Pub Date : 2007-03-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200601127723
R. Mussari, M. Magliacani
Abstract This paper was inspired by the discovery of some accounting books relating to the ‘Rucellai’ Family Farm (in Tuscany), and examines accounting in proprietorship farming in the nineteenth century. By conducting a source recognition, it was possible to demonstrate the role of agricultural accounting in the management control process. The authors first trace the historical context and accounting theory which characterised Tuscan rural areas during the nineteen and twentieth centuries, then utilises the Family Farm book to analyse agricultural accounting practices. From this analysis also emerges the important role of the farmer as administrator, who was held accountable for the yield of the estate.
{"title":"Agricultural Accounting in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: The Case of the Noble Rucellai Family Farm in Campi","authors":"R. Mussari, M. Magliacani","doi":"10.1080/09585200601127723","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200601127723","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper was inspired by the discovery of some accounting books relating to the ‘Rucellai’ Family Farm (in Tuscany), and examines accounting in proprietorship farming in the nineteenth century. By conducting a source recognition, it was possible to demonstrate the role of agricultural accounting in the management control process. The authors first trace the historical context and accounting theory which characterised Tuscan rural areas during the nineteen and twentieth centuries, then utilises the Family Farm book to analyse agricultural accounting practices. From this analysis also emerges the important role of the farmer as administrator, who was held accountable for the yield of the estate.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115298409","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 : 2007-03-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200601127871
Maria Bergamin Barbato, Chiara Mio
Abstract The Venice Biennale, founded in 1893, is situated within the cultural sphere, covering work ranging from art, architecture, dance, music and theatre to cinema (the world-known ‘Venice Film Festival’). Throughout its life, the Biennale has experienced very troubled times, being involved in controversy, as well as undergoing significant legal and organisational changes, in particular, the transition from a public body to private one at the end of the 1990s. Dramatic changes have also affected the accounting data collection system utilised by the Biennale, which has developed from a system concerned with providing information for fulfilling specific legal provisions to one comprising a subsystem which has progressively evolved to aid the corporate strategic decision-making process. This paper critically and systematically reviews the evolution of the accounting system and management control within the Biennale. It will examine how new information requirements over the years have driven the information-accounting system to change and, in turn, how the system has been influenced by the historical setting within which the decisions were made. We also provide some thoughts regarding the future development of such systems.
{"title":"Accounting and the Development of Management Control in the Cultural Sphere: The Case of the Venice Biennale","authors":"Maria Bergamin Barbato, Chiara Mio","doi":"10.1080/09585200601127871","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200601127871","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Venice Biennale, founded in 1893, is situated within the cultural sphere, covering work ranging from art, architecture, dance, music and theatre to cinema (the world-known ‘Venice Film Festival’). Throughout its life, the Biennale has experienced very troubled times, being involved in controversy, as well as undergoing significant legal and organisational changes, in particular, the transition from a public body to private one at the end of the 1990s. Dramatic changes have also affected the accounting data collection system utilised by the Biennale, which has developed from a system concerned with providing information for fulfilling specific legal provisions to one comprising a subsystem which has progressively evolved to aid the corporate strategic decision-making process. This paper critically and systematically reviews the evolution of the accounting system and management control within the Biennale. It will examine how new information requirements over the years have driven the information-accounting system to change and, in turn, how the system has been influenced by the historical setting within which the decisions were made. We also provide some thoughts regarding the future development of such systems.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"46 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122396924","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 : 2007-03-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200601127731
S. Zambon, Luca Zan
Abstract This paper aims to aid our understanding of the emergence of accounting as a control instrument in complex proto-industrial settings, through its perceived capacity of mirroring the production process. The paper starts off from an archival document, the 1586 deliberation by the Venetian Senate, which imposed on the Arsenal a stocktaking to be conducted every three years, and ad hoc galley production accounts to be kept in double entry format, where the passage of materials and work-in-process between units were recorded both in physical quantity and value. In this deliberation the Venetian Senate was clearly posing explicitly the problem of costing and the efficient use of resources within the Arsenal. Until then, the Senate controlled this organisation only by limiting the funds allocated to activities (wages, oars, ‘stuffs’) without entering into the substance of the operations. Two interrelated investigations are carried out. First, a content analysis of the 1586 document is made. Second, the question of its ‘impact’ on the Arsenal's actual accounting practices is addressed. In a 1633 Report by Alvise Molin, a magistrate of the Republic, some elements of the 1586 deliberation seem to surface, insofar as a quite sophisticated calculation of the production costs of galleys is provided. In this sense it might well be that the notion of cost emerged as a sort of ‘accidental by-product’ of the Senate's efforts aimed at introducing tighter forms of control on the Arsenal.
