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 Fundamentals of Cost
and Management Accounting
Ninth Edition
 Fundamentals of Cost
and Management Accounting
Ninth Edition

SR de Wet
PhD Finance (UJ)
MCom (UJ), BCom Hons (UJ)
Faculty Lead: Accounting and Financial Management
Johannesburg Business School
University of Johannesburg
Senior Lecturer: Business and Financial Strategy
School of Finance and Accounting
IIE MSA
Director
Asset Orchestration. Value. (Pty) Ltd
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© 2022
First edition 1988
Second edition 1992
Third edition 1997, Reprinted 1998, 1999, Revised reprint 1999, Reprinted 2000, 2001
Fourth edition 2001, Reprinted 2002, 2003, 2004
Fifth edition 2004, Revised reprint 2006, 2007
Sixth edition 2012
Seventh edition 2016
Eight edition 2017, Reprinted 2019, 2020, 2022
Ninth edition 2022

ISBN 978 0 639 00974 2 (softback)

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 Preface to the ninth edition

Welcome to the ninth edition of Fundamentals of Cost and Management Accounting

(FCMA). As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we still endure economic after-
effects, such as major supply chain issues and high inflation. Thus, we are reminded
of how vital cost and management accounting principles are in navigating through
such volatile and complex periods. This textbook provides a solid foundation for cost
and management accounting in a dynamic world.
Since the previous edition, several developments have been made in the related fields
of accounting and finance. The first significant development is the revised Conceptual
Framework for Financial Reporting (March 2018) by the International Accounting
Standards Board (IASB), which is now in effect. As prescribed by the revised Concep-
tual Framework, the updated definitions of an asset and a liability were integrated into
the textbook. The second development was the new 2019 Chartered Institute of Man-
agement Accountants (CIMA) syllabus. Consideration was given to these changes,
specifically to the P1 and P2 learning outcomes, and the new insights were incorpo-
rated into the textbook.
The textbook includes additions such as the theory of constraints and throughput
accounting, target costing, life cycle costing, and performance evaluation in the not-
for-profit and public sectors. Historically, these more advanced concepts in manage-
ment accounting were excluded but have since become standard concepts in any
cost and management accounting course.
The needs of South African universities and emerging South African professionals
have been considered as part of this edition. We hope that every cost and manage-
ment accounting student finds the delivery of the principles and concepts in this
textbook easy to grasp and useful in real-world scenarios.
We wish to thank the various academics for their continued support of FCMA through
their prescription of the textbook and regular feedback and suggestions to improve it.
Although the concepts and principles of cost and management account endure, the
articulation and application of some concepts have changed due to the modern digital
business ecosystem. We encourage users to provide suggestions for what they would
like to see improved, removed, or added to the book.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank two previous contributing authors,
Prof Gideon Els and Ricky van der Walt for their invaluable contribution to FCMA.
Undoubtedly, their various contributions to the previous editions have left a lasting
impact on the book.

Dr Shaun de Wet
November 2022

v
 Preface to the eighth edition

Welcome to the eight edition of Fundamentals of Cost and Management Accounting

(FCMA). The authors are once again very pleased to deliver a book of exceptional
quality and insight that speaks to the heart of every South African student. This book
has always had the interests of those learning about business and finance in mind and
this edition is no exception to that. We have spent countless hours incorporating the
latest trends and identifying areas of improvement.
Since the previous edition the higher education sector in South Africa has experienced
drastic changes. The #feesmustfall campaign of 2015 has spilled over into 2016 and
remains a major milestone for change. Amongst this call for change it has been identi-
fied that our education of our young learners remain steeped in tradition, a tradition
that has for too long been dictated by a colonial past. No doubt the colonialisation of
South Africa has left its mark, but the time has also come for it to be reversed, revised
and rectified.
To this end we accepted the decolonisation of the higher education sector as our
prime initiative for this edition and set about our task of revising the textbook with this
in mind. This has led to some interesting debates, not just amongst ourselves but also
with stakeholders and other experts. We acknowledge the contribution of ideas from
our fellow colleagues that serve on decolonisation committees and thank them for their
meaningful input. With this in mind we have ensured that our motifs remain rooted in
African design and that our examples and questions used throughout have been
rewritten to reflect a South African perspective.
An interesting side note to this edition is the incorporation of millennial research into
how the next generation views learning. Long winded explanations have been con-
verted into more concise descriptions that are to the point. Where needed, we have
repackaged information to fit in with a bite sized philosophy of learning. As always, we
continue to update errors and omissions (a never ending task!) and strive to improve
presentation and layout. Furthermore we have expanded selected chapters, most
notably the chapters on Standard Costing, Accounting Flow of Information, Activity-
Based Costing (ABC) and expanded the successful introduction of Chapter 17, which
highlights more strategic aspects of costing.

vii
viii Fundamentals of Cost and Management Accounting

It is our wish that every young South African that sets out on the journey of becoming
skilled in business and finance will find this textbook useful and filled with relevant
information.

The Authors
October 2017

We have started the practice of including the preface to the previous edition in order to
track the evolution of the textbook from one edition to the next.
 Preface to the seventh edition

Welcome to the seventh edition of Fundamentals of Cost and Management Account-

ing. Through the effort of three dedicated academic writers we have updated the
previous edition to bring it in line with the current trends and latest developments. This
journey has been especially meaningful and can probably be most accurately
described as four chefs in a kitchen, arguing and debating the merits and shortcom-
ings of each new recipe!
A lot has changed in the accounting and finance landscape since the previous edition
was published, the most important being the update of the 2010 Chartered Institute of
Management Accountants (CIMA) to the 2015 edition. Along with this update of the
content of their syllabus a change in the way that they test prospective candidates has
been introduced. Where previously, written examinations were completed at the vari-
ous levels, testing now consists of computer based objective question tests that cover
a broad spectrum of the syllabus, supplemented with three integrated case studies.
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued new guidance in their
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) with regards to presentation and
terminology. What was previously known as the Income Statement and Balance Sheet
is now described as the Statement of Profit and Loss and the Statement of Financial
Position.
In response to the new developments we have set about revising the learning objec-
tives and bringing the textbook in line with the new syllabus and terminology in use. At
the end of each chapter you will find review questions with solutions that can be used
to guide students learning. We have added numerous review questions to every chap-
ter and where necessary, in-text examples have been expanded to provide more
guidance as to how certain calculations were made. A previous shortcoming was the
learning curve section in chapter 3, which has now been expanded to include the
mathematical formula along with additional practice questions. A new section on
Contract Costing was added to chapter 10. As always, grammar and editorial changes
were made to text, diagrams and numbering where necessary and the layout and
presentation received further attention.
Finally we have introduced a new chapter. We deemed it necessary to leave students
at a point where they have a taste of what’s to come so that they can see the possibili-
ties of how costing fits into a larger, strategically motivated company. Chapter 17:
Costing in the Modern Business Environment provides students with a substantial
introduction into the interplay between costing and strategy and is focussed on the
themes of how costing supports pricing decisions, what strategies can be used to
manage costs and how costing forms part of performance measurement.

