| Abstract: | Despite the substantial body of research which assumes that management accounting was a reflex to the emergence of the factory system, little is known of the relationship between the two. Archival materials are presented in this paper which would suggest a far more complex relationship between accounting and the rise of the factory. In particular, we emphasize the way in which periodic reports, rather than ad boc calculations of cost or profit, were interwined with this new organization of work. |
