Accounting and accountants as essential elements in the development of central administration during the inter-war period: management ideology and technology at Alais, Froges et Camargue (AFC-Pechiney)

Alais, Froges et Camargue (AFC or Pechiney) came into being following mergers within the French aluminium industry during and immediately following the First World War. The new management had to cope with a rapidly expanded, diversified and geographically dispersed business enterprise. During the inter-war period AFC's directors created a strong administrative and functional organization to unify and standardize the use of management tools and the operation of the financial information system. The accounting department, closely linked to the Chief Executive Officer from 1921, was to be the main focus of the new organization. The ideology of rationalization, typical of the inter-war period, was clearly to be found at Pechiney's headquarters, reflected in the systematization of management, the training of clerks and mechanization.     

Is management accounting just what management accountants do? Implicit cost analysis on Britain's railways c.1923-1939

This paper explores how railway companies performed the management accounting function during the first part of the twentieth century. It will be argued that only by understanding the relationship between management techniques and the business process can any judgement as to the quality of management decisions be reached. Through the medium of educational material, the development of train control and railway statistics is explored. It is argued that implicit marginal costing was obtained from non-financial information outside the realm of accounting. This was due to the specific conditions and complexity of operations faced by railway managers. This is then contrasted with the limited, and ultimately unsuccessful, attempts by accountants at the Railway Clearing House to cost services.     

资产负债表债务法在企业合并所得税会计中的应用

新会计准则中,明确规定企业所得税核算采用资产负债表债务法,并规范了商誉的计量。但是对企业合并时,合并商誉对所得税的影响如何确认和计量未作规范。本文结合企业合并时对商誉的会计处理,初步探讨了其对所得税影响的确认和计量在资产负债表债务法下确认和计量的方法。     

新中国资产负债表70年演进

新中国70年资产负债表从肯定到否定,再从否定到肯定的演进过程,资产负债表的名称、表式、项目、编制基础和编制方法经历了巨大变化,但资产负债表反映资产背后的权益、责任及其平衡关系的本质始终未变。经济发展和制度变革的现实需要是资产负债表演进的直接原因。现实需要催生了自然资源资产负债表和国家资产负债表,这些新型报表当前难以直接反映核算对象的权责利关系,只是简化的资产负债表,所以应遵循资产负债表发展规律和科学要求,积极探索新型资产负债表。     

The effects of systemic banking crises in the inter-war period

This paper examines the time-profile of the impact of systemic banking crises on GDP and industrial production using a panel of 24 countries over the inter-war period and compares this to the post-war experience of these countries. We show that banking crises have effects that induce medium-term adjustments on economies. Focussing on an eight-year horizon, it is clear that the negative effects of systemic banking crises last over the entirety of this time-horizon. The effect has been identified for GDP and industrial production. The adverse effect on the industrial sector stands out as being substantially larger in magnitude relative to the macroeconomic effect. Comparing the results across long-run historical periods for the same selection of countries and variables identifies some differences that stand out: the short term macroeconomic impact effects are much larger in the post-war period, suggesting that the propagation channels of shocks operate at a faster pace in the more recent period. Moreover, the time-profile of effects differs, suggesting that modern policies may be modulating the temporal shape of the response to banking crises shocks. However, the broad magnitude of the adverse effect of banking crises remains comparable across these time periods.     

Review and extension of Bhattacharyya's Modern Accounting Concepts in Kautilya's Arthasastra

This is a discussion of the theoretical aspects of accounting as they emerged in India during the Maurya period (c.321 BC to c.184 BC) in Kautilya's Arthasastra (c.300 BC) - the very first known treatise to deal with accounting aspects in the history of our discipline. Pertinent evidence can be found in an article by Choudhury (1982) and in Bhattacharyya's (1988) book, Modern Accounting Concepts in Kautilya's Arthasastra. This book, hardly known in Western accounting circles, claims that Kautilya's ancient treatise anticipated a series of 'modern' accounting concepts. These claims are here examined on the basis of the two standard translations of the Arthasastra, the original one by Shamasastry ([1915] 1967) and an extended one by Kangle (1963). Apart from some background material, the focus of this paper is on three aspects: (1) Kautilya's various types of income (including aspects of accounting for price changes, the distinction between real and fictitious holding gains, etc.) and their possible relation to modern concepts; (2) his classification of expenditures or costs (including possibly fixed vs variable costs); and (3) his notions of capital. These aspects indicate a surprisingly long-standing need for and possible use of relatively sophisticated accounting concepts. Thus Choudhury and, particularly, Battacharyya must be praised for drawing the attention of Western accountants to different aspects of an important ancient treatise. Yet Bhattacharyya (1988) deserves to be critically investigated and interpreted, not only from a Western point of view but also from the perspective of modern price-level accounting.     