ix
x Fundamentals of Cost and Management Accounting

We are also excited to announce a further expansion of our online offering to lecturers.
From January 2016 the online component to this textbook will include the solutions to
the exercises at the back of each chapter, along with 25 multiple choice questions and
solutions per chapter. Each chapter will also have a set of comprehensive slides
available that can be used in lectures. The online component can be accessed via
www.myacademic.co.za.
The quantity of online and printed information has expanded more in the last few years
than in the history of mankind. With more and more information available it’s almost no
wonder that students are reading less and less. This is perhaps the most significant
strength of this textbook: A book that gets to the point by communicating in an effec-
tive manner.

The Authors
September 2015
 Contents

Page
Preface to the ninth edition......................................................................... v
Preface to the eighth edition ...................................................................... vii
Preface to the seventh edition ................................................................... ix

CHAPTER 1 The context of costing ...................................................... 1

LEARNING OUTCOMES ......................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER OUTLINE ................................................................................................ 1
THE NEED FOR RELEVANT ACCOUNTING INFORMATION ................................. 2
THE DIFFERENT FIELDS OF ACCOUNTING .......................................................... 2
Financial accounting .......................................................................................... 3
Management accounting ................................................................................... 3
THE PLACE AND FUNCTION OF COST ACCOUNTING ........................................ 5
THE FUNCTION OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING ............................................. 5
Planning decisions ............................................................................................. 5
Control decisions ............................................................................................... 6
COST ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS ............................................................................. 6
Cost determination ............................................................................................. 6
Cost recording ................................................................................................... 7
Cost analysis ...................................................................................................... 7
Cost management.............................................................................................. 7
Cost reporting .................................................................................................... 7
ETHICAL CONDUCT ............................................................................................... 7
THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANTS (CIMA) ........ 10
THE AIM OF THIS BOOK ........................................................................................ 10
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 11
PERSPECTIVES ON COSTING ............................................................................... 11
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS ................................................................................ 12
EXERCISES ............................................................................................................. 12

CHAPTER 2 Cost classification and terminology ........................... 13

LEARNING OUTCOMES ......................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER OUTLINE ................................................................................................ 13

xi
xii Fundamentals of Cost and Management Accounting

Page
THE CONCEPT OF COST ....................................................................................... 14
COST OBJECTS ...................................................................................................... 15
ACCOUNTING FOR COST ..................................................................................... 16
COST CLASSIFICATION ......................................................................................... 17
Classification of costs by their nature ................................................................ 17
Classifying costs by their timing ........................................................................ 18
Classifying costs by their function ..................................................................... 20
Classifying costs according to their behaviour.................................................. 24
Variable costs ............................................................................................... 24
Fixed cost ..................................................................................................... 25
Step cost ....................................................................................................... 25
Mixed cost .................................................................................................... 26
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 27
PERSPECTIVES ON COSTING ............................................................................... 27
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS ................................................................................ 28
REVIEW PROBLEMS ............................................................................................... 28
EXERCISES ............................................................................................................. 32

CHAPTER 3 Elements of cost.................................................................. 35

LEARNING OUTCOMES ......................................................................................... 35
CHAPTER OUTLINE ................................................................................................ 36
MATERIAL COST .................................................................................................... 37
TERMINOLOGY ...................................................................................................... 37
INVENTORY PILING ................................................................................................ 37
INVENTORY ACTIVITIES ......................................................................................... 39
Acquisition ......................................................................................................... 39
Storage............................................................................................................... 43
Distribution and consumption ............................................................................ 44
Inventory valuation ............................................................................................. 45
JUST IN TIME INVENTORY-HOLDING (JIT) ........................................................... 47
ACCOUNTING ENTRIES ......................................................................................... 48
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 49
REVIEW PROBLEMS – MATERIAL .......................................................................... 50
LABOUR .................................................................................................................. 52
EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYER EXPECTATIONS ..................................................... 52
Productivity ........................................................................................................ 54
Humanitarian factors that have an influence on labour productivity ................. 54
External factors that have an influence on productivity ..................................... 54
PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION ............................................................................ 55
EMPLOYMENT RECORDS ...................................................................................... 57
Personnel records .............................................................................................. 57
Clock cards ........................................................................................................ 57
Job cards ........................................................................................................... 58
Production reports ............................................................................................. 58
 Contents xiii

