bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The interface of race and accounting: a comment and an extension
Authors: Burrows Geoff
Published: February 2006

This paper contests a key plank of Fleischman and Tyson's (2000) analysis of racism in Hawaiian sugar plantations, arguing that their assumption that the lack of individual productivity records in plantation archives denotes racism is misconceived and that the absence of these data has a transaction-cost explanation. The opportunity is taken to extend the analysis to the sugar industries of Florida and Queensland, finding racism in both, but only implicating accounting in the former.
The interface of race and accounting: a reply to Burrows
Authors: Fleischman Richard K. , Tyson Thomas N.
Published: February 2006

We appreciate the opportunity to reply to the response of Geoff Burrows (GB henceforth) to our article (F&T, 2000) and we commend him for extending our study of Hawaiian sugar-plantation accounting to other venues (Florida and Queensland) and time periods (mid-late twentieth century). This rejoinder is divided into two sections. First, we address issues GB raises in which he suggests that the labour structures of the sugar industry make it inappropriate for the generation of efficiency data on individual workers. Second, and more significantly from our perspective, we address the weightier question of the interface between accounting and racism.
A counter-example in the development of Great Lakes shipping: the case of Kingston Shipping Company Limited
Authors: McWatters Cheryl S.
Published: February 2006

This paper examines the early-twentieth century development of shipping on the Great Lakes in the context of one organisation, Kingston Shipping Company Limited (KSCO). While Great Lakes shipping expanded, and its market base switched from forest products to agricultural and manufactured goods, KSCO proved to be a short-lived and non-profitable entity. An organisational-economics framework is adopted to examine KSCO’s evolution, its strategies and the role of the accounting system. While contributing to our general historical understanding of shipping on the Great Lakes, the research informs methodological debates in accounting history by utilising a theoretical framework to guide the analysis and to draw conclusions. Lastly, the study underscores the role of accounting records in business history research. Accounting records are prepared within a specific organisational context. Their analysis and interpretation provide insights into actions of individual firms. It is at this level that choices and decisions were made in terms of the environmental context.
Accrual accounting in the public sector: the case of the New South Wales government
Authors: Christensen Mark
Published: February 2006

Accounting technologies have dominated public sector management reforms and accrual based financial reporting has been significant amongst these technologies. This paper examines the process of change in the New South Wales Government’s early adoption of accrual based financial reporting. The study’s main objective is to present a history that identifies the agents of change promoting and facilitating an early adoption of public sector accrual accounting. The main primary data source for this research was interviews with three categories of participants who had some involvement in the decision that dates back to the late 1980s. Historical research methods were used within an analytical framework provided by a proposed variant of Luder’s (1994) Contingency Model. The paper finds that a revised Contingency Model is useful as a framework and that the major role played by management consultants was a significant aspect of the case study.
History from accounting's margins: international research on race and gender
Authors: Hammond Theresa
Published: February 2006

Historical research in accounting has recently expanded to include studies of race, gender, and class and their impact on accounting. Building on Lehman's gender research (1992), recent work includes studies of the exclusion of Spanish women, African Americans, Maori women, and black South Africans from the practice of public accountancy and the marginalisation and deskilling of working-class accounting positions in the UK. Analyses have been conducted examining the role of the British profession in forestalling indigenisation in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Kenya. This research on the accounting profession, in turn, has led to research on the impact of accounting practices on oppressed groups. While this widening of research areas is a welcome change, this article calls for more explicitly political motivations for historical accounting research and an ever-present focus on how this research can help ameliorate current oppressive conditions in which accounting plays a role.
An historical perspective on mergers and acquisitions by major US accounting firms
Authors: Wootton Charles W. , Wolk Carel M. , Normand Carol
Published: February 2006

This study presents an historical perspective on mergers and acquisitions by major US accounting firms throughout the twentieth century with special emphasis placed on such activity during the last fifty years of this period. The focus of this perspective is: (1) the importance of mergers and acquisitions in the formation and growth of major accounting firms; (2) the relationship between the internationalisation of trade and the internationalisation of major accounting firms; and (3) the ways in which accounting firms have used mergers as a response to an increasingly competitive environment.
Contractual relationships and accounting change: the case of Aguera Wholesalers, 1770-1835
Authors: Alvarez-Dardet Concha , Capelo Mariló
Published: February 2006

