Cost accounting in the south Wales coal industry, c. 1870–1914

Abstract

Examination of historical developments in the costing records of British industry is still in its infancy. This paper examines, for the period prior to the First World War, the surviving cost books of colliery companies operating in the south Wales coalfield. It examines their content, and how this changed over time, and the use made of them in the light of the contemporary literature relating to cost accounts generally, and that relating to collieries in particular. Except for the absence of any profit calculations, the cost books are generally as one would have expected, and concentrate mainly, though not exclusively, on prime costs. The cost books were clearly not profit and loss documents, but rather the essential element in management's cost-finding procedures.