{"title":"Controlling Expenditure, or the Slow Emergence of Costing at the Venice Arsenal, 1586–1633","authors":"S. Zambon, Luca Zan","doi":"10.1080/09585200601127731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200601127731","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper aims to aid our understanding of the emergence of accounting as a control instrument in complex proto-industrial settings, through its perceived capacity of mirroring the production process. The paper starts off from an archival document, the 1586 deliberation by the Venetian Senate, which imposed on the Arsenal a stocktaking to be conducted every three years, and ad hoc galley production accounts to be kept in double entry format, where the passage of materials and work-in-process between units were recorded both in physical quantity and value. In this deliberation the Venetian Senate was clearly posing explicitly the problem of costing and the efficient use of resources within the Arsenal. Until then, the Senate controlled this organisation only by limiting the funds allocated to activities (wages, oars, ‘stuffs’) without entering into the substance of the operations. Two interrelated investigations are carried out. First, a content analysis of the 1586 document is made. Second, the question of its ‘impact’ on the Arsenal's actual accounting practices is addressed. In a 1633 Report by Alvise Molin, a magistrate of the Republic, some elements of the 1586 deliberation seem to surface, insofar as a quite sophisticated calculation of the production costs of galleys is provided. In this sense it might well be that the notion of cost emerged as a sort of ‘accidental by-product’ of the Senate's efforts aimed at introducing tighter forms of control on the Arsenal.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126644499","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 : 2006-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200600969455
A. Fitzgibbons
Abstract This paper argues that contrary to capture theory, a key feature of financial deregulation in Australia was the lack of support from financial sector interest groups. An examination of the Campbell Inquiry (1979–1981) reveals that deregulation was not initiated by either the regulated banks or unregulated non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs). In fact, both groups were resistant to change prior to the establishment of the Inquiry. During the Inquiry, neither group advocated wide-ranging deregulation, preferring the retention of many financial regulations.
{"title":"The Financial Sector and Deregulation in Australia: Drivers of Reform or Reluctant Followers?","authors":"A. Fitzgibbons","doi":"10.1080/09585200600969455","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200600969455","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper argues that contrary to capture theory, a key feature of financial deregulation in Australia was the lack of support from financial sector interest groups. An examination of the Campbell Inquiry (1979–1981) reveals that deregulation was not initiated by either the regulated banks or unregulated non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs). In fact, both groups were resistant to change prior to the establishment of the Inquiry. During the Inquiry, neither group advocated wide-ranging deregulation, preferring the retention of many financial regulations.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122465340","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 : 2006-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200600969505
T. McLean, Thomas N. Tyson
Abstract In their study of the shipbuilding, engineering and metals industries of the West of Scotland, c. 1900–1960, Fleming et al. (2000: p. 196) concluded that ‘standard costing and budgetary control hardly made any impact at all in the engineering-related industries of the West of Scotland and that this … was correlated with the non-adoption of Scientific Management’. Fleming et al. encouraged further research to determine if this pattern of adoption was replicated elsewhere during the period. In this manner, the current research focuses on the post-Second World War development of standard costs and standard costing in Sunderland, a shipbuilding town of international importance on the north-east coast of England. Although the availability of company archives is somewhat limited, we nevertheless found evidence that at least one leading shipbuilding firm undertook major modernisation and reorganisation programmes, comprising the adoption of the new technology of welding, during the study period. Allied with these radical changes, the firm employed scientific management methods and utilised standard costs, but it did not employ full systems of standard costing and variance analysis. These costing developments were built into shipbuilders' traditional information systems based on the use of cost and output curves. However, the craft administration of production remained common in many shipbuilding firms and precluded developments in scientific management and standard costing.
{"title":"Standard Costs, Standard Costing and the Introduction of Scientific Management and New Technology into the Post-Second World War Sunderland Shipbuilding Industry","authors":"T. McLean, Thomas N. Tyson","doi":"10.1080/09585200600969505","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200600969505","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In their study of the shipbuilding, engineering and metals industries of the West of Scotland, c. 1900–1960, Fleming et al. (2000: p. 196) concluded that ‘standard costing and budgetary control hardly made any impact at all in the engineering-related industries of the West of Scotland and that this … was correlated with the non-adoption of Scientific Management’. Fleming et al. encouraged further research to determine if this pattern of adoption was replicated elsewhere during the period. In this manner, the current research focuses on the post-Second World War development of standard costs and standard costing in Sunderland, a shipbuilding town of international importance on the north-east coast of England. Although the availability of company archives is somewhat limited, we nevertheless found evidence that at least one leading shipbuilding firm undertook major modernisation and reorganisation programmes, comprising the adoption of the new technology of welding, during the study period. Allied with these radical changes, the firm employed scientific management methods and utilised standard costs, but it did not employ full systems of standard costing and variance analysis. These costing developments were built into shipbuilders' traditional information systems based on the use of cost and output curves. However, the craft administration of production remained common in many shipbuilding firms and precluded developments in scientific management and standard costing.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127018605","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 : 2006-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200600969554
B. Yamey
Abstract According to some of the earliest printed expositions of bookkeeping and accounts, a businessman might keep two ledgers pertaining to the same set of transactions. The second ledger could be an exact copy of the original ledger, to be available if the latter were lost or destroyed. Or, one of the ledgers could be a distorted version of the original, designed to deceive and defraud. Other uses of duplicate ledgers are also considered in this article.
