Reviewed by Peter Boys University of Kent at Canterbury
It is appropriate that The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) should publish this historical work by Professors Kitchen and Parker, two distinguished academic accoun¬tants, in its centenary year. There is a foreword by Douglas Mor-peth, former president of the ICAEW and vice-chairman of the Ac¬counting Standards Committee. He acknowledges the contribution made by individual members of the profession and “that we owe much to men whom we have perhaps lost sight of and whose con¬tributions we have forgotten” (p. iii). Mr. Morpeth particularly points out the contribution some of these early pioneers made towards the development of accounting standards.
The book contains seven chapters, an introductory chapter and a chapter each on the six pioneers:
Edwin Guthrie 1841 -1904
Francis William Pixley 1852-1 933
John Manger Fells 1858-1 925
Lawrence Robert Dicksee 1864-1932
Arthur Edwin Cutforth 1881-1958
Frederic Rudolph Mackley
de Paula 1882-1954
The Introduction briefly covers the general history of the period of the pioneers, in particular the growth of the accounting profession in England, the importance of auditing (four of the pioneers wrote standard textbooks on auditing) and the presentation of com¬pany accounts. Each of the chapters on the individual pioneers be-gins with a thumbnail sketch of their immediate family background and concludes with an assessment of the contribution they made to accounting. The major part of each chapter deals with the thoughts and writings of each pioneer. There are many quotations from their published works, in particular from the magazine, The Accountant.
A review of the subjects, in which each of the pioneers was in¬terested and concerned, highlights the important issues that faced the profession between the 1880’s and 1950’s in England. For ex¬ample, Guthrie was concerned with uniformity of accounting prac¬tice, depreciation and the payment of interest out of capital; Pixley and Dicksee were mainly interested in auditing; