The purpose of this study is to enhance understanding of early investment practices and the role financial and other information played in those practices. The primary method employed is to examine early books on investing published in the U.S. Early authors described stock market operations including manipulations of security prices by the bulls and the bears. Their solution to this manipulation was to educate investors and provide company information, mostly through directories and manuals. This study shows that financial and other information was thought by the authors to be critically important at the time that the securities markets were first called upon to provide capital to the railroad industry, the first modern business in America.

This paper addresses the schedule of cost of goods manufactured and the income statement of Lyman Mills (LM) for the year 1917. They were prepared by CPAs at the request of LM, based on the books of account and its accounting system dating from the 1850s. This system was described, but not perfectly enough, in Johnson and Kaplan's Relevance Lost [1987]. This paper compares the schedule of cost of goods manufactured and income statement prepared by CPAs with the accounts in LM's ledger summarizing its costs and performance. It leads to the conclusion that the traditional accounting system of LM was a complete accounting system different from but comparable to today's accounting systems.

For centuries, accounting was a manual process. Starting in the late 1800s, a series of technological innovations emerged that not only changed the way the accounting process was conducted but dramatically changed the workplace, the workforce, the information provided, and the accounting profession itself. By 1930, most major US companies had adopted mechanical accounting as a more efficient way of processing accounting information. This paper examines the historical development and influence of mechanical accounting in the U.S. from 1880 to 1930.

This paper applies the theoretical framework proposed by McKinnon [1986] to the creation of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) which represented an important change to the accounting system in India post-independence. The development of the ICAI is categorized into three phases: source, diffusion, and reaction. Intra-system activity, trans-system activity, and the socio-economic and political environments are shown to influence all stages of the change. Within these phases, the paper focuses on the involvement of the state in the development of the ICAI, credentialism and the importance of the title “chartered,” the disciplinary powers of the ICAI, and the issue of mutual recognition and reciprocity with foreign professional accounting organizations.

The purpose of this article is to detail and explain the changes in auditing techniques that have taken place in Britain since the Victorian era, an area of study hitherto neglected by accounting historians. In so doing, it is hoped that an increasing knowledge of past practices will put the current processes into context. The source material for the paper includes new evidence from a program of oral history and postal questionnaires, together with more traditional sources such as the trade journals and textbooks. The so-called bookkeeping audit of vouching and checking postings and castings, and with the auditor also doing a fair proportion of the client's accounting, was typical down to the 1960s. Major changes then took place, including a decline in accounting work, an increased focus on the balance sheet, and a reliance on sampling and the systems approach. This trend is explained by a growth in the size and professionalism of audit clients. Further change since the 1980s reflects the use of risk assessment, materiality, and analytical review and may be ascribed to the growing commercial pressures on auditors.

The Guide du commerce occupies a distinctive place in the French-language literature on accounting. Passed over by most specialists in the history of maritime trade and the slave trade, the manual has never been the subject of a documented historical study. The apparent realism of the examples, the luxury of details and their precision, all bear witness to a deep concern to go beyond a simple apprenticeship in bookkeeping. Promoting itself essentially as “un guide du commerce,” the volume offers strategic examples for small local businesses, as well as for those engaged in international trade. Yet, the realism also demonstrated the expertise of the author in the eyes of potential purchasers. Inspired by the work of Bottin [2001], we investigate the extent to which the manual reflects real-world practices and provides a faithful glimpse into the socio-economic context of the period. Two additional questions are discussed briefly in our conclusion. First, can the work of Gaignat constitute a source document for the history of la traite négrière? The second entails our early deliberations about the place of this volume in the history of the slave trade itself.

This paper argues that a complex of accounting measures — account books, inventories of accumulated wealth, and detailed instructions for production performance — were used to inculcate Western values into the native population located at five Franciscan missions along the San Antonio River in New Spain (present-day Texas) from 1718 to 1794. Bolstered by the need to alleviate communications problems caused by extreme isolation, the missionaries constructed detailed mission documents that described the acquisition of scarce resources, reported the aggregation of material and spiritual mission wealth, and controlled daily production performance of the native population. In short, the resulting mission economic system, which held the Indians to certain notions of accountability, primarily by restricting their choices, nourished the Western view of income distribution based on effort. We propose that these procedures ultimately caused the Coahuiltecans to abandon their native beliefs, and gradually, to be absorbed into Spanish society. The 150 Coahuiltecan tribes ceased to exist as a distinct culture by the early 19th century. The exploitation and ultimate subjugation of the Coahuiltecan Indians parallels strikingly subsequent developments in Canada, Australia, and the Scottish Highlands.

Despite advances in historical knowledge the precise origins of accounting systems and recording procedures remain uncertain. Recently discovered writings suggest that accounting has played a very important role in various sections of Muslim society since 624 A.D. This paper argues that the accounting systems and recording procedures practiced in Muslim society commenced before the invention of the Arabic numerals in response to religious requirements, especially zakat, a mandatory religious levy imposed on Muslims in the year 2 H.

Financial crises have had a decisive influence on banking regulations in Spain. During the mid-19th century the publication of the financial statements of banks was considered key to the stability of the financial system. All new joint stock banking companies were to publish their statements in the Madrid Gazette in return for the privilege of limited liability. Similar obligations were placed on issuing banks. The copious publication of financial statements coincided with a period of financial prosperity. However, the crises that followed from 1864 to 1868 led to a reduction in the official publication of statements. This paper is concerned with an early response to crises in financial reporting. The study focuses on the relationship between the publication of accounting statements by banks and the GDP in Spain during the mid-19th century. The results suggest that the frequency of publication of financial statements may be an indicator of economic performance.