Mumford showed that even the most rudimentary means of accounting for grain, timber, livestock, etc. is adequate to underpin the capital that inheres in the social machine of the early state. Coins did not come along until 800-700 B.C. and, naturally, had the image of the sovereign embossed upon them when they did. Double entry bookkeeping is, in effect, just fancier coins. What matters is how honest it is.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."