ABSTRACT
Professor Stone conceived ‘A System of National Accounts’, which was authorized by the United Nations in 1968. Traditional accounting is by means of so-called T-tables, one for each account. Professor Stone’s device of matrix accounting is ingenious. Instead of a T-table, an account is a pair of a row and a column (with the same index). With T-tables it is cumbersome to locate the debit and the credit entries of a single transaction; with a matrix of accounts it is automatic. Matrix accounting employs the consistency of a system of accounts: a transaction has the same debit and credit values. T-tables need not be consistent. A seller and a buyer may report a transaction differently. In matrix accounting one must decide on a common value. This problem emerges in a well-known form: matrix accounts must be balanced. Professor Stone has not only recognized the consistency requirements of a matrix system of accounts, but also offered a scientific resolution (Stone 1984 and the references given there).
