Pub Date : 2009-03-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200802667188
R. H. Parker
Recent events have reminded us that different financial institutions fare very differently in stressful conditions. Here Peter Austin tells the story of a major bank in a turbulent emerging economy with sometimes volatile politics, and strongly reliant on the primary sector. This bank fared well in a serious financial crisis, while many of its rivals struggled or failed. The bank is Baring Brothers and the country is the United States of America in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. There are numerous parallels with important issues in modern crises and emerging market finance: the structure and development of the country’s financial system; the Darwinian failure of weak businesses and banks; the search to allocate blame; the role of political and financial elites; concern over the presidential role and that of central government; and debates over free trade, to identify but a few. There have been many published histories of merchant banks. Baring Brothers has attracted several authors over the years, a number of whom have concentrated on its 1995 failure after Nick Leeson’s disastrous derivatives trading in Singapore. Orbell (1985) and Ziegler (1988) offer relatively recent general histories of Barings, the latter much longer than the former, although neither address in depth the period and events covered inAustin’s book. Hidy (1949), described by Ziegler (p. 383) as ‘somewhat indigestible’, does deal with Barings in the US in this period, and while Austin makes use of these three histories, he is able to reflect sources and scholarship not available to, or used by, these authors. Austin’s book is not intended as a comprehensive history of Barings, but focuses on a specific episode in which the bank played a major role, the 1837 financial crisis. In Austin’s view, the question of ‘what happened’ in this crisis is largely settled, whereas the question ‘why’ to some extent remains open. This is not unusual in such situations – for example, scholars continue to debate explanations for banking crises such as those in Germany in 1931 and the US in 1929–33. This is, for the most part, a very good and clearly written book. The arrangement is chronological, with the 190 pages of the main body of the book broken into six chapters. These build slowly and carefully from the mid-eighteenth century to the culmination of the late 1830s crisis, concentrating on that final decade. A 10-page epilogue addresses Barings’problems in Argentina in 1890 and Singapore in 1995, with a further 60 pages of notes, bibliography, a useful chronology and glossary.A casual reader could easily grasp the main arguments from the introduction and conclusions. There is extensive use of contemporary newspapers and journals, of correspondence between London and Barings’ Boston agent, Thomas Ward, and of British and American literature and archival sources, including those on the Bank of England and the London discount market. Ward emerges as outstanding at the operational
{"title":"Promise Fulfilled. The History of the Accounting Discipline at The University of Melbourne","authors":"R. H. Parker","doi":"10.1080/09585200802667188","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802667188","url":null,"abstract":"Recent events have reminded us that different financial institutions fare very differently in stressful conditions. Here Peter Austin tells the story of a major bank in a turbulent emerging economy with sometimes volatile politics, and strongly reliant on the primary sector. This bank fared well in a serious financial crisis, while many of its rivals struggled or failed. The bank is Baring Brothers and the country is the United States of America in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. There are numerous parallels with important issues in modern crises and emerging market finance: the structure and development of the country’s financial system; the Darwinian failure of weak businesses and banks; the search to allocate blame; the role of political and financial elites; concern over the presidential role and that of central government; and debates over free trade, to identify but a few. There have been many published histories of merchant banks. Baring Brothers has attracted several authors over the years, a number of whom have concentrated on its 1995 failure after Nick Leeson’s disastrous derivatives trading in Singapore. Orbell (1985) and Ziegler (1988) offer relatively recent general histories of Barings, the latter much longer than the former, although neither address in depth the period and events covered inAustin’s book. Hidy (1949), described by Ziegler (p. 383) as ‘somewhat indigestible’, does deal with Barings in the US in this period, and while Austin makes use of these three histories, he is able to reflect sources and scholarship not available to, or used by, these authors. Austin’s book is not intended as a comprehensive history of Barings, but focuses on a specific episode in which the bank played a major role, the 1837 financial crisis. In Austin’s view, the question of ‘what happened’ in this crisis is largely settled, whereas the question ‘why’ to some extent remains open. This is not unusual in such situations – for example, scholars continue to debate explanations for banking crises such as those in Germany in 1931 and the US in 1929–33. This is, for the most part, a very good and clearly written book. The arrangement is chronological, with the 190 pages of the main body of the book broken into six chapters. These build slowly and carefully from the mid-eighteenth century to the culmination of the late 1830s crisis, concentrating on that final decade. A 10-page epilogue addresses Barings’problems in Argentina in 1890 and Singapore in 1995, with a further 60 pages of notes, bibliography, a useful chronology and glossary.A casual reader could easily grasp the main arguments from the introduction and conclusions. There is extensive use of contemporary newspapers and journals, of correspondence between London and Barings’ Boston agent, Thomas Ward, and of British and American literature and archival sources, including those on the Bank of England and the London discount market. Ward emerges as outstanding at the operational ","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131131259","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}
