Accounting History

The Second World War and Soviet Accounting

This article examines the rapid changes to Soviet accounting practice during World War II. The adaptation of the pre-war accounting system was required to meet the extraordinary demands of a conflict that saw as much as 40 percent of the national population under German occupation. Many large production facilities were rapidly relocated out of the war zone to the Urals, Central Asia, and the Far East. Soviet wartime accounting was focused only on contributing to victory. Sometimes this meant ...

Juggling the Books: The Use of Accounting Information in Circus in Australia

This article outlines the role of accounting information in circus in Australia in the approximate period 1847-1963. Responding to the call for an increased historical narrative in accounting, we have studied the literature, documentation and personal memoirs concerning circus in Australia. From our examination, we have abstracted and analysed material that expresses, or implies, the use of accounting information. Themes identified include the magnitude and nature of capital investments; tick...

Turnover Decisions of Women Accountants: Using Personal Histories to Understand the Relative Influence of Domestic Obligations

Studies of accountants' turnover intentions have been unable to demonstrate a clear link between conventional job-related antecedents and women's higher rates of turnover. This study utilizes narrative histories of three women, including the author herself, who have exhibited actual turnover behaviour to examine the factors underpinning their turnover decisions. The findings demonstrate that while the study participants did identify job related factors, their turnover decisions were more sign...

Accounting in Ancient Sri Lanka: Some Evidence of the Accounting and Auditing Practices of Buddhist Monasteries During 815-1017 Ad

This article identifies evidence of the accounting and auditing practices that prevailed in ancient Sri Lanka (from 815 to 1017 AD) and discusses motives for using such practices by a religious institution. The archival method is used to collect data. The main sources of data collected are detailed translations of rock inscriptions, which have been carried out by various personnel. Archival evidence shows that the Buddhist monasteries were required to keep accounting records and to annually r...

Accounting, Gender and History: The Life of Minna Canth

This article introduces Minna Canth, one of the earliest businesswomen in Finland, although better known as a pioneer of Finnish realistic literature and champion of the women's movement. The historical study method is applied together with a narrative and interpretative approach to examine accounting and gender based on Minna Canth's bookkeeping and correspondence in the 1880s Minna Canth's story brings together three realities that normally do not meet: women's everyday life, business, and ...

Defining Islamic Accounting: Current Issues, Past Roots

The emergence of Islamic banks and other financial institutions since the 1970s has stimulated a modern literature that has identified itself as addressing "Islamic accounting". Much of this literature is prescriptive, though studies of actual practice, and of attitudes to proposed alternatives, are beginning to emerge. Historical research into Islamic accounting is still in a process of development, with a range of studies based on both primary archives and manuals of accounting providing gr...

'In the Interests of the Children': Accounting in the Control of Aboriginal Family Endowment Payments

This article contributes to an expanding literature concerned with the instrumentality of accounting and the consequences of its use within government-Indigenous relations. It examines a single case of how accounting was employed within the Australian state of New South Wales to manipulate the income and spending of Aboriginal women. The article explores how accounting was integral to the control and administration of the New South Wales Family Endowment Payments; a policy intended to reconst...

The Livret System: The Interface of Accounting and Indentured Labor in British Guiana

Between 1838 and 1920, over 200,000 Indians immigrated to British Guiana (BG) as indentured workers on sugar plantations (estates). During this period, different labor types (freedmen, indentured workers, and free immigrants) coexisted on the same BG estates and were paid the same wages for comparable tasks. In 1873, in response to a commission of enquiry to improve the treatment of workers, the BG legislature introduced the Livret system. Livrets were to be kept by each indentured worker and...

Editorial: Accounting in Other Places, Accounting by Other Peoples