The history of internal control spans from a point in time when human affairs became complex enough to require one person to have custody or control of assets belonging to others to today’s capitalistic society requiring widespread ownership of assets. A review of the history of internal control indicates that the complexity of internal control in a society is closely coordinated to the complexity of the right to own property in that society. In societies with simplistic rules of property rights, there may be few stakeholders needing protection with internal control. In societies with more complicated rules of property ownership, there may be more stakeholders with higher needs for protection by internal control.