Encoding Financial Records for Historical Research

Abstract

This paper focuses on a thought experiment in which the authors propose an encoding system not unlike the contextual markup of prosopographies or gazetteers using TEI P5 that could be used to capture the particular financial semantics involved in HFRs. This possible system is expressed as a TEI “extension” customization, and is flexible enough to encode the subgenre of financial records called “double-entry accounts,” a bookkeeping method for recording transfers of goods or services in exchange for currency or credit. Real-world markup examples are from the Wheaton College Digital History Project. A preliminary version of the ODD is currently available on Encoding Historical Financial Records (http://www.customization.encodinghfrs.org/).