THE audit of company accounts grew out of the concept of limited liability, where the management of a company was separate from its investors. The shareholders wanted an independent third party to tell them whether the historical financial results were reliable. The buzz phrases became "true and fair" (UK influenced) and "present fairly" (US).

The key quality of the auditor was that he should be totally independent of the company's business and its management. He should also have good knowledge of the business itself and be experienced in related businesses. This became known in the audit profession as "cumulative audit knowledge and experience", and only those who had it could be relied upon to issue a proper report on the financial statements. They were fairly remunerated for their efforts.

The original auditors built businesses to perpetuate these qualities, taking on apprentices, who followed their masters and did all the mundane tasks such as manually checking the arithmetic of the books of account, but receiving constant tuition as to why it was needed and eventually succeeding their masters. It was a bit like learning to weld joints in a shipyard so that the ship would stay afloat.