This paper analyses accounting change within a small, family-owned commercial company, from the foundation of the company by three partners in the second half of the eighteenth century to the concentration of ownership in a single family in 1835. The paper shows that accounting change was driven by both internal and external factors. Significant internalfactors were the separation between ownership and management, changing contractual relationships, and the Will of one of the founders. Significant environmental elements were government legislation and the general level of economic activity.
The accounting system of the Venerable Society of the Living and the Dead of Parma in medieval times
Authors: Bisaschi Alberto
Published: February 2006

The Venerable Society of the Living and the Dead of Parma was formed in 1304, and a large archive of documents relevant to the organisation has survived to the present day. These documents include accounting records which appear to offer some vital clues relevant to the emergence of the double-entry system of accounting. While the Society did not at any stage during its 600 hundred year existence adopt full double-entry accounting, the surviving records examined provide an indication of how the double-entry system may have evolved. In particular, records from the fourteenth century indicate how the Society's record keepers began to adopt the practice of recording precursors to "debit" and "credit" entries in connection with sales and expenditure transactions.
The Louis Goldberg Collection at Deakin University: exploring a rich foundation for historical research
Authors: Potter Bradley N.
Published: February 2006

The late Louis Goldberg is widely regarded as a prominent founder of accounting academe in Australia. Throughout a distinguished career spanning six decades, (Emeritus Professor) Goldberg amassed a vast collection of letters, books, articles and other material on accounting and related fields, as well as material in other, non-related fields including poetry, philosophy and fiction. Goldberg's collection, reflecting a lifetime of scholarly endeavour, is now in the public domain, located at Deakin University's Waterfront Campus, Geelong, Australia, where it is being conserved. The primary objective of this paper is to explore the potential of the Goldberg collection for use by present and future scholars of history. To provide the principal framework for the study, the categorisation of historical research approaches developed by Carnegie and Napier (1996) and applied by Carnegie and Potter (2000) is used. The central theme of this paper is that the conservation of this unique collection will benefit scholars from around the world with an interest in accounting, business and economic history and related fields for many years to come.
Black Swan records, 1921 to 1924: from a swanky swan to a dead duck
Authors: de Loo Ivo , Davis David
Published: February 2006

In this study, the brief life of the Pace Phonograph Corporation, which produced recordings under the Black Swan label, is traced from its founding in 1921 to its demise in 1924. The state of its management and accounting systems, especially in the context of small business, is examined together with economic and technological conditions, under-capitalisation, and racial issues as explanatory factors contributing to the demise of what was, in its heyday of 1921-1922, one of the most successful Afro-American-owned businesses of its time. It is concluded that the state of accounting knowledge of the time and the lack of accounting knowledge within management ranks did not cause the failure of the company but exacerbated the difficulties faced by small start-up businesses in the early 1920s, particularly those founded by Afro-Americans.
Accounting, economic development and financial reporting: the case of three pre-Civil War US railroads
Authors: Flesher Dale L. , Samson William D. , Previts Gary J.
Published: February 2006

This study examines three leading US railroads during the years before the Civil War. Although these were private corporations, various governments assisted the railroads. Governmental involvement in the construction of railroads can be justified from the importance that railroads played in economic development in the areas the tracks bisected, as well asjustified due to the importance of railroads in linking together a region and for the provision of basic transportation that was otherwise lacking. It was seen that the government investment would have a direct financial payoff, hence, justifiable as a good investment. This examination focuses on the support provided by the public sector and the railroads' actions that acknowledged this public support. Public assistance in financing fledgling railroads had direct impacts upon financial reporting and public disclosure. One of these impacts was that annual reporting, a model used by governments, was introduced to nineteenth century businesses by means of railroads, a quasi-public enterprise.
Substance but not form: capital taxation and public finance in New Zealand, 1840-1859
Authors: Hooper Keith C. , Kearins Kate
Published: February 2006

This study focuses on the implementation of capital taxation and public finance in New Zealand during the period 1840-1859, as they affected, and continue to affect Maori, evidenced in part through current day grievances over past land loss. It is argued that taxation by pre-emption - the monopoly purchase of land by the Crown for resale at inflated prices - was in substance if not form, a kind of capital gains tax on Maori land owners. The investigation traces the related problem of taxation without representation that further discriminated against Maori. Through its analysis of official documents and unofficial sources, the study demonstrates a linkage between a discriminatory taxation and disenfranchisement regime with impoverishment and eventual conflict.
Confronting moral issues from accounting's dark side
Authors: Fleischman Richard K.
Published: February 2006

