{"title":"Daniel Harvey's ledger, 1623–1646, in context","authors":"B. Yamey","doi":"10.1080/09585206.2010.485746","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585206.2010.485746","url":null,"abstract":"The double-entry ledger (1623–1646) of Daniel Harvey and Company was kept in a sealed wrought-iron chest from 1821 to 2001. It is a large, heavy book recording the business dealings of the substantial Harvey partnership under the management of Daniel Harvey, brother of the famous physician William Harvey. This article deals with selected features of the double-entry ledger, considered in the context of practice at the time.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131305528","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":"Researching the absence of professional organisation in Victorian England","authors":"J. Edwards","doi":"10.1080/09585206.2010.485748","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585206.2010.485748","url":null,"abstract":"Professionalisation is a major research focus of accounting historians, with particular attention paid to circumstances attending the formation and spread of accounting associations. This paper adds a new dimension to such research by examining the failure of public accountants to create a professional body in circumstances that appear conducive to organisational formation whether viewed from a functionalist or critical perspective. It is argued that strategies adopted by Bristol's leading public accountants enabled them to achieve economic and social advance in the absence of organisational formation. Of importance was how they positioned themselves in Bristol society through geographical location, the political, philanthropic and religious networks that connected them to the governing élite, and devices employed for publicising their services. Also relevant was their association with key venues where professionals and businessmen met to discuss commercial affairs. No inconsistency is revealed between the failure of Bristol's leading accountants to form a professional association in the 1870s and their enthusiastic embrace of chartered status following formation of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales in 1880.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123004738","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":"Was the nineteenth-century Denbighshire coalfield a worthwhile investment? An analysis of the investors and their returns","authors":"B. Jones","doi":"10.1080/09585206.2010.485750","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585206.2010.485750","url":null,"abstract":"As the nineteenth century progressed, more capital was needed to finance industry and businessmen found that they were increasingly unable to raise the funds required from a small pool of family, friends and acquaintances. The introduction of limited liability in 1855 provided a solution to this problem and share ownership became increasingly widespread. The purpose of this article is to analyse the shareholders of Denbighshire coal companies in terms of their occupation, geographical location and motives for ownership, and also to examine whether their shareholdings gave them a reasonable return on investment.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123895061","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 development agenda, the donor dollar and voluntary failure","authors":"D. Sutton, R. Baskerville, C. Cordery","doi":"10.1080/09585206.2010.485749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585206.2010.485749","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the success and failure of a once pre-eminent New Zealand charity – the Council of Organisations for Relief Service Overseas (CORSO). Delivering aid for government was a factor in its success in its early years, as was its broad membership base. Voluntary failure occurred when CORSO lost government support. It also lost donor support when international charities established a competitive donor ‘market’. Its supporters’ unwillingness to ‘buy-in’ to its mission change to focus on local poverty was another factor in its collapse. This case study employs a framework which extends Salamon's (1987) to consider the influence of competition on voluntary failure.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132631904","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":"Job analysis on the LMS: mechanisation and modernisation c.1930–c.1939","authors":"R. Edwards","doi":"10.1080/09585200903504264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200903504264","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the development of job analysis by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in the 1930s. It argues that historians have criticised the management decisions made by railway companies during the inter-war period without having examined the process by which these decisions were reached. Only by examining the process of managerial decision-making using internal company documentation can such claims be justified. The paper examines the market environment of inter-war freight haulage at LMS, followed by a review of the terminal handling process. This provides the context for an analysis of the contribution of Lewis C. Ord and job analysis to the modernisation and mechanisation of LMS terminal. The paper concludes that, while lacking financial sophistication, the LMS, by reflecting upon internal processes, delivered more efficient although not necessarily more economical working.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128647578","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 Routledge Companion to Accounting History","authors":"S. Zeff","doi":"10.1080/09585200903504298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200903504298","url":null,"abstract":"The editors’aim in compiling their Companion was to provide ‘a convenient vehicle for surveying and communicating the results of accounting history research to a wider audience and inspiring others to enter the field if the subject is to be dislodged from its status as a narrow specialism on the outer fringes of the history universe, a minor descendant on the economic and business branch of the history family tree’ (p. 2). The book is also intended to expand the horizons of accounting historians ‘who have recently been charged with exhibiting an unhealthy tendency to introversion’ (p. 2). Among the strengths of the book are the annotated lists of ‘key works’ and the extensive bibliography at the end of each of the 28 topical chapters.A further strength is the cross-referencing between some of the chapters, so that these chapters are shown to build on others. There is also a very good index. The book is divided into seven thematic parts: the discipline; technologies; theory and practice; institutions; economy; society and culture; and polity. In part 1, on the discipline, the two editors are joined by Christopher J. Napier as authors of the three chapters. In Chapter 1, Stephen P. Walker, writing on structures, territories and tribes, offers