The accounting provisions of the Companies Act 1948 (CA48) represented a major change from the provisions of preceding company legislation, the Companies Act 1929 (CA29). CA48 contained radically different accounting and auditing provisions from those of any previous enactment and represented a substantial stride forward in generally accepted accounting standards. Until the publication of this book the explanation of the changes in CA48 was one that had remained relatively unexplored. This book examines the historical process which brought these regulatory changes about.

This book contains edited versions of thirty British legal cases involving accounting issues decided from 1849-1888. These cases are a valuable source of information about the development of accounting principles and practices in nineteenth-century Great Britain. The thirty cases show that the court decisions involved a rich variety of accounting issues. In some cases courts upset private contractual stipulations regarding accounting and dividend matters. In others, management was held to have used incorrect principles in computing profits. Whether or not a contract or management decision was upset, the courts often discussed at some length the principles that management should apply in the preparation of balance sheets or income statements. It is therefore obvious that in resolving issues of equity among participants in British companies, the courts were applying normative accounting principles.

This volume collects together out of print and hard to find sources on the behavioural implications of accounting. It begins with the 1952 monograph, The Impact of Budgets on People by Chris Argyris, considered by many to mark the beginning of behavioural research in accounting and is followed by: a critique of the general state of accounting research in 1960 critical evaluation of Argyris' research and other behavioural studies discussion of the research activity in the behavioural aspects of accounting during the 1960s and 70s a comprehensive perspective on the development of behavioural accounting research in the 1980s including discussion of the division of behavioural accounting research into two branches.

The journal Accounting History was published in eight volumes intermittently between 1976 and 1986. It had a relatively small circulation and this re-issue of its anthology provides the opportunity for many of the articles which appeared in the journal over the years to once again reach a wider audience. The volume begins with items of a general nature, covering the importance of preserving accounting records and accounting history in general. Subsequent categories deal with the methodology of historical accounting research, government accounting, taxation, bankruptcy, professional accountancy and accounting theory, as well as auditing and management accounting.

This book shows the relevance of accounting methods to the economic and administrative problems of business. The book has been arranged to take the reader through the budgeting procedure of a representative business: demonstrating the relationship between budgets, accounts and the various business activities and showing how budgets and accounts link together the balance sheets at the beginning and end of the year.

The 43 papers in this collection, originally published from 1972 to 1987 delve into accounting, observing and exploring its functioning. They construct a basis for interrogating it in use and indeed they attempt to account for accounting. The author seeks to understand accounting, to appreciate what it is, what it does and how it does it, examining it from without rather than from within.

Of the nine articles reprinted in this volume originally published in 1984, those by Ladelle, Hotelling and Anton are recognized as being the classic articles on the depreciation of a single 'machine'. Each of these articles was published in a journal that is often not accessible and reprinted here has brought them together in one place. For many years accountants have dealt with depreciation and capital maintenance as a static problem. This volume recognizes its dynamic aspects.

Published between 1965 and 1985 the papers in this collection address the problem of using accounting data to estimate the economic rate of return. The search for a solution to this problem has been an important episode in the history of accounting thought. The papers reprinted in this volume are the foundation of this intellectual effort. Ten articles and six notes and comments are reprinted here. Seven of the papers were published in UK journals and the rest in US publications. Bringing them together in one book will facilitate research on this important subject.

Beginning with first principles, then discussing the origin and evolution of the debate over depreciation, capital and income, several related topics are addressed in this volume originally published in 1993. These include the allocation problem, interest rate approximations, issues concerning financial reporting and analysis and the meaning and economic impact of 'accounting error'. The underlying themes concern the importance of history and the need for an appreciation of basic concepts and relationships in accounting

When originally published in 1994 this volume was the first international review of accounting theory to focus on the contributions of its leading thinkers. Very few attempts had been made, in the accounting literature, to assess the contribution of the theorists who have had such an important influence on the direction of research and practice. Written by experts the studies in this volume provide a unique guide to the development of accounting theory and practice in regions as diverse as the USA, Japan and Europe.

This book is a resource book for the comprehensive study of the development of accounting thought. It is designed to facilitate the study of the original works and stimulate further study of important accounting theory forbears. It covers: accounting theory accounting concepts of profit financial accounting and the foundations of accounting measurement accounting evaluation and economic behaviour.

This study traces the development of methodology in philosophy and economics with particular focus on the work of Raymond Chambers. As well as analysing the reception on methodological lines, afforded his work by both academic and professional communities, the volume discusses some significant contributions by French and German scholars to the debate about why scientific communities have accepted some theories and rejected others.