This article tracks one traditional accounting historian's transition into more critical directions as a result of archival research projects into certain of the seamier episodes in accounting's history. My current research focus, the study of US and British West Indian slavery accounting, has raised moral issues that have widened my perspectives and caused me to think more critically about the archival materials that document the slave plantation environment in both venues. This paper was originally presented as a plenary address at the third Accounting History International Conference in Siena, hosted by the Italian Society of Accounting Historians. As such, it contains more personal recollections and opinions than are typical in an academic journal such asAccounting History.
Barter accounting in the US during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
Authors: Bloom Robert , Solotko John
Published: February 2006

This paper considers barter accounting as practised in the US during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Different types of barter are described and illustrated. Background on the economic environment during these periods that was conducive to barter arrangements is furnished. Examples are provided of actual barter transactions taken from account books in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Furthermore, contemporary barter accounting and taxation practices are outlined and found to exhibit significant complexity. To understand such accounting, it is necessary to examine any surviving backup records, which underlie the account book transactions.
Monetising human life: slave valuations on US and British West Indian plantations
Authors: Fleischman Richard K. , Oldroyd David , Tyson Thomas N.
Published: February 2006

This paper examines specifically a frequently employed purpose of accounting on slave plantations in the antebellum US and the pre-emancipation British West Indies (BWI) -the evaluation of slaves as assets. We attempt to explain why this exercise was undertaken and the processes involved. Slaves were paraded past plantation managers and overseers, often in the company of appraisers and bookkeepers, where narrow distinctions were made on the basis of qualitative information such as physical characteristics and productive efficiency. The paper considers certain comparative features between the two slave environments, such as the greater concern in the BWI with linking valuations to the skill sets of slaves and a valuation premium on male slaves in the US which did not exist in the Caribbean. The paper concludes with a consideration of certain moral issues of slavery, such as the potential implication of accounting and accountants in a repressive regime and the attribution of contemporary morality to an historical epoch long past.
Origins and evolution of Chinese writing systems and preliminary counting relationships
Authors: Lu Wei , Aiken Max
Published: February 2006

The history of Chinese writing extends back more than 6000 years and the Chinese writing system remains unique among all writing systems. In this paper, the origin and evolution of Chinese writing systems will be discussed. It will be shown that in the Shang dynasty (about 1200 BC) the principles of Chinese writing had been formulated and that over the following 3000 years the structure and key elements of the system have remained, although the style of writing has changed (Li, 1969; Keightly, 1989). Explanations of the possible motivation behind the invention of Chinese writing will also be discussed. It can be shown that numerals had the highest frequency of occurrence in the earliest writing system - pottery inscriptions - and this finding indicates that one of the purposes of innovation of a writing system was for counting. This paper concludes that evidence of early Chinese writing confirms there is a significant relationship between the invention of a writing system and abstract counting and accounting requirements.
A personal account book of Joseph E. Bell: a record of survival in nineteenth century rural America
Authors: Vollmers Gloria , Tyson Thomas
Published: February 2006

While many recent accounting histories focus on large companies or institutions and describe the origins, antecedents, or developments of modern practice, few explore the working world of the common man and the activities needed to survive on farms and in rural areas. This paper describes the life of a nondescript early nineteenth century working man primarily through his personal account book. Joseph E. Bell lived in Lincolnton, North Carolina from 1820-1827 and was at various times a minister, a teacher, a seller of books, a renter, a hauler of cotton, a farmer, an extractor of teeth and perhaps a merchant as well. Bell's account book illuminates a life rarely examined by today's accounting historians. It reveals the range of skills and flexibility that were needed to survive in an era preceding the advent of the modern job or career. The account book clearly shows the nature of accounting in a rural economy that had relatively little hard currency and relied on multiparty barter transactions.
Archival research and the lost worlds of accounting
Authors: Sy Aida , Tinker Tony
Published: February 2006

Developments in History Proper have by-passed accounting history. While sometimes open to occasional alarm calls such as this, mainstream history has carried-on regardless behind a defunct methodological shield. Historians have complacently paraded “interesting” data and evidence without consideration of its validity or relevance. Philosophical concerns have been methodically barred from consideration. Despite the Kuhnian Revolution, archival antiquarianism reigns supreme. This regimen survives in a North-Korean-like insularity, by combining a self-referential closure using Great Men of accounting with a refusal to engage a broader literature in social history. This paper redresses the balance in two ways: First, by using Kuhn’s critique to show archivalist empiricism as incapable of proving a paradigm’s truth, and revealing how easily the latter may succumb to popularist euphoria and ideologies. Second, by sketching a Post-Kuhnian panorama in terms of a Non-Eurocentric, social, gendered, environmental, public interest and labour orientation. Ignoring such possibilities condemns accounting history to more soldiering under impoverished Archivalism.
The interface of disciplinary practices and accounting: the case of the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville, 1761-1790
Authors: Romero Fúnez Domi
Published: February 2006