Pub Date : 2009-03-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200802667162
Mark Billings
{"title":"Baring Brothers and the birth of modern finance","authors":"Mark Billings","doi":"10.1080/09585200802667162","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802667162","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125154822","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}
Pub Date : 2009-03-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200802667097
D. M. Higgins, Sameer R. Verma
This article uses a case study of Bass to examine the business and accounting history of trade mark defence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We employ a variety of business, legal and parliamentary records to discuss the measures they adopted to prevent trade mark infringement. The central arguments of this article are that Bass's trade marks were susceptible to infringement because of weaknesses in its business structure, and these, in turn, necessitated a robust defence of its trade marks both before and after the Trade Marks Act, 1875. Of particular interest, we demonstrate that Bass's reliance on the free trade was financially successful, in marked contrast to the predictions of Chandler, and the financial performance of the big London brewers who relied heavily on tied estates.
{"title":"The business of protection: Bass & Co. and trade mark defence, c. 1870–1914","authors":"D. M. Higgins, Sameer R. Verma","doi":"10.1080/09585200802667097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802667097","url":null,"abstract":"This article uses a case study of Bass to examine the business and accounting history of trade mark defence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We employ a variety of business, legal and parliamentary records to discuss the measures they adopted to prevent trade mark infringement. The central arguments of this article are that Bass's trade marks were susceptible to infringement because of weaknesses in its business structure, and these, in turn, necessitated a robust defence of its trade marks both before and after the Trade Marks Act, 1875. Of particular interest, we demonstrate that Bass's reliance on the free trade was financially successful, in marked contrast to the predictions of Chandler, and the financial performance of the big London brewers who relied heavily on tied estates.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114349195","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}
Pub Date : 2008-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200802383349
Leanne Cutcher
Following large-scale closure of bank branches by the major retail banks in the 1990s credit unions and community banks have been active in re-establishing branches in communities across Australia. Credit unions and community banks promote themselves as offering a very different kind of financial service: one much more focused on meeting the needs of local communities. On the face of it, their service to these communities appears to be motivated by very similar objectives. However, examining their current practices against the backdrop of their different histories reveals important differences in their approach to helping communities help themselves.
{"title":"Financing communities: the role of community banks and credit unions in re-establishing branches in Australia","authors":"Leanne Cutcher","doi":"10.1080/09585200802383349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802383349","url":null,"abstract":"Following large-scale closure of bank branches by the major retail banks in the 1990s credit unions and community banks have been active in re-establishing branches in communities across Australia. Credit unions and community banks promote themselves as offering a very different kind of financial service: one much more focused on meeting the needs of local communities. On the face of it, their service to these communities appears to be motivated by very similar objectives. However, examining their current practices against the backdrop of their different histories reveals important differences in their approach to helping communities help themselves.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132524208","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}
Pub Date : 2008-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200802383455
J. Loftus, J. Purcell
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw rapid economic growth and subjugation of social policy and environmental concerns, as development was driven through the corporate and financial sectors in East and Southeast Asian economies, fuelled by free market reforms as societies edged towards neo-liberalism. The Asian financial crisis was the catalyst for the emergence of a new embedded-relational governance model, which emphasises the social and environmental dimensions of the welfare state, while relying on decentralised civil society initiatives and business self-regulation in implementing corporate social responsibility. This study focuses on corporate governance and financial system reforms introduced in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.