Concepts of cost and profit in Chinese agricultural treatises: with special reference to Shengshi Nongshu and Pu Nongshu in the seventeenth century

This article analyses the use of the concepts of cost and profit in Chinese agricultural treatises. Special attention is given to the agricultural works Shengshi Nongshu and Pu Nongshu in the seventeenth century. The analysis shows how Chinese people applied the concepts of cost and profit to agricultural production. This paper also analyses the reasons for the lack of further progress of Chinese accounting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It concludes that Chinese accounting reached its peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties under a feudal framework and that accounting development has been strongly associated and constrained by its social environment, including political and cultural constraints.     

National influence on the application of IFRS: Interpretations and accounting estimates by German and British accountants

International comparability of financial statements under IFRS can only be achieved if standards are interpreted and applied consistently across countries. However, the different institutional and cultural environments of various countries in which companies operate and in which individuals make accounting decisions suggest that application of IFRS may differ. Building on previous studies that found evidence for this in the area of explicit options under IFRS, we examine the use of discretion in interpretations and accounting estimates by surveying German and British accountants, asking them to account for identical cases under IFRS. The results of this test provide only some evidence for international differences in accountants' judgments. This suggests that the national environment might be less relevant in those fields of room for maneuver in the application of IFRS. However, we find considerable variability of responses within jurisdictions and therefore further conclude that differences in personal characteristics might be more important than cultural factors.     

Budgets and budgetary control in British businesses to c.1945

Many generalizations have been made regarding the introduction within British businesses of the costing/accounting techniques associated with the scientific management movement during the early decades of the twentieth century, but little detail is known of the process and extent of their adoption. This paper presents the findings from a survey of primary and (mainly) secondary sources regarding the use of budgets and budgetary control in Britain and raises questions as to the validity of the hypothesis that British firms failed to adopt them as rapidly as they should have done. The paper calls for detailed research into business archives in order that we can more fully understand not only the extent of their use, but also the nature of the dissemination process by which budgetary control came to be implemented in British businesses.     

'An awkward fence to cross': railway capitalization in Britain in the inter-war years

This paper examines the related problems of the capitalization and financial performance of the railway companies in the inter-war period. It examines the critics' view that the railways were over-capitalized, and places the debate in context by analysing the dividend and accounting policies of the companies and the consequences for investment. It also examines the conflicting views of railway management and shareholders over capital expenditure. The paper concludes that the railways were both financially over-capitalized and physically under-capitalized, and so faced very serious financial problems that were incapable of resolution within the existing ownership structure.     

资产负债表观在《财务报表列报准则》中的体现

会计准则在会计理念上由利润表观转向资产负债观,财务报表体系重心由传统的利润表变为资产负债表和所有者权益变动表,促使企业着眼于企业长期战略和可持续发展,同时也要求会计从业人员彻底转变观念,认真贯彻资产负债表观的重要理念。     

我国货币发行机制探讨——基于央行和商业银行资产负债表的分析

我国外汇储备不断增加,使得外汇占款和基础货币持续增加。本文通过商业银行和中央银行的资产负债表分析了我国外汇储备增加对基础货币发行的影响机制。并比较分析了央行通过买卖央行票据和国债对基础货币发行的影响。目前,央行减少外汇储备主要通过建立投资公司,笔者分析了财政部发行特别国债购买外汇,并将外汇注资国家外汇投资公司对基础货币发行的影响。财政部发行特别国债有两种方式．一是间接向中央银行发行,二是直接向市场发行。本文还研究了这两种发行方式对货币供给的影响机制及对中央银行货币政策操作的指导意义。本文进一步分析了独立投资公司购买外汇对基础货币的影响。最后．本文给出了主要结论。     

Accounting and the Input—Output Principle in the Prehistoric and Ancient World

The paper offers mainly an interpretation of Professor Schmandt-Besserat's archaeological research from an accountant's point of view. Its major conclusion is that those ancient people were the first to apply the input—output principle (inherent in every actual commodity transfer) to a representational, quasi-numerical (and later numerical) system of record keeping. A second aspect of this paper reveals that both the token-accounting of the ancient Middle East, as well as modern accounting, deal with two distinct but related duality aspects. The first kind of duality involves concrete transactions and belongs to physical reality, while the second kind of duality arises out of ownership and debt relations which belong to social reality. The paper demonstrates how these two types of duality are related and in which way the second type can be reduced to the first type. The final section examines the possibility of connecting the input—output principle manifested in token accounting with the duality principle encountered in ancient Greek accounting practice.     

Allocations and Common Costs in Long-Run Investing and Pricing Decisions: An Historical Analysis

The extent to which allocated common costs should influence business decisions remains controversial in management accounting. In the finance and investment literature this issue is generally ignored or dismissed by appeals to the'incremental' principle. This article presents an historical analysis of allocations in long-run investing and pricing decisions. It is demonstrated that seminal figures in the development of both investment and price theory were conscious of the need for firms to cover common costs and generally favoured some form of allocation. The anti-allocationist position is shown to be of relatively recent origin and to have caused an inconsistency in the management accounting literature in the treatment of common costs. European costing theory is shown to have been consistently allocationist. Evidence of a return in the recent U.S. literature to the older Anglo-American, and continuing European, allocations tradition is presented.     