In recent years, many studies have confirmed the role played by techniques of calculation in facilitating business management. Although there is no agreement on precisely when and for what purposes they arose, it seems clear that they were important as control procedures. This paper studies the case of the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville, Spain, in the period 1761 to 1790, and identifies and discusses the disciplinary character of the accounting techniques adopted. From the analysis of archival information, it is clear that various forms of discipline played an important part in critical management control methods. It is argued that the accounting system effectively transferred to the local production installations the patterns of employee behaviour stipulated in the Regulations issued by the top management located in distant Madrid.
Theorising professionalisation: a model for organising and understanding histories of the professionalising activities of occupational associations of accountants
Authors: Birkett W. P. , Evans Elaine
Published: February 2006

This paper seeks to develop a theoretical model of professionalisation and professionalism built on notions of conditions, dependencies and strategies in relation to occupational associations. These notions are found in a fragmentary way in the general professionalisation literature, as well as in the literature pertaining to the professionalisation of accounting. This way of organising processes of professionalisation can enhance understanding of histories of the professionalising activities of occupational associations of accountants by highlighting complementary and mutually supporting findings as well as identifying contradictions that remain in need of resolution. The model structures conditions of professionalism (professional power, associational control and sustaining ideologies), dependent relationships with other social institutions (work, markets for services and the state) and associational strategies. In particular, this arrangement needs to be established and maintained by occupational associations of accountants in the process of professionalisation, through apposite strategies.
Reaction to World War I constraints to normal trade: the meat-packing industry in Canada and Australia
Authors: McWatters Cheryl S. , Foreman Peter
Published: February 2006

This study addresses the call by Carnegie and Napier (2002), for research on a cross-national basis to enhance our understanding of the historical development of accounting. Firms in the meat-packing industry in Australia and Canada are compared for the period covered by the First World War. The impact of the war was markedly different on the firms due to the very different contextual conditions applying in each country, despite common factors which were at work in both countries. The macro-economic and social conditions disclose long-term similarities, but time-specific and geographic conditions had the greater impact. At the outbreak of war, both firms had detailed cost systems that provided information pertinent to their needs in controlling operations. Despite the changed conditions experienced by both firms during the period, neither made any significant changes to their accounting systems. One conclusion which may be drawn, is that the criticalfactors for control were not significantly altered by the advent of war.
Audit failure, litigation, and insurance in early twentieth century Britain
Authors: Chandler Roy A. , Fry Nadine
Published: February 2006

The relationships between audit failure, judicial fault-finding and the availability of professional indemnity insurance have been debated by legal and accounting writers in both academic and professional circles. This paper adds an historical perspective to the current literature by presenting a review of cases involving allegations of auditors’ negligence over a fifty year period starting with the first significant case involving the question of auditors’ duties. Amateur auditors who failed to carry out a proper audit could expect little sympathy in the professional press but when large law suits were brought against recognised accountants, the profession was forced to consider the risks of the consequences of adverse judicial decisions. It was not long before practitioners sought to manage those risks through professional indemnity insurance. However, we find no evidence that the availability of insurance increased auditors’ risk by opening the floodgates of litigation.
A century of debate for internal controls and their assessment: a study of reactive evolution
Authors: Heier Jan R. , Dugan Michael T. , Sayers David L.
Published: February 2006

In July 2002, the United States Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in an effort to assuage the public outrage over the lax regulatory oversight in light of the high-profile financial scandals. It was hoped that the act would calm the fears of investors and bring confidence back to corporate reporting through a mandated internal control review process. Though the impact of the act on audit procedures and internal control development will be studied for many years, it may be simply one of many developments in the evolution of internal control theory and practice that had occurred over the previous century. Like Sarbanes-Oxley, many of the changes in internal control procedures were a reaction to an event that identified a weakness in current practice. This evolution of the internal control process, as seen through the many laws, regulations and pronouncements of the previous century, has been, in the main, a reactive one resulting from inadequate control measures.
Accounting: in crisis or ascendancy?
Authors: Abeysekera Indra
Published: February 2006

