From the first English settlement in colonial America to the beginning of the Revolution, the legal status of account books evolved. During this period, there was a scarcity of hard currency which made commercial transactions largely dependent upon a credit based, barter based economic system. Business transactions often were represented by book debt. As merchants brought legal actions over book debt disputes, American colonial courts and legislatures began to examine the English common law rules that placed several restrictions on the introduction of account books into evidence. Responding to economic and social necessity, colonial America developed a legal system that was more flexible and pragmatic than was the English system in regard to admitting account books into evidence. Thus, American colonial courts and legislatures met the commercial needs of the new world, and in so doing, provided the impetus for examining accounting standards, fiduciary duty and financial statements in today's American legal system.
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