I cannot find anything on this online. The wikipedia article is purely technical, except by a mention that such system was used in England in early 16th century.
Do you know who was the first to come up with this idea and technique?
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1$\begingroup$ There is some history of "net present value" at accountingin.com/accounting-historians-journal/…, although it doesn't go back to the 16th century. $\endgroup$– Adam BaileyCommented Dec 1, 2017 at 9:33
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3 Answers
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It has been argued that the concept of present value was implicit in Liber Abaci (1202) by Leonardo of Pisa (also known as Fibonacci). This paper by Goetzmann makes this claim in its abstract and introduction, and presents (pp 26-7) an example from Liber Abaci of what appears to be present value analysis.
answered Dec 2, 2017 at 22:13
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NPV or Net Present Value was formalized and popularized by Irving Fisher in his 1907 theory "The Rate of Interest."
This Duke Fuqua article explains some of the background on how he came to this theory.
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I guess the method might have been around since the first bank was established back in the 14th century if not even centuries before. That known first bank must have used the method prior to making lending decisions. The Wikipedia article here can be useful to figure out when the method might have possibly been used, but the genius behind its invention may not be easily identified.
