Editorial

Abstract

Welcome to the first issue of Accounting History for 2023. This February issue includes seven full articles and a vale for Lúcia Lima Rodrigues, Professora Catedrática (Full Professor) da Escola de Economia e Gestão, Universidade do Minho, Portugal who sadly passed away in October 2022. We also include the report of the Eleventh Accounting History International Conference (11AHIC) successfully hosted by the University of Portsmouth in the UK in September 2022 and the first call for papers for the Twelfth Accounting History International Conference (12AHIC) being held in Siena, Italy from 4 to 6 September 2024. It also contains calls for papers for two upcoming Special Issues: ‘Accounting for Death: An Historical Perspective’ and ‘Historical Accounting for Enterprise and Society in Africa’. Please note there is a workshop in March this year for authors who intend to submit articles to this Africa issue. We would encourage you to examine these opportunities and to contact the Special Issue Guest Editors where you need further clarification. Authors drawn from Australia, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, New Zealand, Russia and the UK have written for this issue, with articles covering a time span from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first century. The issue begins with the exploration of the stigma associated with the implementation of a Chinese poll tax in colonial New Zealand by Vosslamber and Yong. In their article taxation, in the form of a poll tax, contributed to the discrimination and dehumanisation of Chinese people seeking to migrate to New Zealand between 1881 and 1916. Even if they paid the tax to enter the country, these immigrants faced further discrimination, and in 2001 New Zealand’s Prime Minister Clark formally apologised to their descendants. The history of the Chinese poll tax in New Zealand gives us pause to consider how taxation can reinforce racism and stigmatisation. Vosslamber and Yong critically analyse negative policies promulgated by socially influential groups and highlight the need to guard against stigmatisation of humans in developing public policies. A study of Michelangelo’s David from an accountability perspective is provided in the second article in this issue by Manetti, Bellucci, Nitti and Bagnoli. Using the commissioning of the Statute of David as their context, they explore antecedents of dialogic accounting in sixteenth century Renaissance Florence. The Opera of Santa Maria del Fiore, entrusted with realising and placing the statue, was a hybrid organisation financed with public resources and managed by experts from Florence’s leading commercial guilds. Initially formed to construct Florence’s cathedral, the Opera not only operated a complex system of checks and balances, but also focused on consensus building. Hence Manetti et al. show the dynamic purposes of accounting and operation of early dialogic accountability, as those in governance sought to beautify their city for the benefit of its citizens. The third article continues the examination of accountability. Rossi and Sangster investigate the accounting and accountability practices in the eighteenth century obraje of the Hacienda of San Editorial