an instructive survey of the disciplinary associations and conferences as well as specialist journals which have been agents for encouraging and disseminating accounting history research. In addition, he contributes an insightful anthropological look at the behaviour of the academic ‘tribe’ of accounting historians. In Chapter 3, on subjects, sources and dissemination, John Richard Edwards identifies the trends over time in the topical areas taken up in accounting history research, and he contrasts the use of archival data with oral history as sources of evidence. He points to generalist accounting journals that have at times catered to historical research. When he refers to books and monographs as outlets, he might well have singled out his own publisher, Routledge, as the commercial house which most avidly publishes books on accounting history. Edwards furnishes a table with a list of journal special issues on accounting history. I myself am ambivalent towards special issues of journals. Whilst they do usefully stimulate research interest in the niche areas covered, they run the risk of publishing substandard work just to fill up a special issue. Furthermore, there is a tendency for the guest editors’ own work to find a home in such issues. In Chapter 2, Napier organises his discussion of historiography into two classes: ‘history of accounting’and ‘socio-historical accounting research’, including in the latter the Marxist and Foucauldian perspectives. He associates ‘history of accounting’ with studies of the early emergence of bookkeeping and accounting practice, but one must also credit the sizeable history literature on the evolution of academic and professional organisations and standard-setting bodies, i","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127553731","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 auditors’ reporting duty on internal control: the case of building societies, 1956–1960","authors":"M. Noguchi, B. Batiz-Lazo","doi":"10.1080/09585200903504249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200903504249","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, informed by corporatist theory, we explore the transition from ‘fraud detection’ to ‘statement verification’ (Chandler, Edwards, and Anderson 1993, 452) in terms of the audit objectives of building societies in the late 1950s. The study proceeds by analysing negotiations between the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and state authorities, such as the Treasury, the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies and the Board of Trade. These discussions eventually resulted in a change in the audit procedure applied to building societies (as documented in the Building Societies Act 1960). We show how the regulatory change allowed chartered accountants to discontinue outmoded practices under which auditors rather than directors had been expected to take responsibility for safeguarding the financial assets of building societies. Regulatory changes also resulted in auditors being required to assume a new duty; namely, to report on the system of internal control.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133351567","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":"Social closure and the incorporation of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854","authors":"Thomas A. Lee","doi":"10.1080/09585200903504181","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200903504181","url":null,"abstract":"The incorporation of the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh in 1854 has been researched from different perspectives without attention to the overall occupational grouping to which the founders belonged. The existence of this larger community of accountants raises the question of whether the foundation involved social closure. The purpose of the paper is to pose and respond to this question by explaining social closure, examining the Society's foundational process for signs of possible exclusion, and observing founders and non-founders to identify differences in characteristics that provide possible explanations for exclusion. Archival evidence of the foundational process and differences in characteristics is consistent with the possibility of social closure without precluding other explanations for the founder and non-founder groupings. The evidence also raises the question of whether the foundation of the Society is completely explained by the external pressures associated with a potential loss of court-related appointments. The findings in the paper are sufficient to encourage further research of social closure in other associational foundations in the early history of modern public accountancy.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"155 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116633264","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":"Using accounting history and Luca Pacioli to put relevance back into the teaching of double entry","authors":"A. Sangster","doi":"10.1080/09585200903504215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200903504215","url":null,"abstract":"Double entry bookkeeping is generally considered to be a topic that students struggle to learn. In part, this is seen as being due to their lacking awareness of both business processes and of the business environment in which accounting operates, which makes double entry appear an abstract concept and one they find hard to justify the effort of learning. It is also seen by many faculties as failing to encourage critical thinking; and as a purely mechanical process that is unnecessary in a university degree in accounting – that it belongs in the professional office where it can be taught in context in the work environment. This paper argues that there is an alternative justifiable view that, far from being unnecessary and failing to encourage critical thinking, knowledge and understanding of double entry is a key element required of anyone who seeks to fully engage in critical thinking concerning the validity of accounting information. It argues that double entry should be retained in the undergraduate accounting curriculum – that its absence from the curriculum encourages blind acceptance of accounting information as ‘truth’ and makes it more difficult to encourage accounting students to think critically about accounting information at later stages of their studies. This paper suggests that by adopting an accounting history-based approach, students can be presented with a context that may overcome their traditional failure to grasp the topic well at an early stage in their accounting studies. To support this claim, the paper suggests themes that could be covered when introducing the topic, suggests sources of teaching material, and offers access to historical background material concerning the ‘father of accounting’, Luca Pacioli, in order to assist faculties that wish to try it for themselves in the classroom.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116102541","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}