Page
ASSIMILATION OF INFORMATION ........................................................................ 58
LABOUR REMUNERATION .................................................................................... 59
Methods of remuneration ................................................................................... 59
Important terminology ........................................................................................ 60
Calculation of remuneration ............................................................................... 61
WAGE INCENTIVE SCHEMES ................................................................................ 63
Straight piecework ............................................................................................. 63
Taylor’s differential piecework system ............................................................... 64
Halsey bonus scheme ....................................................................................... 65
Emerson’s efficiency scheme ............................................................................ 65
Bonus points ...................................................................................................... 65
Measured day work ........................................................................................... 65
Group bonus systems, share incentive schemes and
profit-sharing schemes ...................................................................................... 65
RECOVERY OF DIRECT LABOUR COSTS ............................................................. 66
LEARNING CURVE ................................................................................................. 67
The learning curve effect ................................................................................... 67
Learning curve formula ...................................................................................... 68
Application value ............................................................................................... 70
Challenges with the application of the learning curve ....................................... 70
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 70
REVIEW PROBLEMS – LABOUR ............................................................................ 71
MANUFACTURING OVERHEADS ........................................................................... 74
COST PRICE CALCULATION AND MANUFACTURING OVERHEADS .................. 75
Problems associated with overheads ................................................................ 75
Classification and analysis of overheads........................................................... 76
TOTAL MANUFACTURING OVERHEADS AND THE LINEAR FUNCTION ............. 79
TECHNIQUES FOR DIVIDING MANUFACTURING OVERHEADS .......................... 79
Scatter diagram ................................................................................................. 79
High-low method ................................................................................................ 81
Simple regression .............................................................................................. 82
Multiple regression............................................................................................. 84
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 85
REVIEW PROBLEM – MANUFACTURING OVERHEADS ........................................ 85
MARKETING COSTS ............................................................................................... 88
BASES FOR APPORTIONMENT ............................................................................. 88
PLANNING AND CONTROL ................................................................................... 89
Products ............................................................................................................. 90
Sales representatives......................................................................................... 91
Areas .................................................................................................................. 92
Size of orders ..................................................................................................... 94
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 96
REVIEW PROBLEM – MARKETING ........................................................................ 97
PERSPECTIVES ON COSTING ............................................................................... 98
xiv Fundamentals of Cost and Management Accounting

Page
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS ................................................................................ 99
EXERCISES ............................................................................................................. 100

CHAPTER 4 Cost-volume profit analysis............................................ 107

LEARNING OUTCOMES ......................................................................................... 107
CHAPTER OUTLINE ................................................................................................ 107
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 108
MARGINAL COST ACCOUNTING APPROACH ..................................................... 109
CVP ANALYSIS USING THE MARGINAL INCOME APPROACH ............................ 110
CONTRIBUTION ..................................................................................................... 110
BREAK-EVEN USING THE MARGINAL INCOME APPROACH ............................... 111
BREAK-EVEN USING THE MARGINAL INCOME RATIO APPROACH ................... 112
APPLICATIONS OF CVP ......................................................................................... 113
Expected profit................................................................................................... 114
Calculating the margin of safety ........................................................................ 114
Evaluating the impact on profit of changes in cost and/or quantity .................. 115
Change in selling price ...................................................................................... 116
Change in variable costs ................................................................................... 116
Change in fixed costs ........................................................................................ 117
Product mix ........................................................................................................ 118
CHANGE-OVER POINT ........................................................................................... 120
BREAK-EVEN ANALYSIS USING A GRAPHICAL APPROACH .............................. 121
Break-even graphs ............................................................................................ 121
CVP ANALYSIS USING AN ALGEBRAIC AND EQUATION APPROACH ............... 125
Algebraic method .............................................................................................. 125
Equation method ................................................................................................ 127
CVP ANALYSIS IN SERVICE INDUSTRIES ............................................................. 127
COST STRUCTURE AND THE OPERATING LEVERAGE FACTOR ........................ 129
EVALUATING CVP ANALYSIS ................................................................................ 131
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. 132
PERSPECTIVES ON COSTING ............................................................................... 133
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS ................................................................................ 133
REVIEW PROBLEMS ............................................................................................... 133
EXERCISES ............................................................................................................. 138

CHAPTER 5 Relevant information for short-term

decision making ................................................................ 143
LEARNING OUTCOMES ......................................................................................... 143
CHAPTER OUTLINE ................................................................................................ 143
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 144
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course this silence means something, and perhaps Christopher had
good reasons for never speaking of the voyage even to his son.
Probably he was deathly sea-sick, and in that condition was severely
kicked for not being able to lay his hand at a moment’s warning upon
the starboard main-top-gallant-studding-sail tripping-line, or other
abstruse rope. At all events, he always abstained from telling stories
beginning, “I reck’lect on my first v’yge;” and we may be sure that he
would never have put such an unseamanlike constraint upon his
tongue unless he knew that the less he said about that voyage the
better.
[Æt. 23; 1459–70]

He had been a sailor for some years when he joined a vessel

forming part of an expedition fitted out in Genoa in 1459 by a certain
Duke of Calabria named John of Anjou, who wanted to steal the
kingdom of Naples in order to give it to his father, René, Count of
Provence. So pious a son naturally commanded universal respect,
and Genoa provided him with ships and lent him money. The
expedition was very large, and the old Admiral Colombo, with whom
Christopher sailed, probably commanded the Genoese contingent.
The fleet cruised along the Neapolitan coast, and sailed in and out
the Bay of Naples any number of times, but owing to a fear of the
extortions of the Neapolitan hack-drivers and valets-de-place, there
seems to have been no attempt made to land at Naples. For four
years John of Anjou persevered in trying to conquer Naples, but in
vain; and at the end of that time he must have had a tremendous bill
to pay for his Genoese ships.
While engaged in this expedition, Christopher was sent in
command of a vessel to Tunis, where he was expected to capture a
hostile galley. Carefully reading up his “Midshipman Easy” and his
“Blunt’s Coast Pilot,” he set sail; but on reaching the island of San
Pedro, which can easily be found on any map where it is mentioned
by name, he learned that there were also in the harbor of Tunis two
ships and a carrick; whereupon his crew remarked that they did not
propose to attack an unlimited quantity of vessels, but that if
Columbus would put into Marseilles and lay in a few more ships to
accompany them, they would gladly cut out all the vessels at Tunis.
Columbus was determined not to go to Marseilles,—though he does
not definitely say that he owed money to the keeper of a sailor
boarding-house there,—but he was unable to shake the resolution of
his crew. He therefore pretended to yield to their wishes and set sail
again, ostensibly for Marseilles. The next morning, when the crew
came on deck, they found themselves near the Cape of Carthagena,
and perceived that their wily commander had deceived them.
[Æt. 23–34; 1459–70]

