{"title":"The Lawrence Manufacturing Co.: a note on early cost accounting in US textile mills","authors":"K. Hoskin, R. Macve","doi":"10.1080/09585209600000050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209600000050","url":null,"abstract":"This paper scrutinizes the Lawrence Manufacturing Co. accounts in the 1840s and challenges the inferences that have been drawn in previous literature both about the degree of sophistication of cost accounting practice that the accounts of such textile mills exhibit during this period and about their use for management purposes. The accounting computations have previously been taken as evidence that a modern managerial approach was already being adopted in manufacturing contexts, for the purpose of developing a regime of cost control and performativity within the factory. This paper suggests that they have a different explanation: as calculations made for classic mercantile purposes, in order to track flows of money spent and received in manufacturing. It thereby contributes to a debate in which Yamey has been a leading figure, concerning the dangers of anachronism when considering the accounting practices of earlier times, and the importance of allowing modern intent in such accounting only after the most...","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"210 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114420272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Large-scale data processing in the Prudential, 1850–1930","authors":"M. Campbell-Kelly","doi":"10.1080/09585209200000036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209200000036","url":null,"abstract":"Industrial assurance, which dates from the 1850s, involved the frequent collection of small Premiums for policies to meet funeral costs. The need to minimize operational and administrative expenses created major business and competitive opportunities. This paper describes the organizational and data-processing innovations in the Prudential Assurance Company that enabled it to achieve and maintain its domination of the British industrial assurance market. Some more general conclusions are drawn on the impact and take-up of office mechanization.","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121923739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the history of normative accounting theory: paradigm lost, paradigm regained?","authors":"R. Mattessich","doi":"10.1080/09585209200000039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209200000039","url":null,"abstract":"After a short introduction, the paper begins with an examination of early German normative accounting theories, and shows that the more recent ‘British Normative School’ too has a deliberate ethical bias. To contrast these two schools with other normative theories, a distinction between ethical-normative vs. pragmatic-normative vs. conditional-normative accounting theories (with complementary discussion) is introduced. Furthermore, the criticism of normative accounting theories (as being allegedly unsuitable as a scientific basis for an empirical discipline) by positive accounting theories is put into perspective. It is shown that for several decades a conditional-normative framework has been available that would allow factually determined means-end hypotheses to be incorporated into normative theories that conform to the empirical criteria of an applied science.","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129589017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the methodology of a conceptual framework for financial accounting Part 1: An historical and jurisprudential analysis","authors":"Simon Archer","doi":"10.1080/09585209200000040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209200000040","url":null,"abstract":"This is the first of a pair of papers which examine some important questions raised by the ‘conceptual framework’ (CF) project carried out by the FASB in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This project has not generally been considered a success, in spite of the magnitude of the resources at the FASB's disposal. The present paper provides a critique of the approach used by the FASB, by analysing the Board's methodology as it appears from key documents published by the Board in the course of the project, against a background of methodological insights available from studies of policy formulation (Lindblom, 1959) and of legal validity (Raz, 1979) - insights of which the FASB was apparently quite unaware. This analysis shows why the CF, insofar as it was intended to achieve its ostensible aim of conferring powers of standard setting on the FASB independent of those delegated to it by the SEC, was unsuccessful. The second paper extends the analysis based on jurisprudence into the field of ‘soft systems’ analysis...","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130314036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Accounting History Publications, 1993","authors":"A. Malcolm","doi":"10.1080/09585209500000046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209500000046","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130659733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Financial management and manipulation in the Ancient World: from premonetary practicalities to monetary possibilities","authors":"K. Sugden","doi":"10.1080/09585209200000026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209200000026","url":null,"abstract":"In the Ancient World, there was no concept of ‘financial management’ as we would understand it in the modern sense. However, monarchs and states were able to influence the amount of their revenues through the ownership and control of property, labour and taxes, and by means of conquest. The introduction of coinage in the late seventh century Bc, and the subsequent monopolistic retention by the monarch or state of coining and issuing rights, provided an important and more subtle - means of adding to those revenues through the manipulation of a currency's weight and precious metal content.","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121537012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Systematic View of the History of the World of Accounting","authors":"T. A. Lee","doi":"10.1080/09585209000000015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209000000015","url":null,"abstract":"This paper seeks an explanation of the nature of accounting in a relatively unique way. The world of accounting is broadly defined as a social system, involving the functional systems of education, practice and research; including organizational systems such as firms, professional bodies and universities; and interacting with other organizational systems such as in business and government. This complex nesting of systems is examined in a historical context, the aim being to observe its development and layering from the earliest times to the present day -essentially as the occupation of accountant has gradually changed to become the profession of accounting. In other words, accounting is examined historically within the context of the actions of accountants. In particular, the approach of the paper is to study the historical development of accounting in a systems context and to identify accepted characteristics of systems behaviour. What are therefore examined in the paper are actions which bound or close ...","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121689959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cost accounting in the south Wales coal industry, c. 1870–1914","authors":"T. Boyns","doi":"10.1080/09585209300000056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209300000056","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"442 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134311434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The attempt to establish the Russian accounting profession 1875–1931","authors":"D. Bailey","doi":"10.1080/09585209200000024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209200000024","url":null,"abstract":"In the last quarter of the nineteenth century the rising tempo of industrialization in Russia was accompanied by the establishment of the first accounting firms. Throughout the period proposals were advanced for the formation of a professional accounting association. These efforts were unsuccessful although accounting societies were established during the last decade of the Tsarist autocracy. Following upon revolution and civil war the New Economic Policy introduced a mixed economy and a period of stability. A professional association, inspired by the example of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), was formed but suppressed with the consolidation of the Stalinist autocracy.","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"40 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133391771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Management accounting and the Calvin Company: a case study","authors":"C. McWatters","doi":"10.1080/09585209500000031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585209500000031","url":null,"abstract":"Accounting innovation and change has received the increased attention of accounting historians. Coupled with the recognition of the historical contingency of accounting practices, these studies serve to underscore the contingent relationship of accounting with a variety of environmental factors. The current case study examines this relationship within one nineteenth-century Canadian firm,specifically the introduction of management accounting information. While the results are case specific, parallels with our present-day situation can be drawn. This reinforces the usefulness of examining new accounting developments in light of historical experience in order to envision their possible outcome.","PeriodicalId":252763,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business and Financial History","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133206003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}