Warwick Funnell

The narrative and its place in the new accounting history: the rise of the counternarrative

Traditional history has sought to provide narrative accounts of the past which can be accepted as factual, devoid of fictions and therefore true. This image has come under strong attack from new historians who denounce the narrative as a literary convention which mixes fiction (myth) and fact rather than being a model of an extant, discoverable reality. The narrative is also accused of being the means of privileging some accounts of history and thereby enhancing the position of social elites. This paper rejects condemnation of the ability of narrative history to provide reliable renditions of accounting’s past and promotes the role of narrativity in the “new” accounting history. It is shown that new accounting history, whilst critical of the results of traditional accounting history, currently still finds merit in the narrative as both the form in which historical events occur and as a means of telling alternative stories or counternarratives.

Preserving history in accounting: seeking common ground between “new” and “old” accounting history

Points out that traditional conceptions of accounting history and its achievements are being challenged by new accounting historians who are informed by radical philosophies and approaches to history. Suggests that this is a belated reflection of movements within the wider discipline of history which can be traced to the annalists in the 1930s and more recently to the influence of postmodernism. Observes that at issue between the traditional and new history are the importance of facts and the pursuit of truth by traditional historians, noting that new accounting historians have decried the reactionary effects of traditional history, which they propose to overcome by substituting accounting as an interested discourse for accounting as a neutral, socially sterile technique. Explains that, as the conventional form of historical writing, the narrative form also has been disparaged. Concludes by arguing that accounting historians should be tolerant of different approaches to accounting history.

Executive coercion and state audit: A processual analysis of the responses of the Australian audit office to the dilemmas of efficiency auditing1978‐84

The introduction of efficiency auditing in Australian Commonwealth state audit created a level of stress and threat for the Auditor‐General never previously encountered. Using insights from processual analysis as developed by Turner to demonstrate the pressures on state audit, the paper focuses on the principal events constituting the short life of the new Efficiency Audit Division (1978‐84) which had been established within the Australian Audit Office to develop efficiency auditing methods and to carry out efficiency audits. It documents for the first time a level of executive intrusion in state audit which contradicts the image promoted in Westminster democracies of a robustly independent state auditor and highlights the political nature of state audit.

Military influences on the evolution of public sector audit and accounting 1830–1880

Accounting historians have turned their attention to the contributions of military manufacturing establishments and personnel in their search to establish the origins and uses of techniques which were to become the precursors of modern management accounting. In this paper military influences are shown to have been significant also in the evolution of modern public sector audit and accounting in Britain in the nineteenth century. Parliaments still suspicious of their military establishments, both navy and army, finally realised in the early 1830s that controls over spending levels were insufficient to ensure that the wishes of parliament were being followed. Audit reforms in the defence departments to strengthen executive accountability to parliament were extended to all departments in 1866. These innovations were to determine the accounting and auditing practices of government departments in Britain and other Westminster governments for over a century until the managerial reforms of the 1980s.

Accounting and the moral economy of illness in Victorian England: the Newcastle Infirmary

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the Victorian attitude to the poor by focussing on the health care provided at a large provincial hospital, the Newcastle Infirmary. Design/methodology/approach - The archives of the Newcastle Infirmary are reviewed alongside the local trade directories. These primary sources are examined in conjunction with the writings of contemporary social theorists on poverty. Findings - At a time when poverty was seen as a sin, an act against God, it would be easy to assume that the Victorians faced no moral dilemma in dismissing the poor, particularly what were seen as the “undeserving poor”, out of hand. Yet, the paper observes how accounting was used both to persuade the wealthier citizens to contribute funds and to enable the hospital to exercise compassion in treating paupers despite this being prohibited under the hospitals rules. Such a policy conflicted with the dominant utilitarian view of society, which emphasised the twin pillars of economic expediency and self-help. Research limitations/implications - More case studies are needed of other hospitals to ascertain how typical the Newcastle Infirmary was of the voluntary hospital sector as a whole. Originality/value - Although many histories of British hospitals exist and some have examined how accounting was used to manage within these institutions, the concern has not been with accounting as a moral practice.

Accounting for justice: entitlement, want and the Irish famine of 1845-7.

The evolution of modern accounting consists essentially of a series of pragmatic responses to the needs of capital. Accounting is implicated, therefore, in the maintenance and creation of societies in which relations are primarily defined in terms of property, however it is distributed, and justice is determined by the sanctity of property rights. Accounting historians are encouraged to broaden the compass of their research to include the association between accounting and justice which is already well recognised in the critical accounting literature. Theories of justice, especially those of 19th century political theorists such as Bentham and Senior, and more recently that of Nozick, are used to explore the close association between property, accounting and justice at the time of the Irish potato famine of 1845–7.

