Genesis of accounting information technologies in government institutions: a historical case from the reign of Catherine II

Abstract

Modern information technologies of public administration are the result of the development of ideas and methods of manual information processing that originated in the distant past. The article draws attention to the political and economic factors that influenced the development of accounting technologies in state institutions of Russia in the second half of the 18^th century. The authors of the article introduced into scientific circulation archival documents testifying to the first attempts of Russian accountants to implement the method of "double entry bookkeeping", as well as to develop an original technique of "triple registration" when accounting for the costs of construction of palace buildings in 1774-75. The original accounting technology used in the Moscow Palace Office has no analogues in domestic and foreign publications on the history of accounting.