This book brings together, for the first time, studies of the professionalisation of accountancy in key constituent territories of the British Empire. The late nineteenth century was a period of intensive activity in terms of both imperialism and professionalisation. A team of expert contributors has examined profession-state engagements between Britain, on the one hand and Canada, South Africa, Australia, Nigeria, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, India and Kenya, and the other with a view to assessing how the organizations of accountancy in the colonies was affecting the metropolitan profession and state agents- and vice versa. Their contributions highlight the peculiarities of the professionalization processes in variant social, economic and political environments linked together by the relays of empire, prompting reflection on both the common and disparate dynamics involved.

This book has numerous objectives, including giving historical insight and focus on countries that provide contrasting and variant examples of the uptake of the "British model," and broadening the appeal of accounting history and professionalisation as a taught subject in university accounting departments.

This book brings together, for the first time, studies of the professionalisation of accountancy in key constituent territories of the British Empire. The late nineteenth century was a period of intensive activity in terms of both imperialism and professionalisation. A team of expert contributors has examined profession-state engagements between Britain, on the one hand and Canada, South Africa, Australia, Nigeria, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, India and Kenya, and the other with a view to assessing how the organizations of accountancy in the colonies was affecting the metropolitan profession and state agents- and vice versa. Their contributions highlight the peculiarities of the professionalization processes in variant social, economic and political environments linked together by the relays of empire, prompting reflection on both the common and disparate dynamics involved. This book has numerous objectives, including giving historical insight and focus on countries that provide contrasting and variant examples of the uptake of the "British model", and broadening the appeal of accounting history and professionalisation as a taught subject in university accounting departments.

The essays contained in this volume canvass a broad range of issues, including accounting theory, accounting history, international accounting, management accounting, internal auditing, and accounting education. The contributions range in style from thought pieces to histories to cross-sectional and case study analyses. The volume as a whole stands as a testament to the significant intellectual legacies of the late Professor Bill Birkett, both locally and globally, with respect to the development of accounting as an academic discipline informed by understandings of accounting practices and a profession informed by systematic and rigorous frameworks for cognition and action. The unifying conclusion of the essayists included in this volume is that Bill was ahead of his time - he was visionary in his thinking about accounting and uniquely distinctive in terms of the voice that conveyed his ideas. Bill's ideas have and will continue to influence many as a result of personal interaction and exposure to the educational institutions that Bill shaped. As Bruce Grey (FTSE) has stated, these essays 'are a wonderful and appropriate tribute to great man missed by many'.