The comparison of the state accounting system in the Ottoman Empire and the current accounting system

To ensure financial order in the Ottoman Empire, the necessity of recording revenues and expenditures have emerged. Private individuals have been trained and well-equipped for the execution of financial affairs and transactions. According to the examination of the Ottoman Archives of the Prime Ministry, the people in charge of carrying out the financial transactions were called clerks. The clerks of the Ottoman Empire were the people who fulfilled the duties of accounting professionals, especially the accountants of the Republican period. It is a known fact that various calculations were recorded on tools such as stone, clay, tablets, trees, wood, papyrus, animal shells and paper throughout history. These records were kept in order by the clerks in the Ottoman Empire by using the Merdiven (ladder) recording method and the Siyakat writing system. We know that there were many records and documents in the Ottoman Empire, and these were meticulously preserved in the archives until recent years. Accordingly, accounting books, numbering more than thousands, were recorded by reliable, experienced and knowledgeable clerks, since people who perform the clerk profession have been educated in accounting offices from an early age and have been brought up with a master-disciple relationship. In the Ottoman Empire, clerks, who were constantly maturing professionally for centuries, caused the emergence of an enormous accounting system and the state's strong financial structure for centuries. This study aims to compare the state accounting system in the Ottoman Empire with the current accounting system. In addition, to contribute to the literature by examining the findings related to the Ottoman Empire's accounting system in the field of accounting was determined as the subgoal of the study. The study is limited to the application of the Ottoman State accounting system and the application of the uniform accounting system that became operational after 1995 in Turkey. Based on the study results, the accounting in the Ottoman Empire was in order, the records made by the clerks meticulously and surely were carried out by certified public accountants in Turkey, the equivalents of the documents and titles were similar, in the Turkish accounting system, which is already in use in the Ottoman Empire, the records were kept on an accrual basis, and those who perform the accounting profession in both periods have undergone special education.