Recent corporate failure has challenged the credibility of the accounting profession, leading many stakeholders to question the usefulness of financial reports for decision-making. This paper examines fluctuations in the accounting profession’s authoritative influence over accounting standard setting and financial reporting. It focuses on the period following the collapse of the HIH Group in 2002, with contextual reference to earlier periods. It then outlines the submissions made by the accounting profession, actuaries and regulatory institutions to the Royal Commission Inquiry into the collapse of the HIH Group. These submissions are analysed in relation to the profession promoting functionally defined interests and offering stable compromises, the questioning of the legitimacy of accounting techniques by society and government, and the demand by other constituents that the accounting profession overcome the inequalities that arise from current accounting practice. Finally, the paper offers suggestions as to how the profession can reconstruct itself to regain its lost authority.
Saving Chrysler: the use and non-use of accounting information by the US Congress
Authors: Fogarty Timothy J. , Dirsmith Mark W.
Published: February 2006

In the late 1970s, the US government’s approval of a program of loan guarantees on behalf of the Chrysler Corporation was an unprecedented intervention into the logic of capitalism. The discourse that made this possible involved a large set of sometimes conflicting rationales. Because the proposed intervention was intimately connected to the past and future performance of a single company, accounting information should have been a major element of the decision making. This paper discusses where accounting information was used, where it could have been used better and where it would have no role in this particular historical episode. Whereas accounting could not have been the only form of information involved in this major decision, it could have been used more extensively and more imaginatively. The case points out that when accounting is primarily used as ammunition and rationalisation, individuals do not necessarily want to explore the limits of its usefulness.
The professional journal as a signal of movement to occupational ascendancy and as legitimation of a professional project: the early history of The Accountant's Magazine 1897–1951
Authors: Lee Thomas A.
Published: February 2006

This article chronicles the early history of The Accountant's Magazine and provides explanations of its role within the professional project of the first generations of Scottish chartered accountants. The journal appeared in 1897 as part of a federal structure constructed to promote a unified image of chartered accountancy in Scotland in response to challenges to its occupational ascendancy. Between 1897 and 1951, the journal was managed and edited on a part-time basis by practitioners and required continuous financial support from its three sponsoring professional bodies. Also during this period, its content portrayed public accountancy as a profession of diverse skills and marketable services. However, the journal's subscription membership included only a small minority of members of the three sponsoring bodies. The article argues that the early history of TAM is consistent with sociological explanations of the professional project. At the time of its creation, it was a signal of movement to occupational ascendancy. Subsequently, it became part of a more general process to establish the legitimacy of the professional project of Scottish chartered accountants within the wider business community. In the absence of prior sociological theory to explain the role of the journal in the professional project, the article also provides several propositions to construct such a theory.
Accounting and power: evidence from the fourteenth century
Authors: Riccaboni Angelo , Giovannoni Elena , Giorgi Andrea , Moscadelli Stefano
Published: February 2006

During the past few years research on cultural, behavioural and social aspects of organizational activities and interactions have proliferated considerably in the accounting literature, thereby emphasizing the role played by accounting practices in shaping and/or balancing power relations in modern organizations. A relevant contribution to understanding the origins of the power of accounting can be found in accounting history. The present article examines a fourteenth-century case, that of the Opera della Metropolitana di Siena, an institution in charge of the construction and maintenance of the cathedral of the city of Siena, Italy, to explore the potential role played by accounting systems in influencing power relations. By analysing institutional and organizational change as well as the evolution of accounting practices within the Opera, this article shows that, since the medieval age, accounting data has played an important role not only in recording operational activities but also in managing power relationships.
Depreciation theory in the 1960s
Authors: Wright F. K.
Published: February 2006

This article is based on a seminar paper presented by the author in the Department of Accounting and Business Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, on 27 May 2005. It reviews a series of articles that were published in The Accounting Review during the 1960s on the topic of depreciation, and re-presents and re-evaluates the author's own contributions to the debate.
Accountability and decision-making in feudal England: Domesday Book revisited
Authors: Godfrey Andy , Hooper Keith
Published: February 2006

This paper makes a case for the role of Domesday Book in accounting history to be reassessed. The Domesday Book's historical context, construction, content and purpose are reviewed from an accounting history perspective. The Domesday Survey of 1086 was more than a fiscal land register because it enabled King William to establish the wealth of his tenants-in-chief raise taxes and distribute resources within the feudal structure which he had established.