This story is told by Columbus himself, and it awakens in the

mind of the intelligent reader some little doubt of the narrator’s
veracity. In the first place, he admits that he deceived his sailors, and
hence we have no certainty that he was not trying to deceive the
public when telling the story of the alleged deception. In the second
place, it is scarcely probable that all the crew promptly “turned in” at
sunset, leaving Columbus himself at the wheel; but unless this was
done, the compass or the stars must have told them that the ship
was not laying the proper course for Marseilles. Finally, Columbus, in
his exultation at having deceived his crew, does not so much as
mention Tunis, or the hostile vessels which it was his duty to attack,
nor does he tell us what business he had at the Cape of Carthagena.
We are thus justified in assuming that the story is not entirely
credible. Years afterward, on his first transatlantic voyage, Columbus
deceived his men concerning the number of leagues they had sailed,
and this exploit was so warmly commended by his admirers that he
may have been tempted to remark that he always made a point of
deceiving sailors, and may thereupon have invented this earlier
instance as a case in point. Still, let us not lightly impugn his veracity.
Perhaps he really did tell the truth and deceive his sailors; but
whether he did or not, we should still remember that many of us are
merely human, and that had we been in the place of Columbus we
might have said and done a variety of different things.
What became of Columbus during several subsequent years, we
have no trustworthy account. In all probability he continued to follow
the sea, and perhaps caught up with it now and then. We know,
however, that at one time he commanded a galley belonging to a
squadron under the command of Colombo the Younger, a son of the
Colombo with whom Christopher sailed in the Neapolitan expedition.
This squadron, falling in with a Venetian fleet somewhere off the
Portuguese coast, immediately attacked it, Venice and Genoa being
at that time at war. In the course of the battle the galley of Columbus
was set on fire, and as he had no available small-boats—a fact
which must forever reflect disgrace upon the Genoese Navy
Department—he was compelled to jump overboard with all his crew.
He seems to have lost all interest in the battle after the loss of his
galley, and he therefore decided to go ashore. He was six miles from
land, but with the help of an oar which he put under his breast he
swam ashore without difficulty, and when we consider that he was
dressed in a complete suit of armor, it is evident that he must have
been a very fine swimmer.
It should be mentioned that, although this story is told by
Fernando Columbus, certain carping critics have refused to believe
it, on the paltry pretext that, inasmuch as the naval fight in question
took place several years after Columbus is known to have taken up
his residence in Portugal, he could not have landed in that country
for the first time immediately after the battle. This is mere trifling. If
Columbus could swim six miles in a suit of heavy armor, and, in all
probability, with his sword in one hand and his speaking-trumpet in
the other, he could easily have performed the simpler feat of residing
in Portugal several years before he reached that country. The truth
is, that historians are perpetually casting doubt upon all legends of
any real merit or interest. They have totally exploded the story of
Washington and the cherry-tree, and they could not be expected to
concede that Fernando Columbus knew more about his father than
persons living and writing four hundred years later could know. As to
Columbus’s great swimming feat, they have agreed to disbelieve the
whole story, and of course the public agrees with them.
 CHAPTER II.
FIRST PLANS OF EXPLORATION.

[Æt. 34; 1470]

IT is at Lisbon that we are able for the first time to put our finger
decisively upon Columbus. The stray glimpses which we catch of
him before that time, whether at Genoa, Pavia, Naples, or Cape
Carthagena, are fleeting and unsatisfactory; his trustworthy
biography begins with his residence at Lisbon. He reached there, we
do not know by what route, in the year 1470, having no money and
no visible means of support. Instead of borrowing money and buying
an organ, or calling on the leader of one of the Lisbon political “halls”
and obtaining through his influence permission to set up a peanut
stand, he took a far bolder course—he married. Let it not be
supposed that he represented himself to be an Italian count, and
thereby won the hand of an ambitious Portuguese girl. The fact that
he married the daughter of a deceased Italian navigator proves that
he did not resort to the commonplace devices of the modern Italian
exile. Doña Felipa di Perestrello was not only an Italian, and as such
could tell a real count from a Genoese sailor without the use of
litmus paper or any other chemical test, but she was entirely without
money and, viewed as a bride, was complicated with a mother-in-
law. Thus it is evident that Columbus did not engage in matrimony as
a fortune-hunter, and that he must have married Doña Felipa purely
because he loved her. We may explain in the same way her
acceptance of the penniless Genoese; and the fact that they lived
happily together—if Fernando Columbus is to be believed—makes it
clear that neither expected anything from the other, and hence
neither was disappointed.
 The departed navigator, Di Perestrello, had been in the service
of the Portuguese king, and had accumulated a large quantity of
maps and charts, which his widow inherited. She does not appear to
have objected to her daughter’s marriage, but the depressed state of
Columbus’s fortunes at this period is shown by the fact that he and
his wife went to reside with his mother-in-law, where he doubtless
learned that fortitude and dignity when exposed to violence and
strong language for which he afterwards became renowned. Old
Madame Perestrello did him one really good turn by presenting him
with the maps, charts, and log-books of her departed husband, and
this probably suggested to him the idea which he proceeded to put
into practice, of making and selling maps.
Map-making at that time offered a fine field to an imaginative
man, and Columbus was not slow to cultivate it. He made beautiful
charts of the Atlantic Ocean, putting Japan, India, and other
desirable Asiatic countries on its western shore, and placing
quantities of useful islands where he considered that they would do
the most good. These maps may possibly have been somewhat
inferior in breadth of imagination to an average Herald map, but they
were far superior in beauty; and the array of novel animals with
which the various continents and large islands were sprinkled made
them extremely attractive. The man who bought one of Columbus’s
maps received his full money’s worth, and what with map-selling,
and occasional sea voyages to and from Guinea at times when
Madame Perestrello became rather too free in the use of the stove-
lid, Columbus managed to make a tolerably comfortable living.
The island of Porto Santo, then recently discovered, lay in the
track of vessels sailing between Portugal and Guinea, and must
have attracted the attention of Columbus while engaged in the
several voyages which he made early in his married life.
It so happened that Doña Felipa came into possession, by
inheritance, of a small property in Porto Santo, and Columbus
thereupon abandoned Lisbon and with his family took up his
residence on that island. Here he met one Pedro Correo, a bold
sailor and a former governor of Porto Santo, who was married to
Doña Felipa’s sister. Columbus and Correo soon became warm
friends, and would sit up together half the night, talking about the
progress of geographical discovery and the advantages of finding
some nice continent full of gold and at a great distance from the
widow Perestrello.
At that time there were certain unprincipled mariners who
professed to have discovered meritorious islands a few hundred
miles west of Portugal; and though we know that these imaginative
men told what was not true, Columbus may have supposed that their
stories were not entirely without a basis of truth. King Henry of
Portugal, who died three years after Columbus arrived at Lisbon, had
a passion for new countries, and the fashion which he set of fitting
out exploring expeditions continued to prevail after his death.
There is no doubt that there was a general feeling, at the period
when Columbus and Correo lived at Porto Santo, that the discovery
of either a continent on the western shore of the Atlantic, or a new
route to China, would meet a great popular want. Although the
Portuguese had sailed as far south as Cape Bojador, they believed
that no vessel could sail any further in that direction without meeting
with a temperature so great as to raise the water of the ocean to the
boiling-point, and it was thus assumed that all future navigators
desirous of new islands and continents must search for them in the
west. The more Columbus thought of the matter, the more firmly he
became convinced that he could either discover valuable islands by
sailing due west, or that at all events he could reach the coast of
Japan, China, or India; and that it was clearly the duty of somebody
to supply him with ships and money and put him in command of an
exploring expedition. With this view Correo fully coincided, and
Columbus made up his mind that he would call on a few respectable
kings and ask them to fit out such an expedition.
[Æt. 34; 1474]

