Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Accounting at Durham Cathedral PrioryDebtors, Creditors and Financial Management

Accounting at Durham Cathedral Priory: Debtors, Creditors and Financial Management [Durham Cathedral Priory was ranked amongst the wealthier Benedictine houses of England. McKisack for example, quoted annual receipts of over £3,000 in the Durham bursar’s rolls alone for 1293, 1295 and 1297.1 At first sight it might seem that such substantial levels of income would preclude any solvency concerns or cash management issues. Tables 4.1 and 4.2 show occasionally lower, but still substantial, levels of expected receipts averaging £2,988 in the period 1278–1417 and £2,308 in the period 1420–1537, both levels comfortably in excess of the pension of £2,000 granted by Edward III to Edward Balliol in 1356 for the resignation of the Kingdom of Scotland.2 It might seem surprising then to find so many references to the indebted position of the house. In 1309, following the death of Prior Richard de Hoton, and in the wake of the expensive dispute with the bishop, the house was described as ‘damaged in many [ways], firstly from great borrowing’.3 In 1344 the house was oppressed by a ‘load of debts’, and in 1405 it was reported that the ‘goods, rents and incomes…. have been so notoriously wasted that they no longer suffice to pay the usual debts and support the convent in all its necessities’.4 No matter the scale of the receipts, it is the level of expenditure in comparison which decides whether an institution generates a healthy cash surplus or develops an indebted position. The overwhelming bulk of the priory’s income depended on agricultural returns, and the impact of livestock and human disease and poor harvests could render incomes extremely volatile.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Accounting at Durham Cathedral PrioryDebtors, Creditors and Financial Management

Download PDF
25 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/accounting-at-durham-cathedral-priory-debtors-creditors-and-financial-qfPJDaGL0r

References (8)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2015
ISBN
978-1-349-55282-5
Pages
157 –182
DOI
10.1057/9781137479785_6
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Durham Cathedral Priory was ranked amongst the wealthier Benedictine houses of England. McKisack for example, quoted annual receipts of over £3,000 in the Durham bursar’s rolls alone for 1293, 1295 and 1297.1 At first sight it might seem that such substantial levels of income would preclude any solvency concerns or cash management issues. Tables 4.1 and 4.2 show occasionally lower, but still substantial, levels of expected receipts averaging £2,988 in the period 1278–1417 and £2,308 in the period 1420–1537, both levels comfortably in excess of the pension of £2,000 granted by Edward III to Edward Balliol in 1356 for the resignation of the Kingdom of Scotland.2 It might seem surprising then to find so many references to the indebted position of the house. In 1309, following the death of Prior Richard de Hoton, and in the wake of the expensive dispute with the bishop, the house was described as ‘damaged in many [ways], firstly from great borrowing’.3 In 1344 the house was oppressed by a ‘load of debts’, and in 1405 it was reported that the ‘goods, rents and incomes…. have been so notoriously wasted that they no longer suffice to pay the usual debts and support the convent in all its necessities’.4 No matter the scale of the receipts, it is the level of expenditure in comparison which decides whether an institution generates a healthy cash surplus or develops an indebted position. The overwhelming bulk of the priory’s income depended on agricultural returns, and the impact of livestock and human disease and poor harvests could render incomes extremely volatile.]

Published: Jan 18, 2016

Keywords: Financial Management; Fifteenth Century; Total Expense; Cash Surplus; Debt Repayment

There are no references for this article.