Thomas N. Tyson

A theoretical primer for evaluating and conducting historical research in accounting

Historical research in accounting is flourishing as prestigious journals worldwide encourage authors to incorporate history into their submissions. Although a number of accounting academics are aware of these opportunities, others may be reluctant to participate because they lack an understanding of the rudiments of historical scholarship. This paper is geared to those scholars who seek to write about accountings past but are unacquainted with historical methods, unsure how to begin, and generally unfamiliar with the debates that are now taking place in the field. In this paper we discuss the formal theoretical structures of history as a discipline; differentiate history as event, story, and way of knowing; consider the problem of historical facticity and the subjectivity of the historian; examine the role historical evidence plays in the reconstruction of the past, and identify the forms of historical construction and alternate historical methods. We also distinguish between history and social science and summarise the current debate between conventional and critical accounting historians. Publication possibilities are also addressed.

Accounting in service to racism: monetizing slave property in the antebellum South

Abstract The contemporary scene in accounting history features a growing interest in the “suppressed voices” that have been systematically excluded from the processes of accounting. Notwithstanding, the bulk of critical studies on disenfranchised groups has focused on gender issues, suppressed economic classes, and the roadblocks encountered by ethnic minorities attempting to enter the accounting profession. The few papers that have chronicled the use of accounting on slave plantations have viewed these techniques as essentially unproblematic, neutral conveyances of information needed by decision makers. This paper adopts a more critical perspective of accounting’s past and uses plantation records to examine its particular role in the commoditization, objectification, and dehumanization of an entire class of people. Its overriding purpose is not to examine the economics (i.e., viability or profitability) of slavery, but rather to illustrate how accounting practices of measurement, valuation, and classification served slave owners and sustained slavery’s institutions. We readily acknowledge that neither accounting nor accountants constructed slavery, but we do believe that accounting practices reinforced racially based social relationships by converting slave exchanges, holdings, and outputs into monetary terms while completely ignoring the qualitative, human dimension of slavery.

Keeping the Record Straight: Foucauldian Revisionism and Nineteenth Century US Cost Accounting History

In a series of related articles, several authors argue that the establishment of military superintendency at the US Armories in 1841 enabled Daniel Tyler′s “pathbreaking inspection” in 1832 to exert disciplinary power over labour and stimulate subsequent productivity improvements. In essence, the authors identify a critical event, place it in a Foucauldian power/knowledge framework, and accredit it with major impact on accounting development. A careful re‐examination of archival material discloses, however, that in these “new” histories, factual material is selectively presented and questionably interpreted, apparently to bolster a disciplinary‐based historical viewpoint. Re‐examines letters, documents, and secondary source material and compares this evidence to the factual material presented in the new Foucauldian histories. Arrives at a more traditional interpretation of events at the Springfield Armory, one that minimizes the historical impact of Tyler′s work and West Point trained superintendency. The...

Theoretical perspectives on accounting for labor on slave plantations of the USA and British West Indies

The paper focuses on accounting for slave workers during one of the most morally culpable periods in Western civilization and is concerned with issues central to labor – modes of production, labor control, and labor productivity. It incorporates secondary sources and examination of records from over 150 different US and BWI plantations to identify contextual factors that motivated planters to organize their workforce in a particular way. The paper specifically describes the ganging and tasking methods of extracting surplus value and indicates how these methods fit within three common paradigmatic interpretations of accounting history – labor process, power/knowledge/discipline, and economic rationalism. In summary, ganging exemplified a pre‐modern approach to organizing labor in which planters relied primarily on physical power to compel work effort and increase output. Tasking incorporated individual work rates and included more sophisticated practices of surveillance, measurement, normalization, and socialization. Tasking became economically rational by responding to changing market conditions and by incorporating procedures and incentives to spur greater productivity. Therefore, tasking may be perceived as a thematic precursor to accounting‐based disciplinary controls like standard costing and a transitionary element from pre‐modern to modern control systems.

