Yannick Lemarchand

ACCOUNTING REPRESENTATION AND THE SLAVE TRADE: THE GUIDE DU COMMERCE OF GAIGNAT DE L'AULNAIS

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...

Accounting as story telling: Merchant activities and commercial relations in eighteenth century France

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to extend to accounting and accounting texts the arguments of Phillips which suggest that organisational analysis can be enriched by a greater interface with narrative fiction as a means to bring organisations to life. The paper also introduces the work of Bottin which argues that accounting manuals can be considered as source documents for economic history, more than simply being of purely pedagogical value. Both approaches inform the research into the specialised accounting manual, the Design/methodology/approach - This paper uses archival-based historical methods to examine the Findings - In his manual, Gaignat recreates merchant activities and commercial relations of eighteenth century France. Gaignat does not content himself with re-copying material at his disposal or with creating fictitious examples. Rather, through his in-depth development of case studies and examples of actual accounting methods, he offers the reader insights into the strategic nature of the social and economic milieu in which commercial success might be achieved. Practical implications - The research approach is transferable to other settings, motivating renewed interest in the history of accounting literature. The stories related in the Originality/value - The research method is original in that the methodological approach is new to accounting history, but part of a debate within history more generally.

Merchant networks and accounting discourse: the role of accounting transactions in network relations

Adopting an archival-based, historical methods approach to the study of eighteenth-century merchant trading networks, we analyse base accounting transactions to demonstrate how accounting discourse was a critical conduit via which these commercial networks developed and were sustained. This study contributes to the extant literature on the place of social networks in fostering the growth of merchant capitalism by introducing the crucial role of accounting in this process. The use of social network analysis is novel in accounting history and reinforces the value of a combined qualitative–quantitative approach to historical studies of accounting.

International congresses of accountants in the twentieth century: a French perspective

Approximately 40 international congresses of accountants took place between 1889 and 2002. Before World War II, accountants were divided between two international networks: a group of Latin countries and a group led by the USA. Only the latter continued their activity after World War II. From that time onwards, there are two distinct periods: the period 1952–1977 saw ‘the rise’ of the profession to an international level; after 1977, the transformation of networks into permanent organisations (the International Accounting Standards Committee and the International Federation of Accountants) initiated ‘the fall’ of international congresses of accountants, which progressively became mere ‘accounting fairs’. The research method used in this paper involves a critical analysis of congress proceedings, professional journals and interviews.

Pierre Boucher and the 1803 edition of La science des négocians: accounting in the Republic

In 1803, Pierre Boucher of Bordeaux, France, published the second edition of an accounting textbook, La science des négocians et teneurs de livres, with sections on agricultural, nautical, and merchant accounting, an extensive commercial dictionary, discussions of accounting terminology and corrections, and numerous journal entries. Bouchers books appeared at a time of enormous change in French accounting, tracking momentous economic growth. Using the framework of new institutional economics, we argue that Bouchers work contributed to technical improvements in business records that permitted the lowering of transaction costs, at a time when such improvements could bring high returns in the merchandising and agricultural sectors.

Revisiting the birth of industrial accounting in France, a return to the actors involved

ABSTRACT This study returns to earlier investigations of cost accounting in French enterprises. It has been demonstrated that apart from a few exceptions, industrial accounting was established later in France than in Great Britain, mirroring the lag which one observes with respect to industrialisation. Our objective is to examine the points during which these changes took place, in pre-existing enterprises or in new ones, and to explore more deeply how and why these changes occurred. Various explanatory factors can be considered, but it is above all the actors involved in these changes and their personal trajectories on which the emphasis is placed in this study. In this period of transition, before double-entry bookkeeping (DEB) had been diffused more broadly, or even generally adopted, accounting innovation in industry frequently seemed to have been carried out by individuals who shared trade in common, and lived or had lived in regions where DEB had long been practised compared to elsewhere. Taking the geographic dimension into account argues for a comparative history of accounting that not only juxtaposes parallel stories, from one side or the other of the current borders of nation-states, but rather delves more deeply into a level of analysis that concerns itself with the spatial circulation of accounting techniques and their imprints over the longue durée.

Vingt ans d'histoire de la comptabilité

En depit du titre retenu, ce n’est que durant les dix derniere annees qu’un courant de recherche historique s’est developpe au sein de l’AFC. Present dans ses congres depuis le debut des annees 90, ce theme donne lieu, depuis 1995, a des manifestations annuelles specifiques qui beneficient d’une audience internationale. Favorise par le developpement de l’histoire des entreprises, encourage par le debat epistemologique au sein des sciences de gestion et aiguillonne par l’exemple anglo-americain, cet essor s’est traduit par la constitution d’un large corpus de connaissances. Meme si l’on peut deplorer l’absence de synthese en permettant une diffusion elargie, il temoigne du developpement d’une reelle expertise collective, reconnue par les historiens. L’ensemble constitue un capital precieux dont nous souhaitons qu’il permette le developpement d’etudes historiques plus operationnelles et qu’il contribue a elargir la prise en compte de la dimension historique a l’ensemble des disciplines de la gestion.