Trade and Bookkeeping

Dad and Laman will probably be returning from Ramoth-Gilead in the next day or two. He has a lot of connections up there, and some trusted trading partners. He asked me to get all his records in order before he gets home. When he returns from Ramoth-Gilead, we’ll need to quickly record his inventory so we can be on our way to Egypt without delay.

Dad’s never been one to care too much for all the accounting that goes along with the trade business, so his bookkeeping is a mess. I’ve been working through it the last couple days, and found some weird errors. He’ll often buy things, but then there’s never any record of selling it or dumping it (dumping happens when there’s something that he wasn’t able to sell;in the target market, and it’s not worth bringing back home). It’s almost like he just gives stuff away sometimes. I’ll have to ask him about these inconsistencies when he gets back.

As you can see, it's a total mess. And yeah, I know, one of the goats got a hold of this page.

Anyway, it’s definitely going to take all my time the next day or two to get the books prepared for our caravan to Egypt. Which leads to the first lesson I’ll pass along to anyone aspiring to get into this industry—make sure either you or someone in your family has a mind for bookkeeping. If you’re the type of person who primarily likes to travel and work with people, you’ll want someone that can keep track of what you’re buying, for how much, what you’re selling, and for how much. If you’re not making enough profit on your sales, you won’t be able to finance your caravans, and there goes your opportunity to do what you really love—travel and working with others.

I’ll be busy the next couple days, so I don’t think I’ll have time to post about the logistical preparations (the gear, taking care of the camels, etc). But if all goes well, my next post will be from somewhere out west of Kadesh-barnea, and I’ll try to recap how to handle the logistics at that point.