The Evolution of Standard Costing in the U.K. and U.S.: From Decision Making to Control

Decision making and control are two fundamental components of industrial management that are aided by accounting information. This article traces the evolution of standard costing in the U.K. and U.S. and describes how it has served these two purposes over time. At the start of the industrial revolution, standard costing, in the form of past actual costs, aided managers in make-or-buy, pricing, outsourcing and other routine and special decisions. In the late nineteenth century, as the mass production of homogeneous products became more common, predetermined, norm-based standard costs were promoted as the means to control operations and reduce waste. The use of predetermined costs was recommended by both academic and professional branches well into the twentieth century. Since the mid-1980s, norm-based standards have come under fire for not providing appropriate strategic signals in an era of global competition, continuous improvement and perpetual cost reduction. This article compares the nature of standard costing practices in the British Industrial Revolution with those that evolved in the U.S. under scientific management. The enquiry is not limited to double-entry systems and, like Miller and Napier (1993), the domain is broadened to include other forms of cost-keeping practices. We utilize primary and secondary sources to argue that the environment and rationales for standard costs have changed fundamentally over time. It is speculated that in the future standard costing will be used far less for individual accountability or operational control, but will return to its decision-making roots in the form of long-run cost targets that benchmark the success of continuous cost-reduction efforts.

Monetising human life: slave valuations on US and British West Indian plantations

This paper examines specifically a frequently employed purpose of accounting on slave plantations in the antebellum US and the pre-emancipation British West Indies (BWI) -the evaluation of slaves as assets. We attempt to explain why this exercise was undertaken and the processes involved. Slaves were paraded past plantation managers and overseers, often in the company of appraisers and bookkeepers, where narrow distinctions were made on the basis of qualitative information such as physical characteristics and productive efficiency. The paper considers certain comparative features between the two slave environments, such as the greater concern in the BWI with linking valuations to the skill sets of slaves and a valuation premium on male slaves in the US which did not exist in the Caribbean. The paper concludes with a consideration of certain moral issues of slavery, such as the potential implication of accounting and accountants in a repressive regime and the attribution of contemporary morality to an historical epoch long past.

The History of Management Accounting in the U.S.

Abstract This chapter chronicles the history of management accounting in the U.S. from 1800 to 1970. A major theme of the first century covered was the search for the origins of purposeful cost accounting in venues such as the New England textile industry, the Springfield Armory, the railroads, and the metal-working firms where the scientific management movement was born. The rise of the mega-corporation and the genesis of managerialism are key events of the early twentieth century. Standard costing and budgeting were essential developments. The chapter concludes with our analysis of certain components of management accountings conventional wisdom as of 1970, accompanied by a view of the disciplines future directions.

Inside contracting at the Waltham Watch Company

Accounting historians continue to debate the development of cost accounting procedures in late nineteenth‐century US mass‐production industries. While conventional historians (economic rationalists) emphasize efficiency and co‐ordination, labour process and other “critical” scholars prioritize social, political, and ideological concerns. One neglected, but significant, aspect of this controversy is inside contracting. Clawson presented an important overview of inside contracting at several prominent US manufacturing establishments, including the Waltham Watch Company (WWC). Clawson’s work is significant because his most salient remarks have been cited by scholars who advocate the “new accounting history”. Discusses inside contracting in general terms within the socio‐political context of nineteenth‐century US mass‐production industries. Subsequently, evaluates specific WWC archival data from both the economic rationalist and labour process perspectives, the reasons for inside contracting’s abandonment, and the impact of inside contracting on cost accounting developments.

Accounting, Coercion and Social Control during Apprenticeship: Converting Slave Workers to Wage Workers in the British West Indies, C.1834-1838

The paper describes the nature and role of accounting during apprenticeship – the transition period from slavery to waged labor in the British West Indies. Planters, colonial legislators, and Parliamentary leaders all feared that freed slaves would flee to open lands unless they were bound to plantations. Thus, rather than relying entirely on economic incentives to maintain viable plantations, the Abolition Act and subsequent local ordinances embodied a complex synthesis of paternalism, categorization, penalties, punishments, and social controls that were collectively intended to create a class of willing waged laborers. The primary role of accounting within this structure was to police work arrangements rather than to induce apprentices to become willing workers. This post-emancipation, pre-industrial formalization of punishment, valuation, and task systems furnish powerful insights into the extent of accountancys role in sustaining Caribbean slave regimes.

The Impact of Practitioner Presentations on Student Attitudes About Accounting

Abstract Accounting professors and admissions personnel are keenly aware that the number of college students majoring in accounting has declined sharply over the last 10 or 15 years. The authors of this article argue that carefully planned practitioner presentations in the first introductory accounting course can help stem this decline. They administered pre- and postcourse questionnaires to four sections of the Introductory Accounting I course (c. 140 students). In two of the four sections of the course, students were exposed to two 30-minute presentations by two different groups of accounting practitioners. The data revealed that students who attended presentations displayed far more positive attitudinal changes toward accountants, the accounting profession, and careers in accounting.