Fernando Columbus informs us that his father based his

conviction that land could be found by sailing in a westerly direction,
upon a variety of reasons. Although many learned men believed that
the earth was round, the circumference of the globe was then
unknown; and as every one had therefore a right to call it what he
chose, Columbus assumed that it was comparatively small, and that
the distance from the Cape Verde Islands eastward to the western
part of Asia was fully two thirds of the entire circumference. He also
assumed that the remaining third consisted in great part of the
eastern portion of Asia, and that hence the distance across the
Atlantic, from Portugal to Asia, was by no means great. In support of
this theory he recalled the alleged fact that various strange trees and
bits of wood, hewn after a fashion unknown in Europe, had from time
to time been cast on the European shores, and must have come out
of the unknown west.
This theory, founded as it was upon gratuitous assumptions, and
supported by driftwood of uncertain origin and doubtful veracity, was
regarded by Columbus as at least the equal of the binomial theorem
in credibility, and he felt confident that the moment he should bring it
to the attention of an enterprising king, that monarch would instantly
present him with a fleet and make him Governor-General of all lands
which he might discover.
It was the invariable custom of Columbus to declare that his
chief reason for desiring to discover new countries was, that he
might carry the Gospel to the pagan inhabitants thereof, and also
find gold enough to fit out a new crusade for the recovery of the Holy
Sepulchre. Whether old Pedro Correo winked when Columbus spoke
in this pious strain, or whether Doña Felipa, with the charming
frankness of her sex, remarked “fiddlesticks!” we shall never know.
[Æt. 38; 1474]

Perhaps Columbus really thought that he wanted to dispense the

Gospel and fight the Mahometans, and that he did not care a straw
about becoming a great explorer and having the State capital of Ohio
named for him; but his fixed determination not to carry a particle of
Gospel to the smallest possible pagan, except upon terms highly
advantageous to his pocket and his schemes of personal
aggrandizement, is scarcely reconcilable with his pious
protestations. His own church decided, not very long ago, that his
moral character did not present available materials for the
manufacture of a saint, and it is only too probable that the church
was right.
 It is a curious illustration of the determination of his biographers
to prove him an exceptionally noble man, that they dwell with much
emphasis upon his stern determination not to undertake any
explorations except upon his own extravagant terms. To the
unprejudiced mind his conduct might seem that of a shrewd and
grasping man, bent upon making a profitable speculation. The
biographers, however, insist that it was the conduct of a great and
noble nature, caring for nothing except geographical discovery and
the conversion of unlimited heathen.
About this time Columbus is believed to have written a great
many letters to various people, asking their candid opinion upon the
propriety of discovering new continents or new ways to old Asiatic
countries. Paulo Toscanelli, of Florence, a leading scientific person,
sent him, in answer to one of his letters, a map of the Atlantic and
the eastern coast of Asia, which displayed a bolder imagination than
Columbus had shown in any of his own maps, and which so
delighted him that he put it carefully away, to use in case his dream
of exploration should be realized. Toscanelli’s map has proved to be
of much more use to historians than it was to Columbus, for the letter
in which it was enclosed was dated in the year 1474, and it thus
gives us the earliest date at which we can feel confident Columbus
was entertaining the idea of his great voyage.
[Æt. 45; 1481]

How long Columbus resided at Porto Santo we have no means

of knowing; neither do we know why he left that place. It is certain,
however, that he returned to Lisbon either before or very soon after
the accession of King John II. to the Portuguese throne, an event
which took place in 1481. Meanwhile, as we learn from one of his
letters, he made a voyage in 1477 to an island which his biographers
have agreed to call Iceland, although Columbus lacked inclination—
or perhaps courage—to call it by that name. He says he made the
voyage in February, and he does not appear to have noticed that the
water was frozen. The weak point in his narrative—provided he
really did visit Iceland—is his omission to mention how he warmed
the Arctic ocean so as to keep it free of ice in February. Had he only
given us a description of his sea-warming method, it would have
been of inestimable service to the people of Iceland, since it would
have rendered the island easily accessible at all times of the year,
and it would also have materially lessened the difficulty which
explorers find in sailing to the North Pole. It is probable that
Columbus visited some warmer and easier island than Iceland—say
one of the Hebrides. In those days a voyage from southern Europe
to Iceland would have been a remarkable feat, and Columbus would
not have failed to demand all the credit due him for so bold an
exploit.
The immediate predecessor of King John—King Alfonso—
preferred war to exploration, and as he was occupied during the
latter part of his reign in a very interesting war with Spain, it is
improbable that Columbus wasted time in asking him to fit out a
transatlantic expedition. There is a rumor that, prior to the accession
of King John II., Columbus applied to Genoa for assistance in his
scheme of exploration, but the rumor rests upon no evidence worth
heeding.
Genoa, as every one knows, was then a republic. It needed all
its money to pay the expenses of the administration party at
elections, to improve its inland harbors and subterranean rivers, and
to defray the cost of postal routes in inaccessible parts of the
country. Had Columbus asked for an appropriation, the Genoese
politicians would have denounced the folly and wickedness of
squandering the people’s money on scientific junketing expeditions,
and would have maintained that a free and enlightened republic
ought not to concern itself with the effete and monarchical countries
of Asia, to which Columbus was anxious to open a new route.
Moreover, Columbus had been absent from Genoa for several
years. He had no claims upon any of the Genoese statesmen, and
was without influence enough to carry his own ward. An application
of any sort coming from such a man would have been treated with
deserved contempt; and we may be very sure that, however much
Columbus may have loved the old Genoese flag and desired an
appropriation, he had far too much good sense to dream of asking
any favors from his fellow-countrymen. Undoubtedly he was as
anxious to start in search of America while he lived at Porto Santo as
he was at a later period, but he knew that only a king would feel at
liberty to use public funds in what the public would consider a wild
and profitless expedition; and as there was no king whom he could
hope to interest in his scheme, he naturally waited until a suitable
king should appear.
The death of Alfonso provided him with what he imagined would
prove to be a king after his own heart, for King John was no sooner
seated on the throne than he betrayed an abnormal longing for new
countries by sending explorers in search of Prester John.
[Æt. 45; 1481–82]

