Accounting History current issue

Editorial: accounting in other places, accounting by other peoples

Buhr, N. — 2009-01-20

Juggling the books: the use of accounting information in circus in Australia

Cummings, L., St Leon, M. V. — 2009-01-20

This article outlines the role of accounting information in circus in Australia in the approximate period 1847—1963. Responding to the call for an increased historical narrative in accounting, we have studied the literature, documentation and personal memoirs concerning circus in Australia. From our examination, we have abstracted and analysed material that expresses, or implies, the use of accounting information. Themes identified include the magnitude and nature of capital investments; ticket pricing and revenues; the nature and composition of operational costs; standards of internal control; insolvencies and liquidations. We have established that, despite elementary levels of education, many circus people exhibited an intuitive grasp of fundamental accounting principles, albeit in a rudimentary form. Nevertheless, since financial and management reporting practises were typically unsystematic, and even non-existent, in all but the largest circus enterprises, Australian circus management may not have been optimized.

The Second World War and Soviet accounting

Djatej, A., Sarikas, R. — 2009-01-20

This article examines the rapid changes to Soviet accounting practice during World War II. The adaptation of the pre-war accounting system was required to meet the extraordinary demands of a conflict that saw as much as 40 percent of the national population under German occupation. Many large production facilities were rapidly relocated out of the war zone to the Urals, Central Asia, and the Far East. Soviet wartime accounting was focused only on contributing to victory. Sometimes this meant establishing extremely simplified allocation procedures; sometimes this meant creating new accounts for enterprise assets temporarily under enemy control, and sometimes this meant extensive and thorough procedures to safeguard economic resources and military property. For scholars the war provided an example of how accounting can rapidly evolve to meet changing national priorities.

Turnover decisions of women accountants: using personal histories to understand the relative influence of domestic obligations

Lightbody, M. G. — 2009-01-20

Studies of accountants' turnover intentions have been unable to demonstrate a clear link between conventional job-related antecedents and women's higher rates of turnover. This study utilizes narrative histories of three women, including the author herself, who have exhibited actual turnover behaviour to examine the factors underpinning their turnover decisions. The findings demonstrate that while the study participants did identify job related factors, their turnover decisions were more significantly influenced by a complex interaction of job and domestic factors. This article thus recommends that an understanding of women's turnover decisions must first utilize research methods such as narrative history that allow the complexity of factors influencing their decisions to be identified and second, must incorporate greater consideration of specific domestic drivers of the cumulative workload/stresses of both job and domestic factors.

Accounting, gender and history: the life of Minna Canth

Virtanen, A. — 2009-01-20

This article introduces Minna Canth, one of the earliest businesswomen in Finland, although better known as a pioneer of Finnish realistic literature and champion of the women's movement. The historical study method is applied together with a narrative and interpretative approach to examine accounting and gender based on Minna Canth's bookkeeping and correspondence in the 1880s. Minna Canth's story brings together three realities that normally do not meet: women's everyday life, business, and literature. The study introduces an early female merchant who was knowledgeable about financial issues and managed her own business affairs independently. An intended contribution of this study to accounting and gender research is to extend the current knowledge about women's roles in the nineteenth century and their use of accounting at that time in history.

Accounting in ancient Sri Lanka: some evidence of the accounting and auditing practices of Buddhist monasteries during 815--1017 AD

Liyanarachchi, G. A. — 2009-01-20

This article identifies evidence of the accounting and auditing practices that prevailed in ancient Sri Lanka (from 815 to 1017 AD) and discusses motives for using such practices by a religious institution. The archival method is used to collect data. The main sources of data collected are detailed translations of rock inscriptions, which have been carried out by various personnel. Archival evidence shows that the Buddhist monasteries were required to keep accounting records and to annually read these records aloud publicly. Considering the peculiar nature of the Buddhist monastery, this study concludes that accounting was relied upon to maintain the reputation of a monastery and that of its members, and to maintain goodwill among Buddhist monks, rulers, and people. The prevalence of accounting and auditing practices in ancient Sri Lanka adds further support to the theory that the origin of record keeping and accounting practices dates back to ancient times.

Defining Islamic accounting: current issues, past roots

Napier, C. — 2009-01-20

The emergence of Islamic banks and other financial institutions since the 1970s has stimulated a modern literature that has identified itself as addressing "Islamic accounting". Much of this literature is prescriptive, though studies of actual practice, and of attitudes to proposed alternatives, are beginning to emerge. Historical research into Islamic accounting is still in a process of development, with a range of studies based on both primary archives and manuals of accounting providing growing insight into accounting in state and private contexts in the Middle East. Other parts of the Muslim world are also the focus of historical accounting research. There is still much to discover, however, before historians can determine the influence of Middle Eastern accounting ideas and practices in other parts of the world. Moreover, the term "Islamic accounting" may simply be a convenient label to group together quite disparate accounting practices and ideas across time and space.

The Livret system: the interface of accounting and indentured labor in British Guiana

Tyson, T. N., Davie, S. S.K. — 2009-01-20

Between 1838 and 1920, over 200,000 Indians immigrated to British Guiana (BG) as indentured workers on sugar plantations (estates). During this period, different labor types (freedmen, indentured workers, and free immigrants) coexisted on the same BG estates and were paid the same wages for comparable tasks. In 1873, in response to a commission of enquiry to improve the treatment of workers, the BG legislature introduced the Livret system. Livrets were to be kept by each indentured worker and contain the cumulative wages earned during the indenture period. In theory, Livrets would promote greater productivity, help mitigate pay disputes, and enable hard-working immigrants to end their indenture in less than five years. This article describes the Livret system and speculates on the reasons for its introduction and early abandonment. It contributes to the growing body of literature that critically assesses the interface of accounting and labor during the British colonial period.

"In the interests of the children": accounting in the control of Aboriginal family endowment payments

Greer, S. — 2009-01-20

This article contributes to an expanding literature concerned with the instrumentality of accounting and the consequences of its use within government—Indigenous relations. It examines a single case of how accounting was employed within the Australian state of New South Wales to manipulate the income and spending of Aboriginal women. The article explores how ccounting was integral to the control and administration of the New South Wales Family Endowment Payments; a policy intended to reconstitute Aboriginal women according to particular norms of citizenship. The article not only allows us to better understand the roles of accounting in such historical practices of social engineering, but also illustrates that the objectives for such programmes are not simple and that often they attempt to satisfy the competing interests of the social and the economic.