This book focuses on the way in which businessmen responded to the new problem of accounting for fixed assets when measuring periodic profit. The book is divided into four sections: the first embraces items that examine asset valuation procedures in general use during the nineteenth century. The second focuses on the particular practices that became popular among public utility companies. The third comprises studies on influences, particularly legal ones on the treatment of fixed assets in company accounts. The final section examines the likely economic effect of using particular valuation procedures and is another area where available material is scarce. Of the twenty-seven items included, seven were written during the nineteenth century and the remainder during the twentieth. Their emphasis is practical rather than theoretical: they set out the various ways in which companies accounted for fixed assets and provide some explanation for the choices made.

This volume deals with the evolution of accounting from earliest times, and gives particular attention to corporate accounting developments since the Industrial Revolution. The author identifies the various sources of accounting practices employed by British companies, to demonstrate the main changes which have taken place, when they occurred and why. The author emphasises the need to understand the legal, social and economic context in which accountancy changes take place, and also studies the conflicts which arise between suppliers and users of accounting statements. The study concludes with an examination of the duties performed by the professional accountant, the extent to which these have changed in the course of time and how his position in society is reinforced by the activities of professional institutions.

A History of Corporate Financial Reporting provides an understanding of the procedures and practices which constitute corporate financial reporting in Britain, at different points of time, and how and why those practices changed and became what they are now. Its particular focus is the external financial reporting practices of joint stock companies. This is worth knowing about given the widely held view that Britain (i) pioneered modern financial reporting, and (ii) played a primary role in the development of both capital markets and professional accountancy. The book makes use of a principal and agent framework to study accounting’s past, but one where the failure of managers always to supply the information that users’ desire is given full recognition. It is shown that corporate financial reporting did not develop into its current state in a straightforward and orderly fashion. Each era produces different environmental conditions and imposes new demands on accounting. A proper understanding of accounting developments therefore requires a careful examination of the interrelationship between accountants and accounting techniques on the one hand and, on the other, the social and economic context within which changes took place. The book’s corporate coverage starts with the legendary East India Company, created in 1600, and continues through the heyday of the statutory trading companies founded to build Britain’s canals (commencing in the 1770s) and railways (commencing c.1829) to focus, principally, on the limited liability company fashioned by the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 and the Limited Liability Act 1855. The story terminates in 2005 when listed companies were required to prepare their consolidated accounts in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards, thus signalling the effective end of British accounting.

This book focuses on the way in which businessmen responded to the new problem of accounting for fixed assets when measuring periodic profit. The book is divided into four sections: the first embraces items that examine asset valuation procedures in general use during the nineteenth century. The second focuses on the particular practices that became popular among public utility companies. The third comprises studies on influences, particularly legal ones on the treatment of fixed assets in company accounts. The final section examines the likely economic effect of using particular valuation procedures and is another area where available material is scarce. Of the twenty-seven items included, seven were written during the nineteenth century and the remainder during the twentieth. Their emphasis is practical rather than theoretical: they set out the various ways in which companies accounted for fixed assets and provide some explanation for the choices made.

The period 1835-1935 saw the development of the structure of local government which remains broadly intact today and also the growth of modern financial reporting procedures. This book examines the accounting implications of these developments and places them within the social and organisational contexts in which the events took place. The research is based on the contents of government reports, contemporary literature dating from the mid 1870s and the archival records of five municipal corporations – Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff and Manchester.

The Routledge Companion to Accounting History shows how the seemingly innocuous practice of accounting has pervaded human existence in fascinating ways at numerous times and places; from ancient civilisations to the modern day, and from the personal to the political. Placing the history of accounting in context with other fields of study, the collection gives invaluable insights to subjects such as the rise of capitalism, the control of labour, gender and family relationships, racial exploitation, the functioning of the state, and the pursuit of military conflict. An engaging and comprehensive overview also examining geographical differences, this Companion is split into key sections, which explore: changing technologies used to represent financial and other data historical development of accounting theory and practice accounting institutions and those who perform accounting accountancy and the economy accounting, society, and culture the role of accounting in the government, protection and financing of states including chapters on the important role played by accountancy in religious organizations, a review of how the discipline is portrayed in fine art and popular culture, and analysis of sharp practice and corporate scandals. The Routledge Companion to Accounting History has a breadth of coverage that is unmatched in this growing area of study. Bringing together leading writers in the field, this is an essential reference work for any student of accounting, business and management, and history.

Global in scope, accounting has had its share of great thinkers and practitioners, from Luca Pacioloi, the father of accounting, to R. J. Chambers, W. W. Cooper, Yuji Ijiri, Stephen A. Zeff and other figures. This encyclopedia presents more than 400 entries that focus on such subjects as publications in the field, institutional bodies, accounting and economic concepts, accounting issues, authors in accounting, records, leaders in the profession, accounting in various countries, financial court cases, accounting exams and historical researchers.