This Prester John was believed to be a Presbyterian deacon

who ruled over a civilized and Christian kingdom which he kept
concealed either about his person or in some out-of-the-way part of
the world. The wonderful credulity of the age is shown by this belief
in a Presbyterian king whom no European had ever seen, and in a
kingdom of which no man knew the situation. It ought to have
occurred to the Portuguese king that, even if he could find this
mythical monarch, he would not take any real pleasure in his society,
unless he were to burn him. King John II. was a pious Roman
Catholic, and, next to a Methodist, a Presbyterian king would have
been about the most uncongenial acquaintance he could have
made. Nevertheless, this Presbyterian myth was indirectly of great
service to Columbus.
King John, in order to facilitate his search for Prester John,
asked a scientific commission to invent some improvements in
navigation, the result of which was the invention of the astrolabe, a
sort of rudimentary quadrant, by means of which a navigator could
occasionally find his latitude. This invention was hardly inferior in
value to that of the compass, and it is generally said to have
provided Columbus with the means of finding his way across the
Atlantic and back to Europe.
[Æt. 45–46; 1482–84]

Next to the discovery of Prester John, the Portuguese king

desired to discover a route by sea to India. He believed with his
deceased grand-uncle, Prince Henry, that Africa could be
circumnavigated—provided the circumnavigators could avoid being
boiled alive south of Cape Bojador—and that a road to India could
thus be found. It was manifest that he was just the sort of monarch
for Columbus’s purposes. He was so anxious to make discoveries
that he would have been delighted even to find a Presbyterian. He
was particularly bent upon finding a route to India, and he was only
twenty-five years old. He was the very man to listen to a solemn and
oppressive mariner with his pockets full of maps and his mind full of
the project for a transatlantic route to India. Columbus was now
about forty-six years old, and his beard was already white. He had
dwelt so long upon the plan of crossing the Atlantic that he
resembled the Ancient Mariner in his readiness to button-hole all
sorts of people and compel them to listen to his project. Mrs.
Perestrello appears to have been safely dead at this time, and Pedro
Correo had probably been talked to death by his relentless brother-
in-law. Still, Columbus was as anxious to carry out his plan as ever.
He marked young King John as his prey, and finally obtained an
audience with him.
 CHAPTER III.
IN SEARCH OF A PATRON.

[Æt. 45–46; 1482–84]

WE have two accounts of the interview between Columbus and

the King—one written by Fernando Columbus, and the other by Juan
de Barros, an eminent geographer. Fernando says that the King
listened with great delight to the project of Columbus, and only
refrained from instantly giving him the command of an expedition
because he did not feel ready to consent to Columbus’s conditions.
De Barros says that King John finally professed that he approved of
Columbus’s views merely to get rid of that persistent mariner.
However this may be, the King referred the whole matter to a
committee, with power to send for maps and things. The committee
consisted of two geographers—who of course hated Columbus with
true scientific hatred—and the King’s confessor, the Bishop of Ceuta.
It did not take very long for the committee to decide that Columbus
was a preposterous person, and that his project was impracticable.
The King then referred the matter to his council, where it was hotly
debated. The Bishop of Ceuta took the broad, general ground that
exploration was an idle and frivolous occupation; that no men of
sense wanted any new countries; and that if the King must have
amusement, the best thing he could do would be to make war upon
the Moors.
Don Pedro de Meneses replied with much vigor, hurling back the
Bishop’s accusations against exploration, and nailing his reverence’s
misstatements as boldly as if the two were rival Congressmen. As for
himself, Don Pedro said, he liked new continents, and believed that
Portugal could not have too many of them. He considered Columbus
a great man, and felt that it would be a precious privilege for other
people to aid in the proposed transatlantic scheme.
Nevertheless, the council decided against it, much, we are told,
to the King’s disappointment.
The Bishop of Ceuta, in spite of his remarks at the meeting of
the committee, evidently thought there might be something in
Columbus’s plan after all. He therefore proposed to the King that
Columbus should be induced to furnish written proposals and
specifications for the discovery of transatlantic countries, and that
with the help of the information thus furnished the King should
secretly send a vessel to test the practicability of the scheme. This
was done, but the vessel returned after a few days, having
discovered nothing but water.
[Æt. 46–48; 1484]

