Regency Words: Cast It Up

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In our new series Men and Manners (Regency Culture and Society: Men and Manners (2) – Regency Reader (regrom.com)), there is a maxim: “Never pay a tradesmen’s bill till you have cast it up.”

A reader wanted to know what exactly they meant by cast it up.

I found it used in several Parliamentary papers and other Regency era books referencing money so understand it was a common enough term.  To cast up (according to The Century Dictionary (1889)) meant to reckon or calculate.  There are also references across many encyclopedias and dictionaries to a Shakespeare line of “cast up” which meant to vomit, but this appeared to be distinguished in the Regency era by adding “accounts” to the end (cast up one’s accounts).

According to Etymoline.com, cast up as “compute, reckon” came first in the 1530s and the definition of “eject, vomit” came after in the late 1500s.

I found an arthimetic book from the Victorian era that has some examples of tradesmen’s bills and the math related to them (The “eclectic” Arithmetic; Adapted to Every Class of School (1874)):

EXPLANATIONS A BILL is a written account of certain goods sent by one person who is called the Seller to another who is called the Buyer with particulars of their quantity and price An INVOICE is a similar document but the quantities are usually much larger and it is almost exclusively used in the wholesale trade ie when a person buys goods to sell them again The several items in a bill may have different dates but in an invoice the goods are generally obtained at one time In the following sums Nos 1 to 11 are tradesmen's bills the goods being supplied at one time and the bill sent with them With this kind of business if the bill is paid at the same time some tradesmen return a certain part of the money This is called discount Nos 12 to 20 are tradesmen's bills the articles being supplied on different dates The first column in the example below is intended to show where the dates should be placed Nos 21 to 30 are invoices discount in some cases being also allowed on these When the bill or invoice is paid the person who receives the money writes Received or Paid or Settled then the date and then his or her name If the amount is La or above a receipt stamp is required which must be written on 1EXERCISE 79 Write out and find the amount of the following bill HIGH STREET LINCOLN September 17th 1873 MR THOMAS JONES Bought of SAMUEL CRACROFT To 9 lbs Sugar 4 d per lb lb Tea 35 6d 19 GROCER AND PROVISION DEALER S 9 I st Soda 7 lbs Soap Ind 4d lb Ginger Is 6d 20 Eggs Received same day 99 99 2 for itd d SAML CRACROFT 5 per cent discount ie 5 in every hundred IS in the 24 per cent discount ie 2 10s in every hundred 6d in the

It may be that it was beneficial, for a discount, to calculate the bill and apply the discount.  I found another suggested reason for the master to calculate the tradesmen’s bills, worry over household’s padding the bills and skimming off the top:

In nine cases out of ten continued Mentor the masters are more to blame for being thus robbed than the servants for robbing them for were they to take the trouble to pay the bills to the trades men themselves and occasionally look to the various items in the ac counts they would soon become acquainted with the fair charges of honest tradesmen and save themselves from being cheated of hundreds of pounds in the course of a year but above all were they to pay ready money they would indeed soon find a vast difference in the sum total of the annual expenditure of their household The fashionable tradesmen do not care about serving any family unless they let their accounts run 66 A gentleman of large fortune and estates near Walthamstow who has for some time kept sixteen servants determined to examine his tradesmen's bills more scrupulously than usual and in the course of the alterations which he found it necessary to adopt he ascertained that no less than fifteen out of his sixteen domestics were in the habit of robbing him He went to work rapidly he opened the boxes of his servants and found some of his property under the lock and key of every one of the below stairs gentry with the exception of the groom out he packed all guilty persons men and women without permitting one to sleep in his house another night We do not know whether he learned that his principal servants were allowed a per centage upon the bills that were annually paid but certain it is that some of his tradespeople felt great disappointment at the change which took place in the arrangements of the mansion The following accurate list of arrangements is extracted from that invaluable journal The Times Doings in London, Or, Day and Night Scenes of the Frauds, Frolics, Manners, and Depravities of the Metropolis (1828)

This last document is from Smeeton and Cruikshank suggests there may be some hyperbole in the account, or tweaking the nose of the gentry.  But it is good advice generally to review bills and ensure the math is correct and fair, so we can assume that was the original intent.

I also located some instructions intended for young women on the wisdom of learning basic accounting.  Here is an example:

dismissed her examine your bills more particularly to see if the charges be all right cast up the sum total of each and calculate the price of the several joints of meat as Butchers seldom insert it in their bills merely setting down only the weight and the sum as for example 154 lb Beef 9s 10 d which leaves the customer cornpletely ignorant as to what price he charges though I would advise you to compel him always to insert against each article in his bill the price charged that he may be aware that an error or overcharge will never escape notice When this is done make up your account of weekly expenses in the manner specified in the Appendix No IV and recollect that it would be useful also occasionally to enquire of other respectable tradesmen in the neighbourhood the prices of their different articles that you may ascertain if you are fairly dealt with The Home Book : Or, Young Housekeeper’s Assistant (1829)

I leave you with another directive to the young lady:

HOUSEHOLD DUTIES AND OPERATIONS а Whatever arrangement the young housekeeper may make for keeping her accounts we would urge most strongly the advantage of regularly every week paying her tradesmen's bills On no account let her if she would be a good economist suffer them to remain unpaid for a longer period Every thing will then be fresh in her memory and she will be able to keep constantly before her the amount of her expenses and thus save herself the misery of selfreproach She will find it a good plan to have a book for each of her tradespeople in which she may write her orders and the price being carried out the book should be returned with the articles The amount may be cast up every week and settled There is perhaps nothing which forms so deceptive an item in the expenses of housekeeping as wine and if any one will just calculate the cost in the course of a year of three or four glasses a day the amount will appear almost startling It is most generally a habit injurious to health and destructive to the economy of time and were the money which is so often thus thoughtlessly expended devoted to the enjoyments of a family how much rational and useful recreation might be procured This applies only when the expense is no part of the objection but when the income is limited the habit becomes Let us recommend the use of a cellar book in which an account may be kept of the different wines received into the cellar from time to time and of every bottle taken from it with a memorandum of the particular purpose for which it was required If carefully and strictly kept it will soon teach its lesson The form of such a book may be varied in many ways but should it be requested we will give a form which is most familiar to us in our next number Some inexperienced persons are ignorant of the proper charges for washing it may therefore be useful to give them for some of the more important articles The charges will be less where coals are particularly reasonable Sheets 6d per pair Blankets and Counterpanes where there Table cloths one with another 2d each are many washed s each Towels ditto d each Bed furniture from 4s to 5s 6d Table napkins 8d per doz Tent bed ditto about 3s Pillow cases ld each In cases of slops of gravy & c on table linen directions should be given for having them immediately washed out even when not again to come to table otherwise the marks will not be entirely got rid of for several washings without the help of bleaching liquid the use of which injures linen and a stained table cloth can never look clean a sin linen a The Magazine of Domestic Economy (1836)

 

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2 Responses to Regency Words: Cast It Up

  1. noagnes says:
    February 15, 2023 at 12:47 am

    Thank you for a quick answer and the information about training young ladies to household accounting as well as the reference to the idiom “cast up one’s accounts”. Going down the research rabbit hole is so exciting!