Abstract: In the proposals of commercial legislation in the late Qing Dynasty, The Paper of Reasons for Commercial Investigation formed a series of consensus concerning accounting and financial problems, including the corporate juridical person accounting subject, accounting period, property valuation, asset impairment treatment, profit calculation, profit distribution, provident fund extraction, capital preservation, information disclosure and so on. This shows that the process of accounting modernization at the end of the Qing Dynasty is not limited to the introduction of Western double entry accounting method, but also has some knowledge and application in accounting confirmation, measurement, report and some basic accounting theories, and is quite close to the world advanced theory at that time. The accounting content in The Paper of Reasons for Commercial Case Investigation shows the development of modern accounting in China from a multiple perspective, which has aroused a new understanding of the development of accounting in the late Qing Dynasty.

Key words: The Paper of Reasons for Commercial Case Investigation; accounting development; accounting modernization