Chapter 20 OF THE TRADESMAN'S KEEPING HIS BOOKS, AND CASTING UP HIS SHOP

It was an ancient and laudable custom with tradesmen in England always to balance their accounts of stock, and of profit and loss, at least once every year; and generally it was done at Christmas, or New-year's tide, when they could always tell whether they went backward or forward, and how their affairs stood in the world; and though this good cus