Accounting on the frontline: cost accounting, military efficiency and the South African War

Abstract The South African War (1899–1902) exposed significant defects in the administration of the British army which precipitated several parliamentary inquiries. The findings of these inquiries convinced the British Government that army administrators, but especially those responsible for supplying the army, had given insufficient attention to the military benefits which might be obtained from the methods and experience of business. The absence of cost accounting systems throughout the War Office and on the field of battle, resulting in problems for financial management and military efficiency, was given particular prominence by the War Office (Reconstitution) Committee (Esher Committee) and the Royal Commission on War Stores in South Africa. The paper broadens the compass of the debate about the evolution of cost accounting in the latter decades of the 19th and early 20th centuries by demonstrating how the advantages of cost accounting were clearly established and accepted by many senior civilian military administrators and politicians as a result of British experience during the South African War.

Distortions of History, Accounting and the Paradox of Werner Sombart

Sombart’s belief that double‐entry bookkeeping was essential to the development of capitalism has been criticized by both accounting and economic historians. His substantive conclusions concerning double‐entry bookkeeping have been rejected mainly because they result from his selective and self‐serving rendition of history. Accounting historians have been preoccupied especially with denouncing his exaggerated appreciation of double‐entry bookkeeping. They argue that he attributes far too much importance to its potentialities in preference to the more sober reality found in the historical record. This paper shows that in their denunciation of Sombart’s conclusions and his faulty history, accounting history researchers have been seemingly oblivious to the way in which Sombart’s anti‐Semitism shaped his appreciation of double‐entry bookkeeping. He accuses Jews, as exceptional exponents of rational profit calculation, of perpetrating the evils of capitalism. His views of double‐entry bookkeeping and the history of economic systems betrayed a strong attachment to a romantic conception of German history which supported German anti‐Semitism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sombart’s denunciation of Jewish influences extended from their business practices to observations of Jews that were consistently anti‐Semitic and sympathetic to those of the Nazis.

The Reason Why: The English Constitution and the Latent Promise of Liberty in the History of Accounting

Abstract In 1215 Magna Carta determined freedom from executive oppression, or liberty, as the essential principle of the English Constitution and parliament as the bulwark against executive attempts to diminish the liberty of individuals. This constitutional precedence of liberty was confirmed after the Revolution in 1688 by the constitutional settlement which strengthened the financial accountability of the executive to parliament. Regular accounting for military expenditures especially became a critical component of the new accountability measures. Despite the overwhelming significance of liberty for the English Constitution and the contributions of accounting to preserving liberty, public sector accounting continues to attract few accounting historians. As a consequence, the vast historical resources contained in British Parliamentary Papers and the records of parliamentary debates continue to go largely unnoticed by all but a few accounting historians.

Rethinking the sacred and secular divide: Accounting and accountability practices in the Diocese of Ferrara (1431-1457)

Purpose - Informed by the work of Laughlin and Booth, this paper aims to analyze the role of accounting and accountability practices within the fifteenth century Roman Catholic Church, more specifically within the Diocese of Ferrara (northern Italy), in order to determine the presence of a sacred-secular dichotomy. Pope Eugenius IV had embarked on a comprehensive reform of the Church to counter the spreading moral corruption within the clergy and the subsequent disaffection with the Church by many believers. The reforms were notable not only for the Popes determination to restore the moral authority and power of the Church, but also for the essential contributions of “profane” financial and accounting practices to the success of the reforms. Design/methodology/approach - Original fifteenth century Latin documents and account books of the Diocese of Ferrara are used to highlight the link between the new sacred values imposed by Pope Eugenius IVs reforms and accounting and accountability practices. Findings - The documents reveal that secular accounting and accountability practices were not regarded as necessarily antithetical to religious values, as would be expected by Laughlin and Booth. Instead, they were seen to assume a role which was complementary to the Churchs religious mission. Indeed, they were essential to its sacred mission during a period in which the Pope sought to arrest the moral decay of the clergy and reinstate the Churchs authority. Research limitations/implications - The paper shows that the sacred-secular dichotomy cannot be considered as Originality/value - The paper presents a critique of the sacred-secular divide paradigm by considering an under-researched period and a non-Anglo Saxon context.