Series 3 > Ayr Burgh accounts, 1534-1624

FOREWORD
ix
Despite the obvious value of the MS., considerations
other than sheer bulk (it runs to something like 300,000
words) render it undesirable to present all the accounts
in extenso. For the first five years (1534-39) the auditors
considered, in addition to the intromissions of the three
or more spending magistrates, the current financial re¬
lationship between the toun and all private burgesses who
held any part of the burghal property and revenues, and
the balance between the parties was entered in every case.
While this unique feature of the Ayr MS. is worth stressing,
the fact that the substance of these private compts re¬
appears in the Treasurer’s Charge or elsewhere argues
against printing them in full for each year.1 The formal
nature of the headings of the compts, the verbiage
of many items both of Charge and Discharge, and the
annual repetition of the details of Dependentia, are
further pointers towards the advisability of economy and
compression.
The continuity and completeness of the accounts would,
however, be sacrificed by the adoption of the old method
of printing a selection of extracts. A volume constructed
along these lines would be virtually valueless to the student
of burgh finance, and might, since the selection must be
to some extent arbitrary, exclude the very items of interest
to those wishing to consult the record for any other reason.
The full compts for four selected years, together with
several additional compts of special interest, have, there¬
fore, been printed in extenso as specimens, and more
especially to show the methods of accounting and auditing.
For the remaining 74 years, the accounts are given in
abstract, all formal and repetitive matter being suppressed,
but all items of Charge and Discharge presented in com¬
pressed form; significant, peculiar or obscure words,
1 The private compts for 1536-37 occupy fourteen pages of print (3-16).