Independent Researcher of History of accounting, associated to the Centre Camille Jullian, Aix-en-Provence, France
Décembre 2012 à juin 2013
Initially trained as a manager, Gerard Minaud spent twenty years directing industrial companies from 1984 onwards. In the mid-90s, he started a second degree course in history, to find answers to his questions on the history of accounting in ancient Rome. This led him to present, in 2002 at the EHESS, a thesis published in 2005 under the title Accounting in Rome.
This research is the combination of his field experience of practicing accounting and his studies in history (he obtained a BA and a MA in this discipline). In 2002, he left the corporate world to devote himself to research and teaching. Always driven on by a curiosity to learn about the history of accounting in Roman antiquity, in 2005 he prepared a second doctorate in the History of Law and Institutions. This thesis, defended in 2009 and published in 2011 under the title People of commerce and law in Rome, led him to discover the works of medieval Latin-speaking jurists.
"Business and economic profit in the West, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages : rationalities, standards and quantifications"
This research project is based on an observation: while in the West the ancient society was gradually dissolved and medieval society has gradually installed, no technical disruption has modified the basic principles of trade. This raises a question. While there has been an interruption in the transmission of basic skills like writing and arithmetic, and, to a narrow circle, Roman law, in what form have accounting principles developed during the medieval economic growth? Was there a radical breach with the past, did a reinvention of forgotten methods happened or did topical features arise? Documentation, mainly indirect, exists, written in Latin and spanning nearly a millennium. Its exploitation provides answers.