Although the Domesday Book is not commonly read as an accounting document, it is argued that aspects of Domesday illustrate the concepts of accountability, decision-making and control.
A theoretical primer for evaluating and conducting historical research in accounting
Authors: Fleischman Richard K. , Mills Patti A. , Tyson Thomas N.
Published: February 2006

Historical research in accounting is flourishing as prestigious journals worldwide encourage authors to incorporate history into their submissions. Although a number of accounting academics are aware of these opportunities, others may be reluctant to participate because they lack an understanding of the rudiments of historical scholarship. This paper is geared to those scholars who seek to write about accounting's past but are unacquainted with historical methods, unsure how to begin, and generally unfamiliar with the debates that are now taking place in the field.

In this paper we discuss the formal theoretical structures of history as a discipline; differentiate history as event, story, and way of knowing; consider the problem of historical facticity and the subjectivity of the historian; examine the role historical evidence plays in the reconstruction of the past, and identify the forms of historical construction and alternate historical methods. We also distinguish between history and social science and summarise the current debate between conventional and critical accounting historians. Publication possibilities are also addressed.
The criminal upperworid and the emergence of a disciplinary code in the early chartered accountancy profession
Authors: Walker Stephen P.
Published: February 2006

The paper analyses the circumstances which resulted in the formulation of a disciplinary code by the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh (SAE) during the 1880s. The episode is related through historical biographies of two villainous practitioners: Henry Callender and Donald Smith Peddie. The absence of codified regulations pertaining to professional conduct in the early constitution of the SAE is explored in the context of prevailing vocational ideologies and the role of admission stipulations as sociocultural filtering devices. It is revealed that organisational responses to cases of criminal misconduct were positively correlated with the degree of "offence visibility" and the resultant level of adverse publicity. The protective and status-preserving motives for the framing of disciplinary rules by professional associations are also highlighted. The study emphasises the potential impact of the disreputable practitioner on the construction and destruction of the institutions of professionalism.
Production planning in seventeenth century China
Authors: Scorgie Michael E. , Ji Xu-Dong
Published: February 2006

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to instances of production yardsticks set down in a seventeenth century compendium of Chinese agricultural and industrial methods. The instances cited from "T'ien-kung k'ai-wu" (The creations of nature and man) by Sung Ying-hsing show that the Chinese used calculations of actual and potential production for planning and to stimulate investment in technology.
Transaction cost economics and nineteenth century fur trade accounting: relevance of a contemporary theory
Authors: Roy S. Paul , Spraakman Gary
Published: February 2006

In examining how the historical, fur-trading Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) controlled the agency problem, Carlos and Nicholas (1990) concluded that accounting in general was one of the many techniques used. This study expands on the work of Carlos and Nicholas. For the period from 1821 to 1860, it examines original documents in addition to published documents used by Carlos and Nicholas. It uses a specific agency theorytransaction cost economics (TCE). Because of the uncertainty that prevailed through communication lags caused by the great distances, TCE suggests that the HBC would develop extensive directing and monitoring mechanisms and use what is now known as management accounting. The data suggest that the HBC conformed well to the TCE predictions that directing and monitoring mechanisms would be highly developed. The internal accounting had many features comparable to contemporary management accounting.
The transfer of cost accounting institutions to New Zealand
Authors: Anderson Ray H.
Published: February 2006

Within the last decade accounting researchers have shown much interest in the professionalisation of accounting. This paper examines the professionalisation of cost accounting in New Zealand andfocuses on the Australian influence in the formation of the New Zealand Institute of Cost Accountants (1944).
Accounting in Anglo-Saxon England: context and evidence
Authors: Oldroyd David
Published: February 2006

The Anglo-Saxon period has been characterised as playing no part in accounting history. The article appraises whether this view can be sustained in the light of current knowledge. A review of the use of written English, accounting in the Church, governmental financial planning, the dissemination of accounting practice from Europe, and the use of money values in Anglo-Saxon law-codes, provides evidence to the contrary. Evidence of accounting exists in the surviving documentation, in the sophistication of government finances, in the Anglo-Saxon mind-set relating to the use of money and monetary values, and in the continuity between earlier and later periods.
Inscribing the workers: an experiment in factory discipline or the inculcation of manners?
Authors: Williams Robert
Published: February 2006

