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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/parastro on 2023-08-18 00:31:31+00:00.

I’m currently migrating my budget to a paper ledger, which has got me wondering, how did people in the past, specifically in the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe, keep their financial records? Did they write everything down or just major sales and purchases? What did they use the records for? How was it different depending on class? Did they use banks?