The 43 papers in this collection, originally published from 1972 to 1987 delve into accounting, observing and exploring its functioning. They construct a basis for interrogating it in use and indeed they attempt to account for accounting. The author seeks to understand accounting, to appreciate what it is, what it does and how it does it, examining it from without rather than from within.

When first published this volume represented the first concise, accessible UK text that explained the very complex changes that could be involved in an inflation accounting system. The new edition of the book (1978) was restructured and rewritten, with a substantial amount of material added so that it provides a comprehensive and accurate picture of the inflation accounting issues of the 1970s.

The emergence of an accountancy profession in Scotland is described in the context of three leading Chartered Accountants, whose careers spanned the second half of the nineteenth century and early part of the twentieth century: George Auldjo Jamieson (21828-1900), Alexander Sloan (1843-1927) and Richard Brown (1856-1918). Each biography reveals the man involved in the professionalisation events, and is described within a broader personal context associated with Victorian Scotland.

This book examines the conceptual development of control in the literature of both management and accounting disciplines, from 1900 to 1980. In order to portray the development of control concepts over time, the chapters are organized into sections relating to the schools of thought from which they emanated and a model of control is constructed to represent each group of concepts and their hypothesised inter-relationships. Having traced the development of control models a comparative analysis of historical development in the two streams of management and accounting literature is undertaken. This analysis reveals a pronounced lag of accounting development behind that of management literature. The reasons for this are then discussed.

Written over a period of twenty years the papers included here reflect the changing circumstances around the study of accounting history.

This book contains 53 nineteenth century American legal cases in which courts discussed accounting issues. Some are well known: Wood v. Drummer (1824) was the foundation for the idea that capital could not be returned to shareholders and it was this restriction which made it necessary to distinguish between income and capital. The famous case of 1849, Burnes v Pennell is often cited as the source of the rule that dividends cannot be paid except from profits. However, many of the cases covered in this book are not well-known. It is often assumed that few American legal cases on accounting matters were decided in the nineteenth century. However, many of the 53 cases included here preceded the earliest British legal cases that discussed accounting issues and they are interesting for several reasons. They show that government regulation of accounting pre-dated the modern regulatory ear. They also illustration that sometimes private contracts specified a particular accounting treatment and that accounting, therefore, served to define private rights. They also illustrate that American courts discussed accrual accounting problems as early as 1837 and that a cash concept of profits was not the norm.

This text concerns developments in the history of one accounting idea. It discusses cash flow accounting and, as such, relates what can only be described as a 'recycled' accounting problem. Cash flow accounting is the oldest form of monetary accounting, preceding the now conventional accrual and allocation-based accounting. Largely ignored in accounting literature since the early 1950s, this collection concentrates on Lee's work and provides the reader not only with a relevant selection of his writings on the subject since 1971, but also with a structured collection that explains the way in his thinking has developed on the subject and focuses on relevant influences.

This volume presents a survey of accountancy from early times through to modern accounting methods of the early twentieth century. Covering everything from accounting in Ancient Egypt and the Roman Republic through to legislation for the accountancy profession in Europe and South America, as well as ethics and education in the accountancy profession, this volume will be of use to both students and professionals who wish to extend their historical knowledge of their profession.

This volume analyses and presents the results of the trade, service and financial operations between any given country and the rest of the world. Among other issues the volume discusses tax measures of the 1920s, ascertaining the trend of foreign assets, verifying economic theory, providing analysis of war and reconstruction problems, and discussing foreign investments from the USA, France, Canada and Britain.

In the UK today the form and content of accounts published by limited companies are closely regulated. In the 19th century the position was different: the popular view was that such matters were for private negotiation between owners and management. Nevertheless, there was a great deal of discussion of the need for regulations, which were actually imposed in a number of areas. This book provides readers with the essence of the many debates that took place, the conclusions reached and the action taken to regulate company accounts.

These reprints of articles, lectures and talks cover the period 1949 - 1980. They chart the development of the academic subject of accountancy and illustrate some of the matters which were concerning the academics at the London School of Economics at a time when academic accountancy was still in its infancy.

The period 1835-1935 saw the development of the structure of local government which remains broadly intact today and also the growth of modern financial reporting procedures. This book examines the accounting implications of these developments and places them within the social and organisational contexts in which the events took place. The research is based on the contents of government reports, contemporary literature dating from the mid 1870s and the archival records of five municipal corporations - Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff and Manchester.

This volume brings together noteworthy articles in accounting. Some of the pieces existed in journals, but many were commissioned specifically for this volume. They fill gaps in the usual text-books, gaps that are particularly glaring where concepts are at issue. Among other things the articles cover: depreciation dividend law social accounting value and income inflation