ties and official positions which might have been deemed to imply more than a personal responsibility for them have been relinquished. In part, it is based on lectures delivered at the Graduate School of Business Administration of Harvard University and papers written for other purposes since 1936. A few passages have been reproduced from the volume which those who were then partners, with generous insight, prepared in that year to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the author's assumption of senior partnership.
The writing of such a book seemed to be justified by the fact that the experience on which it is based extended over a period of exceptional interest and was enriched by close association with men of eminence here and abroad, not only in accounting but in government, business, finance, law, and economics. The obligation owed to those who have contributed to that experience is great, but can be expressed to them here only collectively. Grateful recognition must, however, be given to the guidance, friendship, and inspiration of Arthur Lowes Dickinson, who by his abilities, his writings, and above all, by his example, earned an outstanding place among the independent accountants of America, to whom this book is gratefully dedicated.
