Through a glass clearly: management practice on the Bowes family estates c.1700-70 as revealed by the accounts

Abstract

Through the accounts, the article examines the management practices employed on the Bowes estates in order to ascertain whether they were managed as profit centres to be exploited, and whether accounting aided managerial activity at this early stage of industrial development. The majority of the estate accounts were designed to keep track of rights and obligations. The survival of cost analysis, profit statements and planning data indicates that the estates were not treated simply as units of consumption and that the accounts played an important facilitating role. There are indications that a knowledge-power mechanism also existed within the estates, casting doubt both on the mutual exclusivity of Economic-rationalist and Foucauldian explanations of accounting activities and on the notion that a relevant distinction exists between modern and pre-modern business organization.