Gary John Previts, President
THE ACADEMY OF ACCOUNTING HISTORIANS
IT’S ABOUT TIME PATHWAYS TO A NEW VISTA OF ACCOUNTANCY’S PAST
In the last decade economic historians have been stirred to what has been called a “New Economic History” which uses quantitative tools along with the standard qualitative judgmental implements found in the historian’s toolbox. While accounting history, as ado-lescent as it is, does not presume to need a “quantified” overhaul, nonetheless it would seem that some attention would be warranted with regard to the use of these methods in analyzing blocks of accounting artifacts not yet added to the main stream of historical knowledge.
For example, a recent paper presented at the history session in New Orleans referred to available annual accounting statements (internal and external of large publicly held firms). Archival data of this same corporate era is known to be available both on the continent and in the far east as well. Much of this information and the classificatory scheme it follows affords a continuous type of evidence which could be used to develop series of “micro-accounting” cases which could lend themselves to quantitative analysis and inference with regard to the accounting policy and trends within. These new inferences would assist accounting historians who are seeking to explain portions of the evolution of various disclosure techniques and the relationship between such techniques and their environment—political, education and economic.
A call for innovative usages of quantification is by no means the limit to what historical pathways might be cleared. Indeed the ac-counting history of the 19th century, at least in this country, is a vast and relatively unmapped territory which has been crossed only by a few hearty prospectors—and they have found the era rich with a lore of important accomplishment. In another section of this issue Professor Stone recalls the “Who Was Who in American Accounting in 1909?” It would be much more difficult to identify the “Who’s Who” of 1825 or 1850 or 1875. Yet there were skillful and articulate practitioners of accountancy then just as now. The names of Thomas Jones of New York, Ira Mayhew of Boston, E. G. Folsom of Albany, S. W. Crittenden of Philadelphia and George Soulé of New Orleans are but a few of those whose accomplishments have been all but lost in the history of professional accounting in this country.
In a project to develop a computer-based catalogue of pre-1900 accounting texts, I have noted that the following quantities of ma-terial are representative of publications (including multiple editions) on accounting subjects during the 19th century:
Number of Period Accounting Texts
1800-25 78
1826-50 126
1851 -75 58
1876-99 12
These totals are not cumulative in any sense—for they represent the holding of American libraries of texts prepared in many coun-tries and include only authors whose surnames end in the letters A-D. Hopefully as research continues in this area a complete author-alphabet catalogue will emerge which will detail the locations of all pre-1900 accounting texts, although the current focus is on the 19th century.
It would seem that a determined effort on the part of historians to recapture this “lost century” would not only result in widening the perimeter of our understanding of how many 19th century com-panies (such as the New York, Newfoundland and London Tele-graph Co. founded by Cyrus Field in 1854) accounted for their capital ($1.5 million in the case of Field’s venture) and further, how costs in laying the Atlantic cable were treated. Investigations into how accounting was done for such enterprises would be of value in developing a more complete catalogue of the developments in accounting thought.
Students of the history of economic thought well know Professor Joseph Schumpeter’s great work, History of Economic Analysis, and appreciate its role in providing a synthesis of economic doctrine over the ages. There is no parallel to this work in the literature of accounting history just as there is not a historical and systematic treatise on the stages of accounting change as found in economics, (for example The Stages of Economic Growth by W. W. Rostow). Perhaps, though, the recent writings of Adolph Enthoven, in his Accountancy and Economic Development Policy along with the recent works by Elliott, Zeff and Winjum will serve as a catalyst for more historical effort in this area.
Previts: It’s About Time . . . 5
Indeed the challenges facing accounting historians—namely to initiate meaningful applications of quantitative analysis, to recapture a “lost century” of accounting history and to build toward a more complete literature about the history of accounting thought and development—will come to be met in time. As we plan to undertake our particular research in the days and months ahead it would be well if each of us would select one of these “vacuum areas” for consideration. If it is found to meet one’s interest, then it’s about time to begin to pump it full of life giving enthusiasm.
(Vol. 2, No. 1, p. 2, 1975)
