William Holmes, C.P.A.
PEAT, MARWICK, MITCHELL, AND CO.
BOSTON
AN 18TH CENTURY ACCOUNTING PROJECTION FROM PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS
Abstract: A cost study for the 1768 Plymouth Town Meeting.
The New England town meeting is undoubtedly the oldest show on the American road and, at least in the smaller towns, can still on occasion erupt with fire and brimstone after three hundred odd years. Each year a new cast of local office-seekers play the old traditional roles of Constable, Selectman, Surveyor of Highways, and Fence Viewers and other parts, some of which can be found in the records of small towns in England back into the middle ages.
Every town these days has a Planning Committee, of which there are two distinct types. The first type assumes the task of studying means for moving the town forward, attracting new industry, and broadening the tax base. The second type, indigenous to older wealthy towns, sets itself just as assiduously to means for not mov¬ing the town forward, not attracting new industry, and generally leaving things alone.
I suppose most of us would associate Planning Committees with the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The title has about it the flavor of modern management and business education. We would be wrong, though! Although not so designating them, New England towns from the early Colonial days formed the habit of appointing committees to look into projects of one kind or another, often associated with defenses against the Indians or putting the able-bodied poor to work; and some of their reports show com-mendable Yankee business acumen. The report of one such com¬mittee appears in the records of the Town Meeting of Plymouth, Massachusetts for the year 1768.
“We the Subscribers a Committee Chosen by the Town to Con¬sider the affair whether the town will again Improve it again by Keeping Sheep thereon do Report as follows—
We would propose that the Scheme for Keeping Sheep on sd Land be renewed & that the Town as a Town Undertake the Affair & procure a Suteable number of Sheep with a Shepherd & Erect proper buildings, baing Persuaded that altho it would prove Charge¬able for the Present yet in the End it would be Greatly Advantagious to the Town, haveing by An Estimate (which will be herewith Ex¬hibited) found that in 3 or 4 years the first Cost will Probably be paid or Reimbused by the price of the wool & the Increase of the Stock, And that Afterwards it would afford a Considerable Yearly Income & be Greatly helpful to Manufacturing so Necessary at this day.
An Estimate of the Charge & Profit of Keeping Sheep on the Sheep Pasture.
250 0 0d
150 0 0
13 10 0
15 0 0
562 10 0
225 0 0
100 0 0
180 0 0
20 0 0
1516 0 0
180 0 0
150 0 0
13 10 0
15 0 0
30 0 0
270 0 0
658 10 0
658 10 0
67 10 0
7 0 0
Building a House with two Ground Rooms
Shepherd’s Wages pr year
Breaking up two acres of Ground for the
Shepherd
Wintering a Cow for him Price of 500 Sheep & lambs at a Dollar a pair 15 Loads hay for Wintering the Sheep lncloseing a pasture of 160 acres with
Hedge fence
Clearing 30 acres of land at £6 pr acre Washing & shearing the sheep lncludg the
Shepherds work
The 2nd year
Clearing 30 acres of land at 6£
Shepherds Wages
Breaking up 2 acres of land for him
Wintering the Cow for him
Washing & shearing sheep
18 Loads hay
The 3rd year
The same as ye 2nd year Addition of 4% Loads hay at £15 Further Cost about Shearg &e
733 0 0
733 0 0
90 0 0
10 0 0
Holmes: An 18th Century Accounting Projection from Plymouth, Mass. 69
The 4th year
The same as ye 3rd year Addition of 6 Loads hay Further Cost about Shearg &c
833 0 0
Old Tenour £ 3740 10 0
The 1 st years Income
500 Sheep at 20s. Wool pr sheep
Growth 250 lambs in one year
Old Tenour cost &c
Balance 447 0 0
So that in the four years Time the house & Sheep Fenceing the Ground & Claring 120 acres of land will be paid for. Their will be a flock of 1100 Sheep & 447£ Clear Gain which may be Sett against Losses & Incidentall Charges not Sett Down in the Estimate, or if
The second year The wool of 500 sheep Addition of 150 Lambs at 30s. The wool from the Lambs
The 3rd year The wool of 650 Addition of 200 Lambs The Wool upon the Lambs
The 4th year Ye wool of 850 Sheep Addition of 250 Lambs The Wool from the Lambs
500 0 0
187 10 0
687 10 0
500 0 0
225 0 0
150 0 0
875 0 0
650 0 0
300 0 0
200 0 0
1150 0 0
850 0 0
375 0 0
250 0 0
1475 0 0
4187 10 0
3740 10 0
70 The Accounting Historians Journal, Fall, 1978
all the 150 acres of fenced Land be Cleard within the 4 years Their will Remain 270£ old Tenour in favour of the Undertakers Besides the Addition of above 300 Lambs at the Close of the 4th year.
Then a Vote was Called to Know if the Town will accept the Said Report according to the Proposall of the Town Procuring Sheep &c. it Passed in the Negative.”