Tax education in the UK: a survey of tax courses in undergraduate accounting degrees

This paper presents the results of a postal survey designed to examine the teaching of taxation in UK universities. The project looks at taxation in undergraduate accounting degree programmes and adopts an objective centred focus. The principal aim of the survey was to examine the relationships between some characteristics of individual tax courses, including the course objectives and coverage, staffing, teaching and assessment methods, in an attempt to draw some conclusions on the nature of tax education in UK accounting degrees. The results of the survey and consequent analysis may provide taxation and accounting educators, professional bodies and researchers into accounting education with an insight into approaches to, and methods used in, taxation teaching. It may also present a framework for comparative international research in tax education.     

Foreign-currency transactions and the recovery of German industry in the aftermath of the First World War: the case of Schering AG

While historians have for a long time recognized the importance of the First World War to the general flow of history, business economists do not fully appreciate the impact of the war on commercial relationships. The First World War transformed the political, economic, and social context, in which business was done, forcing companies to develop new strategies and activities, some of which were almost unimaginable before August 1914. This article focuses on one aspect of doing business: foreign exchange management. It argues that Schering AG and its parent, like many German companies after the First World War, were obliged to refocus their activities around their foreign exchange exposures and that the management of foreign exchange issues contributed to a much tighter relationship between businesses, government, and business associations than had existed before the war and for which some aspects of Germany's system of corporate control were not well adapted to handle.     

Govern(mentality) and Accounting: the Influence of Different Enlightenment Discourses in Two Spanish Cases (1761–1777)

New perspectives in accounting history have uncovered previously unattended relations between accounting and government. Earlier Foucauldian analyses of governments have not explained sufficiently the relations of accounting practices to governmental discourses in order to manage populations.
This work uses the governmentality frame to analyse the role of accounting in two organizations located in the south of Spain in the second half of the eighteenth century: the New Settlements of Sierra Morena and Andalucia (NSs) and the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville (RTFS). The period studied is remarkable because it was the apogee of the Enlightenment in Spain. From the standpoint of government, this period facilitated a new way to manage populations. The present work has drawn on Foucault's concept of governmentality in order to discover how accounting worked in two government-supported organizations independently of the discourses that pervaded each one. Drawing on the reticulation of the space, the use of rules and accounting from the governmental perspective, we analyse those institutions.
The article concludes that the reticulation of space is an essential apparatus to exert action at a distance; the rules are a type of government technology; and, overall, accounting is a practice for the mastery of the population independently from the discourse of the institution.     

The changing genderization of the accounting workforce in the US, 1930-90

The accounting profession in 1930 was predominantly a male workforce. By 1990, the gender composition of accounting had changed dramatically. Women, who in 1930 had represented only 10 per cent of the accounting workforce, now represented over 50 per cent of the workforce and earned 53 per cent of the accounting degrees. Increases in the aggregate workforce were not accompanied by subsequent proportional increases in participation at the upper-management levels of accounting firms. Thus, what occurred was a stratified regenderization of the aggregate workforce rather than an overall regenderization of the accounting profession. This paper delineates the historical, cultural, legal, economic and educational forces that led to this changing genderization.     

A Weberian model applied to the study of accounting stagnation in late Qing China

The industrialization and commercial expansion that China experienced following foreign intrusion, in 1840, necessitated the modernization of its accounting, but its accounting technology continued to stagnate for more than half a century. Weber's socio-historical model provides a framework for posing the question why indigenous accounting systems persisted even though superior western bookkeeping techniques were available. Weber's framework for the study of the relations of accounting to organizations and society may be divided into two analytic layers: structural conditions of accounting and the historical dynamic arising from the tensions between formal and substantive rationalities. All structural conditions specified in his first analytic layer as necessary for capital accounting were basically satisfied in Qing China. The second layer of Weber's framework is ideational. Rationality is the key concept in Weber's work. Replacing traditional accounting amounted to a direct challenge to substantive rationality of ti ('substance', 'essence') by the formal rationality of yung ('instruments', 'utility').     

Conjectures on Colonial Accounting History in Australia

This article analyses three current conjectures regarding Australian accounting history between 1788 and 1817. All relate to double entry bookkeeping. First, that it was practised in Australia before 1817: second, that it was introduced to Australia by Lieutenant John Palmer. RN. in 1788: and third, that its teaching in Australia can be traced to the period 1804–6. Additional conjectures are proposed about the introduction of double entry bookkeeping to Australia and the identity of Australia's first double entry accountant. It is argued that the pioneering of double entry bookkeeping in the colony of New South Wales should not be located before 1810.