Reviewed by Gary P. Spraakman York University

The authors state their purpose, viz.:

This book documents a highly significant development in the history of costing practice in the U.K. — the uniform costing system designed for the members of the British Federation of Master Printers . . . during the early twentieth century. Shortly after the launch of the printers’ system, industry based uniform costing schemes became popular in the U.K. From 1913 to 1939, 26 such systems appeared, covering key industrial sectors . . . Thus uniform costing technology was potentially a prime influence on early twentieth century costing practice in several industries [p. v].

That purpose gets addressed with four sections based almost entirely on reproduced historical documents from the British Federation of Master Printers (BFMP) and related organizations. The book is actually a bundle of primary documents tied together with an introduction of 14 pages, four one-page section overviews, and a two-page postscript. Although these are important documents for the intended purpose, it was unexpected to be presented with them. In view of their stated purpose, the authors should have incorporated the 50 articles into a coherent analysis rather than reproducing them.

BFMP’s system of uniform cost accounting was intended to provide U.K. printers with accurate costs which, in turn, were expected to reduce competition and increase profitability. In the introduction the authors briefly describe the geneses of uniform costing and the forces that affected it. Most importantly, they discuss the economic conditions that encouraged the members of the BFMP to seek uniform costing as a means of combating fierce price competition. The assumption was that, if printers knew their “true” costs, prices would rise.

The first section, “The Emergence of a Costing Panacea,” traces the uniform costing system from 1873 to 1912. The major document themes are the importance of accounting records, cost accounting, and pricing. In one document, “An A.B.C. System of Cost-Keeping,” the authors refer to a complete set of books that was “in the room.” As those books and forms were “in the room” and not in the book as an attachment, a large part of that document made little sense to a reader.
The second section, “The Launch of Uniform Costing,” presents documents from the 1913 Cost Congress of the BFMP where the uniform costing system was presented to 1,200 attendees. Some of the documents were transcriptions of actual speeches and subsequently punctuated with audience comments in brackets, e.g., “here, here,” “loud here, here’s,” and “loud laughter.” Accordingly, documents often contained substantial rhetoric. One important document, “The System Ex-plained,” from the first day of the Congress, referred to forms which had been excluded from the book.

“The Costing System” was the title of the third section. It consisted largely of the “pamphlet” for the uniform costing system, complete with specimen forms, except form 16 was omitted. The pamphlet provided detailed explanations on how to allocate direct and indirect costs to printing jobs. The last section entitled, “Selling the Costing Solution,” provided selected documents from 1913 to 1963 about promoting the uniform costing system. These documents, many of which came from the BFMP Costing Committee and its Propaganda Subcommittee, discussed the difficulty in encouraging members to adopt the uniform costing system. A 1934 circular said the problem was due to a “lack of salesmanship.

In conclusion, this is not the book promised by the authors. They claim on page v to document a “highly significant devel-opment.” The word document implied to trace or analyze in regard to the development of uniform costing. However, the book consists largely of copies of documents (i.e., 207 of the 227 pages); few pages (20 of 227) are devoted to analysis. This conclusion recognizes, as has Garland editor Richard Brief for 40 years, that primary materials are essential for historical accounting studies. First, they provide rich evidence for studies that analyze or compare accounting practices. Second, there are advantages to books consisting of copies of historical docu-ments or the transcription of those documents. Such books allow other researchers to build on that work. Trade Associations and Uniform Costing in the British Printing Industry, 1900-1963 is largely of the second type.

Based on their stated purpose, the authors wasted their book-length opportunity to make a significant contribution. Their recent publications indicate that they knew more than that presented [Mitchell and Walker, 1997; Walker and Mitchell, 1996]. Think of the minimal impact that Chandler [1962] and Johnson and Kaplan [1987] would have had if those books had been mere bundles of documents. If Mitchell and Walker are not willing to undertake a serious analysis, it is recommended that other accounting historians undertake the task. Such analysis should be pursued with Walker and Mitchell’s stated purpose. Furthermore, the impact on the cost accounting profession should be added. And, as implied, the task must go beyond merely bundling documents.

REFERENCES

Chandler, A.D., Jr. (1962), Strategy and Structure (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
Johnson, H.T. and Kaplan, R.S. (1987), Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting (Boston: Harvard Business School Press).
Mitchell, F. and Walker, S.P. (1997), “Market Pressures and the Development of Costing Practice: The Emergence of Uniform Costing in the U.K. Printing Industry,” Management Accounting Research, Vol. 8, No. 1: 75-101.
Walker, S.P. and Mitchell, F. (1996), “Propaganda, Attitude Change and Uniform Costing in the British Printing Industry, 1913-1939,” Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3: 98-126.