{"title":"Post-Asian financial crisis reforms: an emerging new embedded-relational governance model","authors":"J. Loftus, J. Purcell","doi":"10.1080/09585200802383455","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802383455","url":null,"abstract":"The late 1980s and early 1990s saw rapid economic growth and subjugation of social policy and environmental concerns, as development was driven through the corporate and financial sectors in East and Southeast Asian economies, fuelled by free market reforms as societies edged towards neo-liberalism. The Asian financial crisis was the catalyst for the emergence of a new embedded-relational governance model, which emphasises the social and environmental dimensions of the welfare state, while relying on decentralised civil society initiatives and business self-regulation in implementing corporate social responsibility. This study focuses on corporate governance and financial system reforms introduced in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"122 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131486032","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}
Pub Date : 2008-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200802383299
M. Keneley, M. McKenzie
Deregulation has been a feature of the evolution of financial markets in the past two decades. Extending this trend has been the move to privatise government-owned financial institutions. In the 1990s, Australian governments progressively sold publicly owned banks and insurance institutions. One outcome has been that few of these privatised financial firms exist today, having been absorbed in mergers and acquisitions within the financial services sector. This paper uses an information cost framework to explain the experience of privatised banks and insurers. Our approach points to a dynamic process of organisational change that has influenced the outcomes of privatisation in the financial services sector.
{"title":"The privatisation experience in the Australian banking and insurance sectors: an explanation of the change in ownership structures","authors":"M. Keneley, M. McKenzie","doi":"10.1080/09585200802383299","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802383299","url":null,"abstract":"Deregulation has been a feature of the evolution of financial markets in the past two decades. Extending this trend has been the move to privatise government-owned financial institutions. In the 1990s, Australian governments progressively sold publicly owned banks and insurance institutions. One outcome has been that few of these privatised financial firms exist today, having been absorbed in mergers and acquisitions within the financial services sector. This paper uses an information cost framework to explain the experience of privatised banks and insurers. Our approach points to a dynamic process of organisational change that has influenced the outcomes of privatisation in the financial services sector.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124509812","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}
Pub Date : 2008-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200802383463
Malcolm Anderson
Below are listed 2006 and 2007 publications, in English, within the general area of accounting history. The definition of what constitutes an accounting history article is not always a straightforward matter, and we have interpreted the description fairly broadly to include any accounting article with a significant historical input. Business history articles are not included as they are examined in the annual survey article published by Business History. The most recent is: Rollings, N. 2007 British business history: a review of the periodical literature for 2005. Business History, 49, no. 3: 271–92.
{"title":"Accounting History Publications 2006/2007","authors":"Malcolm Anderson","doi":"10.1080/09585200802383463","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802383463","url":null,"abstract":"Below are listed 2006 and 2007 publications, in English, within the general area of accounting history. The definition of what constitutes an accounting history article is not always a straightforward matter, and we have interpreted the description fairly broadly to include any accounting article with a significant historical input. Business history articles are not included as they are examined in the annual survey article published by Business History. The most recent is: Rollings, N. 2007 British business history: a review of the periodical literature for 2005. Business History, 49, no. 3: 271–92.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115395459","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}
Pub Date : 2008-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200802383273
H. Knowles, G. Patmore, J. Shields
While there are numerous histories of major Australian banks, the extant literature on the history of the Australian financial service sector pays only incidental attention to the role of finance companies and other non-bank financial institutions in the sector's long-term transformation, particularly the expansion of consumer credit. Drawing on Chandler's classic insights on the dynamics of firm strategy and structure, this paper focuses on the growth and development of one particular finance company – Industrial Acceptance Corporation (IAC) – between the 1920s and 1970s. IAC began as a subsidiary of a US finance company and grew to become one of Australia's leading and innovative finance companies. Based on hire purchase for automobiles and other consumer durables, it diversified into property development during the late 1960s. Imprudent lending practices concerning property development led to financial difficulties in the mid-1970s and ultimately its full takeover by US banking giant, Citibank, in 1977.