As soon as Columbus heard of this trick he became excessively

angry, and resolved that King John should never have a square foot
of new territory, nor a solitary heathen soul to convert, if he could
help it. Accordingly, he broke off his acquaintance with the King, and
proposed to leave Lisbon, in the mean time sending his brother
Bartholomew to England to ask if the English King would like to order
a supply of new islands or a transatlantic continent. His wife had
already succumbed to her husband’s unremitting conversation
concerning explorations, and died, doubtless with much resignation.
Madame Perestrello, Pedro Correo, and Mrs. Columbus were
probably only a few of the many unhappy Portuguese who suffered
from the fatal conversational powers of Columbus, and Portugal may
have become rather an unsafe place for him. This would account for
the stealthy way in which he left that kingdom, and is at least as
probable as the more common theory that he ran away to escape his
creditors.
It was in the year 1484 that Columbus, accompanied by his son
Diego, shook the dust of Portugal from his feet and climbed over the
back-fence into Spain, in the dead of night, instead of openly taking
the regular mail-coach. The King of England had refused to listen to
Bartholomew’s proposals, and King John had been guilty of conduct
unbecoming a monarch and a gentleman. This may have given
Columbus a prejudice against kings, for he made his next
applications to the Dukes of Medina Sidonia and Medina Celi—two
noblemen residing in the south of Spain.
[Æt. 48; 1484–87]

Medina Sidonia listened to Columbus with much interest, and

evidently regarded him as an entertaining kind of lunatic; but after a
time he became seriously alarmed at the Italian’s inexhaustible
capacity for talk, and courteously got rid of him before sustaining any
permanent injury. The Duke of Medina Celi was a braver man, and
not only invited Columbus to come and stay at his house, but
actually spoke of lending him ships and money. He changed his
mind, however, and told Columbus that he really could not take the
liberty of fitting out an expedition which ought to be fitted out by a
king. Columbus then remarked that he would step over to France
and speak to the French King about it; whereupon the Duke hastily
wrote to Queen Isabella, of Castile and Aragon, mentioning that he
had a mariner of great merit in his house, whom she really ought to
see. The Queen graciously wrote, requesting the Duke to forward his
ancient mariner to the royal palace at Cordova, which he accordingly
did, furnishing Columbus at the same time with a letter of
introduction to Her Majesty.
Spain was then merely a geographical expression. Ferdinand,
King of Aragon, had recently married Isabella, Queen of Castile, and
their joint property was called the Kingdom of Castile and Aragon;
for, inasmuch as the Moors still ruled over the southern part of the
peninsula, it would have been indelicate for Ferdinand and his queen
to pretend that they were the monarchs of all Spain.
When Columbus reached Cordova he found that their majesties
were on the point of marching against the Moors, and had no time to
listen to any plans of exploration. Before starting, however, the
Queen deposited Columbus with Alonzo de Quintanilla, the treasurer
of Castile, and, we may presume, took a receipt for him. Quintanilla,
an affable old gentleman, was much pleased with Columbus, and
soon became a warm advocate of his theories. He introduced the
navigator to several influential friends, and Columbus passed the
summer and winter very pleasantly.
At Cordova he also met a young person named Beatrix
Enriquez, to whom he became much attached, and who was
afterward the mother of his son Fernando. She probably had her
good qualities; but as Columbus was so much preoccupied with his
transatlantic projects he forgot to marry her, and hence she is
scarcely the sort of young person to be introduced into a virtuous
biography.
[Æt. 48–51; 1484–87]

During the same winter the King and Queen held their court at
Salamanca, after having made a very brilliant foray into the Moorish
territory, and having also suppressed a rebellion in their own
dominions. Columbus went to Salamanca, where he made the
acquaintance of Pedro Gonsalvez de Mendoza, the Cardinal-
Archbishop of Toledo, who was decidedly the most influential man in
the kingdom. When Columbus first mentioned his project, the
Cardinal told him the Scriptures asserted that the earth was flat, and
that it would be impious for him to prove it was round; but Columbus
soon convinced him that the Church would be greatly benefited by
the discovery of gold-mines all ready to be worked, and of heathen
clamoring to be converted, and thus successfully reconciled science
and religion. The Cardinal heartily entered into his scheme, and soon
obtained for him an audience with the King.
Columbus says that on this occasion he spoke with an
eloquence and zeal that he had never before displayed. The King
listened with great fortitude, and when Columbus temporarily paused
in his oration had still strength enough left to dismiss him with a
promise to refer the matter to a scientific council. In pursuance of this
promise he directed Fernando de Talavera, the Queen’s confessor,
to summon the most learned men of the kingdom to examine
Columbus thoroughly and decide upon the feasibility of his plan. As
for the Queen, she does not appear to have been present at the
audience given to Columbus, either because her royal husband
considered the female mind incapable of wrestling with geography,
or because he did not think her strong enough to endure Columbus’s
conversation.
The scientific Congress met at Salamanca without any
unnecessary delay, and as few people except priests had any
learning whatever at that period, the Congress consisted chiefly of
different kinds of priests. They courteously gave Columbus his
innings, and listened heroically to his interminable speech, after
which they proceeded to demonstrate to him that he was little better
than a combined heretic and madman. They quoted the Bible and
the opinions of the Fathers of the church in support of the theory that
the earth was flat instead of round.
When Columbus in his turn proved that the Bible and the Fathers
must be understood in a figurative sense, the priests then took the
ground that if the world was round, Columbus could not carry
enough provisions with him to enable him to sail around it, and that
he could not sail back from his alleged western continent unless his
vessels could sail up-hill.
Gradually the more sensible members of the congress came to
the conclusion that it would be better to agree to everything
Columbus might propose, rather than listen day after day to his
appalling eloquence. Still, the majority were men of ascetic lives and
great physical endurance, and they showed no disposition to yield to
argument or exhaustion. The sessions of the Congress were thus
prolonged from day to day, and Columbus was kept in a painful state
of suspense. Little did he imagine that in the land which he was
destined to discover, another Congress would meet, not quite four
hundred years later, and would even surpass the Congress of
Salamanca in the tediousness and uselessness of its debates.
 CHAPTER IV.
HE RECEIVES HIS COMMISSION.