{"title":"Duplicate Accounting Records: Historical Notes","authors":"B. Yamey","doi":"10.1080/09585200600969554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200600969554","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract According to some of the earliest printed expositions of bookkeeping and accounts, a businessman might keep two ledgers pertaining to the same set of transactions. The second ledger could be an exact copy of the original ledger, to be available if the latter were lost or destroyed. Or, one of the ledgers could be a distorted version of the original, designed to deceive and defraud. Other uses of duplicate ledgers are also considered in this article.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132380849","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 : 2006-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200600969513
J. Quail
Abstract A financial crisis had engulfed the UK's nationalised railways by 1960. This, and the subsequent retrenchment identified with Dr Beeching, has obscured determined and coherent earlier attempts to install modern methods of management accounting on the nationalised railways in the 1940s and 1950s. This paper sets out the attempted development of these techniques which were sponsored by the highest level of railway management and the defeat of these attempts in practice by the railways' organisational structure and culture. The conclusion is reached that, to be effective, new administrative techniques have to operate in compatible organisational and power structures.
{"title":"Accounting's Motive Power – the Vision and Reality for Management Accounting on the Nationalised Railways to 1959","authors":"J. Quail","doi":"10.1080/09585200600969513","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200600969513","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A financial crisis had engulfed the UK's nationalised railways by 1960. This, and the subsequent retrenchment identified with Dr Beeching, has obscured determined and coherent earlier attempts to install modern methods of management accounting on the nationalised railways in the 1940s and 1950s. This paper sets out the attempted development of these techniques which were sponsored by the highest level of railway management and the defeat of these attempts in practice by the railways' organisational structure and culture. The conclusion is reached that, to be effective, new administrative techniques have to operate in compatible organisational and power structures.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"64 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133136119","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 : 2006-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200600969398
M. Lindmark, L. Andersson, M. Adams
Abstract In this paper we provide an overview of the historical development of the insurance market in Sweden from the eighteenth century up to modern times. We consider theoretical perspectives drawn from the economics and political regulation literature that might help to explain important institutional features of the market – in particular, its oligopoly structure, the lack of foreign participation and the significant presence of mutual forms of organisation. We also offer a prognosis as to the current challenges and prospects of the Swedish insurance market in an increasingly competitive and global market.
{"title":"The Evolution and Development of the Swedish Insurance Market","authors":"M. Lindmark, L. Andersson, M. Adams","doi":"10.1080/09585200600969398","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200600969398","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this paper we provide an overview of the historical development of the insurance market in Sweden from the eighteenth century up to modern times. We consider theoretical perspectives drawn from the economics and political regulation literature that might help to explain important institutional features of the market – in particular, its oligopoly structure, the lack of foreign participation and the significant presence of mutual forms of organisation. We also offer a prognosis as to the current challenges and prospects of the Swedish insurance market in an increasingly competitive and global market.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122472702","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 : 2006-11-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200600969562
Malcolm Anderson
Below are listed 2005 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.
{"title":"Accounting History Publications 2005","authors":"Malcolm Anderson","doi":"10.1080/09585200600969562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200600969562","url":null,"abstract":"Below are listed 2005 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.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"110 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133531108","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 : 2006-07-01DOI: 10.1080/09585200600756308
Leanne Johns
Abstract This paper examines female shareholdings in Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales. Existing descriptions of colonial women have portrayed them generally as domestic servants, farmhands, prostitutes or wives and mothers, rather than as businesswomen or investors. But by 1823 the number of female shareholders represented 31 per cent, almost one-third, of total shareholders. Nevertheless, it seems that women were unable to take advantage of this potentially powerful position. Although they were allowed proxy votes, these could only be exercised by male shareholders. Thus, male shareholders acquired extra voting power through use of female shareholders' proxies, and seemingly employed the extra votes particularly when there were crucial or ‘political’ decisions to be made.
{"title":"The first female shareholders of the bank of New South Wales: Examination of shareholdings in Australia's first bank, 1817–1824","authors":"Leanne Johns","doi":"10.1080/09585200600756308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200600756308","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper examines female shareholdings in Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales. Existing descriptions of colonial women have portrayed them generally as domestic servants, farmhands, prostitutes or wives and mothers, rather than as businesswomen or investors. But by 1823 the number of female shareholders represented 31 per cent, almost one-third, of total shareholders. Nevertheless, it seems that women were unable to take advantage of this potentially powerful position. Although they were allowed proxy votes, these could only be exercised by male shareholders. Thus, male shareholders acquired extra voting power through use of female shareholders' proxies, and seemingly employed the extra votes particularly when there were crucial or ‘political’ decisions to be made.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116216785","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}