The establishment of the factory system during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution created a demand for labour – labour that was unused to the confines and rigours of factory life. In an attempt to encourage punctuality and conscientiousness the industrialists of the late eighteenth century resorted to a number of practices designed to encourage their employees to give up their old habits and take on a new rhythm of life tied to the demands of the factory. At the same time, the guiding principle of improvement of product and factors of production led many industrialists to devote considerable energy to improving their human capital. Samuel Oldknow was one of these industrialists. This study is concerned with his attempts to exert discipline through the surveillance and recording of the behaviour and output of his employees.
Judicial views on auditing from the nineteenth century
Authors: Chandler Roy A.
Published: February 2006

The issue of legal liability presented an early challenge to the nineteenth century auditing profession. Litigation against auditors was to be a two-edged sword. On the one hand, court proceedings revealed the deficiencies of some amateur audits and presented an opportunity for the profession to denigrate the non-professional audit. On the other hand, having effectively captured the market, professional, qualified accountants found that their work often failed to meet judicial standards. The accountancy profession during the late nineteenth century faced a crisis of confidence and a risk of litigation very similar to today's climate. This paper reviews the early cases containing auditing issues and dicta related to the auditing profession in an attempt to locate the professionalisation of the auditing profession in its historical context. It will be seen that the attainment of professional status was achieved against a background of litigation, adverse publicity and critical judicial commentary.
The Australasian method for recording share issues: origins, adoption and institutionalisation
Authors: Johnson Rod , Potter Brad
Published: February 2006

This paper examines the origins of the “Australasian” method of recording share issues, and the method's adoption and institutionalisation by practitioners into accepted accounting practice in Australia and New Zealand. It includes an investigation of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century company records (journals, ledgers and balance sheet disclosures); examination papers set by early accounting bodies in Australia and New Zealand; and a review of the accounting literature in Australia, New Zealand, United States, Britain, France and Germany. Possible factors leading to the adoption of the method in Australia and New Zealand are considered. No evidence substantiating the origin of the method in Australia and New Zealand was found, but a number of possible origins are suggested.
Military influences on the evolution of public sector audit and accounting 1830–1880
Authors: Funnell Warwick
Published: February 2006

Accounting historians have turned their attention to the contributions of military manufacturing establishments and personnel in their search to establish the origins and uses of techniques which were to become the precursors of modern management accounting. In this paper military influences are shown to have been significant also in the evolution of modern public sector audit and accounting in Britain in the nineteenth century. Parliaments still suspicious of their military establishments, both navy and army, finally realised in the early 1830s that controls over spending levels were insufficient to ensure that the wishes of parliament were being followed. Audit reforms in the defence departments to strengthen executive accountability to parliament were extended to all departments in 1866. These innovations were to determine the accounting and auditing practices of government departments in Britain and other Westminster governments for over a century until the managerial reforms of the 1980s.
Cost accounting practices at precious metal mines: a comparative study, 1869–1905
Authors: Vent Glenn , Milne Ronald A.
Published: February 2006

This comparative study examines the records of five precious metal mines, the published works of several mine managers, and the findings of prior research to investigate cost accounting practices over the period 1869-1905. The evidence gathered from the examination indicates that during this period cost accounting practices continued to evolve from and improve upon methods previously developed in Britain. No systematic regional differences were observed between Australian, American, and British cost accounting methods. Precious metal mining during the second half of the nineteenth century was a close-knit business in which people and ideas moved easily from company to company and from country to country.
More sherry and sandwiches? Incrementalism and the regulation of late Victorian bank auditing
Authors: Walker Stephen P.
Published: February 2006

The Companies Act 1879 has traditionally been perceived as an important measure in the history of audit regulation in Britain. The Act provided for the external audit of banks and did so several years in advance of a similar requirement for general companies. It is contended here that the circumstances attending the framing and implementation of the auditing provisions contained in the 1879 Act are suggestive of an incrementalist approach to policy making. The character of the discussion of auditor independence and the scope of the bank audit after 1879 indicate that the regulations contained in the Act instituted changes which appear to have been marginal in their practical effects.
The laws of accounting in late nineteenth century Britain
Authors: Bryer Robert A.
Published: February 2006

Scholars agree that during the second half of the nineteenth century British legal judgements did not produce a coherent body of laws on accounting based on consistent and generally accepted principles of profit measurement and asset valuation. The paper questions this view by showing that underlying judicial views on accounting from 1849 to Lee v. Neuchatel in 1889 and the writings of late nineteenth century accountants, there were generally accepted "laws” of accounting, called here “capital-revenue accounting” (CRA), that are consistent with Marx's analysis of the “laws” governing the “circuit of industrial capital”.
The emergence of the UK auditor resignation legislation
Authors: Dunn John , Sikka Prem
Published: February 2006