{"title":"From hire purchase to property development: the rise and demise of the Industrial Acceptance Corporation in Australia, 1926–77","authors":"H. Knowles, G. Patmore, J. Shields","doi":"10.1080/09585200802383273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802383273","url":null,"abstract":"While there are numerous histories of major Australian banks, the extant literature on the history of the Australian financial service sector pays only incidental attention to the role of finance companies and other non-bank financial institutions in the sector's long-term transformation, particularly the expansion of consumer credit. Drawing on Chandler's classic insights on the dynamics of firm strategy and structure, this paper focuses on the growth and development of one particular finance company – Industrial Acceptance Corporation (IAC) – between the 1920s and 1970s. IAC began as a subsidiary of a US finance company and grew to become one of Australia's leading and innovative finance companies. Based on hire purchase for automobiles and other consumer durables, it diversified into property development during the late 1960s. Imprudent lending practices concerning property development led to financial difficulties in the mid-1970s and ultimately its full takeover by US banking giant, Citibank, in 1977.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"195 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134497418","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}
Pub Date : 2008-06-23DOI: 10.1080/09585200802058701
C. McWatters
This paper examines la traite négrière in terms of investment behaviour and investment returns. The research focus is the investments of one armateur, François Deguer, a diversified market player in eighteenth-century France. The results provide additional evidence, in an accounting context, of the trade's profitability, either as a stand-alone business or in conjunction with other parts of maritime commerce. Specifically, the analysis indicates that slave-trade investments held the possibility of above-average returns compared with other available investment opportunities. This result reinforces the arguments of Daudin (2002a, 2002b, 2004) who proposed the analysis of slave-trade investments in terms of risk, return, liquidity and time frame. Daudin's work examines limitations of the profit calculations used in prior historical research and offers alternatives that are theoretically sound and pragmatically possible. While the results in this study are based on a case analysis, they demonstrate how the informed use of archival sources can contribute to the findings from more generalised, cross-sectional studies. As historians of the slave trade have noted, each trading voyage was unique, described as a lottery, but one which could offer potentially significant returns. Lessons can be drawn from these initial results, as we confront accounting's implication in contemporary trading practices.
{"title":"Investment returns and la traite négrière: evidence from eighteenth-century France","authors":"C. McWatters","doi":"10.1080/09585200802058701","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802058701","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines la traite négrière in terms of investment behaviour and investment returns. The research focus is the investments of one armateur, François Deguer, a diversified market player in eighteenth-century France. The results provide additional evidence, in an accounting context, of the trade's profitability, either as a stand-alone business or in conjunction with other parts of maritime commerce. Specifically, the analysis indicates that slave-trade investments held the possibility of above-average returns compared with other available investment opportunities. This result reinforces the arguments of Daudin (2002a, 2002b, 2004) who proposed the analysis of slave-trade investments in terms of risk, return, liquidity and time frame. Daudin's work examines limitations of the profit calculations used in prior historical research and offers alternatives that are theoretically sound and pragmatically possible. While the results in this study are based on a case analysis, they demonstrate how the informed use of archival sources can contribute to the findings from more generalised, cross-sectional studies. As historians of the slave trade have noted, each trading voyage was unique, described as a lottery, but one which could offer potentially significant returns. Lessons can be drawn from these initial results, as we confront accounting's implication in contemporary trading practices.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134061963","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}
Pub Date : 2008-06-18DOI: 10.1080/09585200802058495
Yannick Lemarchand, M. Nikitin, Henri Zimnovitch
Approximately 40 international congresses of accountants took place between 1889 and 2002. Before World War II, accountants were divided between two international networks: a group of Latin countries and a group led by the USA. Only the latter continued their activity after World War II. From that time onwards, there are two distinct periods: the period 1952–1977 saw ‘the rise’ of the profession to an international level; after 1977, the transformation of networks into permanent organisations (the International Accounting Standards Committee and the International Federation of Accountants) initiated ‘the fall’ of international congresses of accountants, which progressively became mere ‘accounting fairs’. The research method used in this paper involves a critical analysis of congress proceedings, professional journals and interviews.
{"title":"International congresses of accountants in the twentieth century: a French perspective","authors":"Yannick Lemarchand, M. Nikitin, Henri Zimnovitch","doi":"10.1080/09585200802058495","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802058495","url":null,"abstract":"Approximately 40 international congresses of accountants took place between 1889 and 2002. Before World War II, accountants were divided between two international networks: a group of Latin countries and a group led by the USA. Only the latter continued their activity after World War II. From that time onwards, there are two distinct periods: the period 1952–1977 saw ‘the rise’ of the profession to an international level; after 1977, the transformation of networks into permanent organisations (the International Accounting Standards Committee and the International Federation of Accountants) initiated ‘the fall’ of international congresses of accountants, which progressively became mere ‘accounting fairs’. The research method used in this paper involves a critical analysis of congress proceedings, professional journals and interviews.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127714122","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}
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