[Æt. 51; 1489]

THE spring of 1487 arrived, and the Council of Salamanca had

not yet made its report. The King and Queen, who seem to have
required an annual Moorish war in order to tone up their systems, set
out to besiege Malaga early in the spring, taking De Talavera with
them, so that he might be on hand to confess the Queen in case she
should find it desirable to commit a few sins and require subsequent
absolution. The departure of De Talavera interrupted the sittings of
the Council, and left Columbus without any regular occupation.
During the siege of Malaga he was more than once summoned to
the camp, ostensibly to confer with the court upon his famous
project, but the proposed conferences never took place. He became
so tired of the suspense in which he was kept, that he wrote to King
John of Portugal, giving him one more chance to accede to his
transatlantic plans. Not only did King John answer his letter and ask
him to come to Lisbon, but King Henry VII. of England also wrote to
him, inviting him to come to England and talk the matter over. At
least, Columbus says that those two kings wrote to him; though the
fact that he did not accept their invitations, but preferred to waste his
time in Spain, casts a little doubt upon his veracity. It is certainly
improbable that he would have waited for years in the hope of
another interview with Ferdinand and Isabella, if at the same time
two prominent kings were writing to him and urging him to bring his
carpet-bag and make them a nice long visit.
In the spring of 1489 Columbus was summoned to Seville, and
was positively assured that this time he should have a satisfactory
conference with a new assortment of learned men. But no sooner
had he reached Seville than the King and Queen suddenly
remembered that they had not had their usual spring war, and
thereupon promptly started to attack the Moors. Columbus went with
them, and fought with great gallantry. Probably it was in some
measure due to a dread of his awful conversational powers that the
Moorish king surrendered, and it is to the honor of the Christian
monarchs that they did not abuse their victory by permitting
Columbus to talk to the royal prisoner.
Another year passed away, and still Columbus was waiting for a
decision upon the feasibility of his plan. In the spring of 1491 he
finally became so earnest in demanding a decision, that the King
directed De Talavera and his learned friends to make their long-
delayed report. They did so, assuring the King that it would be
absurd for him to waste any money whatever in attempting to carry
out the Italian’s utterly ridiculous plan. Still Ferdinand did not care to
drive Columbus to despair, but politely informed him that after he
should have finished the annual Moorish war upon which he was just
about to enter, he would really try to think of the propriety of fitting
out an expedition.
Columbus had now been nearly seven years in Spain, waiting for
the King to come to a final decision; and this last postponement
exhausted his patience. The court had from time to time supplied
him with money; but he was not willing to spend his life as a
pensioner on the royal bounty, while the western continent was
vainly calling to him to come over and discover it. He therefore left
Seville, with the resolution to have nothing further to do with Spain,
but to proceed to France and try what he could do with the French
king.
He seems to have journeyed on foot, for the very next time we
hear of him is as a venerable and imposing tramp, accompanied by
an unidentified small-boy, and asking for food—presumably
buckwheat cakes, and eggs boiled precisely three minutes—at the
gate of the convent of Santa Maria de Rabida.
[Æt. 55; 1491]
 The Prior of the convent, Juan Perez de Marchena, happened to
notice him, and entered into conversation with him. Columbus told
him his name, and mentioned that he was on his way to a
neighboring town to find his brother-in-law; from which we learn that
four hundred years ago the myth of a brother-in-law in the next town
was as familiar to the tramps of that period as it is to those of the
present day. As the Prior listened to this story without making any
remarks upon its improbability, Columbus was tempted to launch into
general conversation, and in a few moments told him all about his
desire to find a transatlantic continent, and his intention of offering to
the King of France the privilege of assisting him.
Doubtless the good friar found his convent life rather
monotonous, and perceiving vast possibilities of conversation in
Columbus, he determined to ask him to spend the night with him.
Columbus, of course, accepted the invitation, and, the Prior sending
for the village doctor, the three spent a delightful evening.
The next day both the Prior and the doctor agreed that
Columbus was really a remarkable man, and that it would be
disgraceful if the French king were to be allowed to assist in
discovering a new continent. The Prior sent for several ancient
mariners residing in the neighboring port of Palos, and requested
them to give their opinion of the matter. With one accord, they
supported the scheme of Columbus with arguments the profundity of
which Captain Bunsby himself might have envied; and one Martin
Alonzo Pinzon, in particular, was so enthusiastic that he offered to
pay the expenses of Columbus while making another application to
the court, and to furnish and take command of a vessel in case the
application should be successful.
[Æt. 55; 1491–92]

The religious interests of the convent must have suffered

somewhat from the Prior’s geographical soirées. It must have
required a great deal of punch to bring those ancient seafaring men
into unanimity upon any subject, and the extent to which Columbus
unquestionably availed himself of the opportunity for unrestrained
conversation must have left the Prior no time whatever for prayers.
He may have excused himself to his own conscience by pretending
that to listen to Columbus was a means of mortifying the flesh; but,
plausible as this excuse was, it could not justify the introduction of
punch, seafaring men, and village doctors into a professedly
religious house.
The upshot of the matter was, that the Prior resolved to write a
letter to the Queen, and old Sebastian Rodriguez, a veteran sailor,
staked the future integrity of his personal eyes upon his delivery of
the letter into the hands of Isabella. The Prior had been formerly the
Queen’s confessor, and of course he knew how to awaken her
interest by little allusions to the sinful secrets that she had committed
to his holy keeping.
The letter was written, and in two weeks’ time Rodriguez brought
back an answer summoning the Prior to court. The good old man
was overjoyed, and immediately went to Santa Fé, where the King
and Queen were stopping, on their way to another Moorish war.
When he was admitted to the Queen’s presence, he conducted
himself with so much discretion, and made so favorable an
impression, that Isabella gave him the magnificent sum of twenty
thousand maravedies, and told him to hand it over to Columbus, and
to send that persistent navigator immediately to her. It is somewhat
of a disappointment to learn that the twenty thousand maravedies
were in reality worth only seventy-two dollars; still they were enough
to enable Columbus to buy a mule and a new spring overcoat, and
thus to appear at court in an impressive manner.
The particular Moorish war upon which the King and Queen
were then engaged was the very last one of the series, and it was
confessedly of so much importance that Columbus did not try to
obtain an audience until it was finished. In the mean time he lived
with his old friend Alonzo de Quintanella, the treasurer.
[Æt. 55–56; 1491–92]

At last the day came when, the war being ended, Columbus was
summoned to meet a committee of which De Talavera appears to
have been the chairman. This time the feasibility of his scheme was
admitted, and it only remained to settle the terms upon which he
would agree to furnish Spain with new continents. Though Columbus