This paper examines the emergence of the legislation relating to auditor resignation which now forms part of the United Kingdom's Companies Act 1985. It is argued that the legislation is best understood as part of the complex relationship between the profession and the state and the state's attempts to promote public confidence in a capitalist economy. Two case studies are provided to show that the legislation was conditioned by the state's concern to promote London as an international financial centre and strengthen perceptions of auditor independence.
Efficient accounting systems: justifying US accounting practice in an unregulated commercial environment
Authors: McMillan, S.J. Keith P.
Published: February 2006

This paper presents the contextual social discourse in which US accounting practices emerged within an unregulated commercial environment in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. This is shown to be in stark contrast to the emerging British accounting profession, which was influenced significantly by developments of governmental regulation of commerce, through bankruptcy laws and specific requirements for annual audits. In the US, appeals for professional expertise relied mainly on the promotion of the accountant's skill in designing and monitoring efficient accounting systems for the economic and moral well-being of society. The profession developed these practices without the aid of specific legal sanctions. The profession appealed through the marketplace for their skills to be used, because they would provide economic and moral benefits. It is shown that reform elements in US society used these widely accepted practices of the efficient accounting system to reform government, most explicitly and publicly in the reforms of he US Treasury Department by the Dockery Commission in 1895.
Did dividends dictate depreciation in British coal companies 1864 - 1914?
Authors: Pitts Marianne V.
Published: February 2006

This paper identifies the factors which determined the dividend and depreciation policy of early coal companies from surviving accounting records. It is found that, after the Companies Acts of 1844-1862, there was no change in dividend policy from that prevailing in partnerships: the distribution of a substantial steady percentage of the operating surplus. Most coal companies adopted this policy throughout the period 1860-1914. By 1885, a few companies had changed to paying a constant dividend, expressed as a fixed percentage of the paid-up share capital. Depreciation policies were much less consistent, particularly for companies in financial difficulty. Directors could choose whether to distribute trading surpluses as dividends, or retain them in the company as depreciation or revenue reserves, and the dividend payment was consistently given preference over any provision for depreciation. This may have led to a lack of cash for re-investment or even an erosion of the capital base of some companies. These results provide evidence on the faults and virtues of the Victorian entrepreneur in industrial capitalism.
Transaction cost economics as a predictor of management accounting practices at the Hudson's Bay Company, 1860 to 1914
Authors: Spraakman Gary , Davidson Robert
Published: February 2006

With its emphasis on cost minimisation, transaction cost economics (TCE) predicts that as asset specificity and uncertainty increase, thereby making transaction management more difficult, the use of hierarchy for managing transactions will also increase. It follows that as a hierarchical mechanism for managing transactions, management accounting will also be positively associated with asset specificity and uncertainty. Roy and Spraakman (1996) tested those propositions with evidence from the Hudson's Bay Company. The evidence supported those propositions for the 1821 to 1860 period when the Company had extensive asset specificity and uncertainty. Compared to that frontier period, between 1860 to 1914 the Company experienced a decrease in uncertainty as communications and transportation modernised. During this later period, the Company's transportation network became worthless. The transportation network's devaluation was equivalent to a decrease in asset specificity. With less asset specificity and uncertainty, TCE predicts decreases in hierarchical governance and the use of management accounting information. Evidence for the 1860 to 1914 period was largely consistent with those predictions.
Jurisdictional contests between accountants and lawyers: the case of off-balance sheet finance 1985-1990
Authors: Pong Christopher K.M.
Published: February 2006

Drawing on Abbott's influential work on professional jurisdictions, this paper explores the nature of an inter-professional dispute between accountants and lawyers which occurred from 1985 to 1990. The conflict centred on different interpretations of company law which arose from the existence of off-balance sheetfinance and the issuance of Technical Release 603, and Exposure Drafts 42 and 49 by the Accounting Standards Committee in the UK. In accordance with Abbott's framework, the paper relates the character of the "disturbance" between the two professions, the jurisdictional contest which ensued and the transformation which resulted in an inter-professional settlement and the restoration of occupational "balance ". It is shown that the construction and achievement of the latter involved the interposition of a state agency in the form of the Department of Trade and Industry.