Accounting History

Editorial

The 'Proper Trust of Liberty': Economical Reform, the English Constitution and the Protections of Accounting During the American War of Independence

Prior to the nineteenth century the more lucrative public offices under the direct control of the Crown as part of the civil list were given as sinecures to favoured individuals. The use of these sinecures, pensions and other valuable appointments provided the Crown with the means by which it could buy influence and, thereby, undermine the constitutional authority and independence of parliament. In the main, civilian officers of the Crown were not accountable to parliament. Financial accounta...

'Controlling' As an Academic Discipline: The Development of Management Accounting and Management Control Research in German-Speaking Countries Between 1970 and 2003

This article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the structures and the development of management accounting and management control research in German-speaking countries between 1970 and 2003 as well as to the literature on "Comparative International Accounting History." It is mainly set in the "archive" using published articles and an empirical survey to describe and explain the development of controlling as an academic discipline in German-speaking countries. Eight explorative r...

Implementation of Supra-National Policies: Lessons From the Nordic Countries' Experiences of European Directives

The article analyses the process of implementation of the Accounting Directives in the Nordic countries as a case study of supra-national regulation. The experiences in the Nordic countries are documented for an English-speaking readership based on the drafts of the legislation, commentaries by the implementing committees and interviews with individuals involved in the process. The article concludes that, in the current economic and political climate, the European Union has apparently drawn o...

The Struggle to Develop Accounting Practices in the Australian Girl Guides, 1945-9: A Microhistorical Approach

There has been limited accounting history research in the areas of nonprofit organizations and women in a non-business environment. This article addresses these two gaps by considering accounting history in a large female-managed nonprofit organization, the Australian Girl Guides Association (GGA). In order to do this the article uses a microhistorical reconstruction of an individual to penetrate underlying motivations (Parker, 1999, p.31) and to allow the reader "to draw conclusions from a s...

Book Review

Financial Reporting in the Uk: A History of the Financial Accounting Standards Committee 1969-1990