Juan Baños Sánchez-Matamoros

Accounting and control in the founding of the New Settlements of Sierra Morena and Andalucia, 1767-72

Recently, a growing literature in accounting history has provided sociological interpretations of historical facts in which accounting was involved. Foucaults governmentality concept has contributed to such analysis, specifically in 19th and 20th centurys cases. However, the analysis of 18th century and, specially, colonial organizations has not been made yet. Thus, this work is devoted to analyse how accounting is implicated in the control of a Spanish colonial project. The relationships between accounting and the enlightened discourses that improved the colonies are clear. Conversely, the role of the resistance in this case allows questioning the refereed accounting literature in governmentality.

Accounting at the boundaries of the sacred: the regulation of the Spanish brotherhoods in the eighteenth century

Recently, accounting research on religious organizations has concentrated on the sacred/profane dichotomy. We analyse how dissimilar perceptions of the sacred led to different roles of accounting in sacred organizations and, consequently, to different behaviours in a process of accountability. We study the accountability process imposed after 1769 by Spanish Enlightenment governments upon the brotherhoods, secular institutions within the Catholic Church that were formed to conduct charitable activities and improve worship, and that broadly influenced Spanish society. In their responses to a government census, most of the brotherhoods obscured accounting information. Finally, the government enacted a law that was intended to subjugate the brotherhoods to the civil power but did not actually impose accountability on them. We conclude that all those involved in this process shared a perception that rendering accounts was part of the sacred sphere, yet considered accountability as a profane tool.

Publishing patterns of accounting history research in generalist journals: Lessons from the past

The success of accounting history research has been evident through its recognition in the broader accounting literature in the 1990s. On this basis, we would expect that research in accounting history should display patterns of publication in generalist journals that are similar to those for other accounting research. However, we do not find such a similarity. First, accounting history has a relatively limited presence in generalist journals. Second, in the UK an elite group apparently controls accounting history research. Finally, there is cause to question the supposedly “local” nature of premier accounting journals in the US and the “international” nature of such journals in the UK.The success of accounting history research has been evident through its recognition in the broader accounting literature in the 1990s. On this basis, we would expect that research in accounting history should display patterns of publication in generalist journals that are similar to those for other accounting research. However, we do not find such a similarity. First, accounting history has a relatively limited presence in generalist journals. Second, in the UK an elite group apparently controls accounting history research. Finally, there is cause to question the supposedly “local” nature of premier accounting journals in the US and the “international” nature of such journals in the UK.

Accounting for the production of coins: The enactment and implementation of the Spanish Ordinances of the Mints, 1730:

Critical accounting history literature has been scant on the role played by accounting in government coinage policy and its implications for governmental discourse. For this reason, we have examined the implementation of the Spanish Ordinances of the Mints enacted in 1730 and its accounting implications. This analysis allows us to observe the influence of accounting procedures over the government’s monetary policy. We aim to contribute to the literature a new perspective on the role of accounting in governmental and state policies, far beyond the improvement of state income, and concerned more with ensuring the value of the coins and thereby improving commercial activity and the economy in general.

War or the business of God: Sacred mission, accounting and Spanish military hospitals in the 18th century

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to establish the importance of accounting in the management of Spanish military hospitals by the St John’s Order (SJO) of the Roman Catholic Church in the eighteenth century, a time of crisis between the Church and the State. The sacred mission of the Order required that they had a significant role outside the Roman Catholic Church in the care and treatment of the sick and infirm which required them to establish hospitals throughout Spain and across the lands that it had conquered. The study establishes that accounting played a key role in ensuring the success of the unconventional commercial relationship between the SJO and the government and the military. Design/methodology/approach - – Niebuhr’s typology is used to help understand how accounting practices were consistent, indeed essential, expectations of the sacred mission of the SJO and not something which represented a denial of the Order’s religious beliefs. The paper relies primarily on documents and other material located in Spanish archives. Findings - – The SJO accepted that secular accounting and accountability processes were relevant to their search for God’s love and to showing this love to others. The need for the Order to be accountable to the State was not regarded as profane and antithetical to their religious beliefs. Adopting Niebuhr’s typology of religion and society, this study concludes that the Order was an extraordinary example of Christ the transformer of the culture. Originality/value - – This study recognises the need to deepen the understanding of the way in which accounting practices have often played a critical role in the activities of religious organisations by examining an extraordinary example of one organisation which was engaged in an unusual, ongoing, highly complex commercial relationship with the Spanish State.

