Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1554-2026 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
16 subseries
Context area
Repository
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
General accounts and financial records.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Financial records have been arranged into 16 suberies:
TSC/D/01: Papers of financial committees
TSC/D/02-02A: Wardens' accounts
TSC/D/03: Under wardens' accounts
TSC/D/04: Annual reports and accounts
TSC/D/05: Sundry accounts
TSC/D/06: Ledgers
TSC/D/07: General ledgers
TSC/D/08: Cash books
TSC/D/09: Petty cash book
TSC/D/10: Books of fines
TSC/D/11: Wardens' vouchers
TSC/D/12: Tax and rates receipts and investments
TSC/D/13: Income tax returns
TSC/D/14: Corporation duty returns
TSC/D/15: Assorted returns and balances
TSC/D/16: Scales of fees and fines
This series principally contains the financial records of the Company, whereas the main body of financial records of the English Stock, a joint-stock book trading company formed of Company members that traded 1603-1961, are catalogued in a separate sub-fonds. However, although in theory the Company and English Stock finances were separate throughout the latter's history, and the Court tried several times to enforce a reflection of this distinction within the financial records over the centuries, in practice the two bodies of records were often mixed together, and thus reflect the sometimes hazy nature of the borderline that existed between Company and English Stock affairs. Several Company financial records, such as the wardens' accounts volumes, ledgers and 'cheque books', therefore contain English Stock data in addition to that of the Company, and the English Stock volume the Journal Book of Money Disbursed also contains some Company entries.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
TO BE DECIDED
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
English
Script of material
Latin
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Microfilm copies of the majority of Company financial records to 1920 are on reels 75-81, 'Records of the Stationers' Company 1554-1920: 115 Reels of Microfilm with Printed Guide', published by Chadwyck-Healy Ltd (1989)
Related units of description
Publication note
R Myers, 'The Financial Records of the Stationers' Company 1605-1811' in R Myers and M Harris (eds.), Economics of the Booktrade 1605-1939 (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healy, 1985), pp. 1-31
Notes area
Note
Catalogued
Note
Open
Note
Overall responsibility for the Company's annual accounts belonged to the Under Warden until 1907, when it was passed to the Treasurer. In earlier times the Clerk prepared the accounts and he or the Beadle transcribed them, while the Under Warden presented them to the Court and was responsible for their audit. The wardens' accounts were supplemented by the book of entrance of fines in 1605, its successor series of 'cheque' books from 1693 onwards, ledgers from 1808 and cash books from 1847. In addition a series of wardens' vouchers or bills to 1800 have survived. The Company's financial records were audited from an early date, with the books being checked annually at the end of the guild year. Historically the auditors were senior members of the Court rather than external professionals. A Company financial committee was first appointed 11 Jan 1876.