Management Accounting Change and Agency in Embedded Situations

Focusing on internal micro-processes, this study contributes to the management accounting change literature showing what conditions allow agency in embedded situations. We analyse a family company in the period 1904–1969 in that, after more than 50 years of ongoing reproduction of highly institutionalised management practice, the chief executive officer (CEO) fostered a radical institutional transformation in whose process the implementation of a cost accounting system was driven. As main conclusions, first, we argue that management accounting change drivers are strongly influenced by actors’ interests and by the perception and interpretation that actors make about institutional contradictions or external critical events and their effects on the organisation. Second, we shed light about the interrelated influences that institutions and individuals exert on meanings and roles attributed to management accounting in institutional change, even impelling the implementation of a completely new system to support it. Finally, we illustrate that both process and content of accounting change are moulded by normative influences intertwined with the cognitive schemes of actors involved.

Symbolic capital, accounting and caciques in local political life: The charity of Mr Rafael Tenorio (1909–20)

The contributions of accounting to discourses of domination and repression across a variety of times and places have assumed a significant place in the accounting literature. The present study extends this research to early twentieth-century Spain by establishing how accounting provided the means to enhance the position of powerful groups of individuals, known as caciques or chiefs, who dominated rural village life. The caciques were capable of ruthlessly exerting their power to control village life, its politics, economic activities and social relations. Bourdieu’s framework is used to study the relationship between caciques and a charitable organisation which operated during the period 1909–20 in the village of Villalba del Alcor, situated in the province of Huelva, southwest Spain. The study identifies the way in which accounting practices became essential weapons in the political struggle between competing caciques to dominate a field by resorting to the symbolic capital by which accounting practices are characterised. In this particular struggle, the poly-vocal ability of accounting played a key role.

Innovation in accounting thought and practice – an introduction

Innovation is crucial to the evolution of human society. Accounting, as a complex human construction, both defines and reflects our behaviour (Rose and Miller, 1992). It has emerged in different settings across time and space and plays a key role in ordering the affairs of individuals, organisations and society. Accounting not only emerges but also changes. Historical accounting researchers are not indifferent to this evolution. A variety of approaches have been used to examine the evolution of accounting ideas, thought and practice in different historical periods. From this point of view, and since the opus prima by AC Littleton entitled Accounting Evolution to 1900 (Littleton, 1933), accounting history research has expanded in its coverage of periods, areas, episodes and institutions (Carnegie and Potter, 2000; Carmona, 2004, 2006; Walker, 2008) and elucidated the ability of the human being to invent, to innovate and to change. In addition, the lenses used in approaching accounting history have been widened (Gaffikin, 2011; Carnegie, 2014). This special issue comprises six contributions, the earlier versions of which were presented at the seventh Accounting History International Conference (7AHIC), held in Seville, Spain, in September 2013. The authors of these works are from France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the USA. The topics studied within the settings under examination involve professional associations, accounting authors, government agencies, the adoption of forms of accounting regulation, private companies and not-for-profit organisations. Interestingly, the periods studied relate mainly to the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Baker and Quere draw upon two theoretical models describing state regulation of economic activity in order to analyse two contrasting historical periods. The first is the Colbert period under Louis XIV in seventeenth-century France. The second is the United States, in the early twentieth century, when the federal government sought to control capitalist activity. The first theoretical model employed is that of Miller (1990) who maintained that the principal “reason of state” for intervention in business and accounting practices during the Colbert period was “military competition” between France and other European powers. The second model is based on Clarke (2004) 596396 ACH0010.1177/1032373215596396Accounting HistoryEditorial research-article2015

Accounting in the dynamic of discourses: The rise and fall of the Spanish system of intendants (1718–1724)

Most accounting literature based on the Foucauldian frame has explained the role of accounting in the imposition of a governmental programme over a population, without considering the consequences in terms of resistance. This paper analyses the state power exerted over populations by means of accounting and also the role of accounting in cases of contestation and resistance towards the various agents of government. To this end, we have studied the enactment, implementation and fall of the Instrucción de Intendentes (Instruction for Intendants) of 1718 in Spain, the roles of the different actors involved, and how accounting was used to defend these conceptions. The change in government by means of accounting is an example of what Foucault identified as the dynamic of discourses.

Institutional entrepreneurship in a religious order: The 1741 Constituciones of the Hospitaller order of Saint John of God

An extensive branch of accounting literature studies accounting and religion. The variety of religious organizations studied, theoretical approaches, and roles assigned to accounting are as extensive as the range of the values that are rooted in religious organizations. However, the literature has not yet described the role of the individual in the spread of accounting and accountability into a religious organization and what leads the individual to advocate such change. The concept of institutional entrepreneurship can shed light on this topic. To this end, this work studies the change in the Constituciones (rules) of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God in eighteenth-century Spain. Father Ortega, as General of the Order, played a key role supporting the implementation of accounting and accountability techniques.An extensive branch of accounting literature studies accounting and religion. The variety of religious organizations studied, theoretical approaches, and roles assigned to accounting are as extensi...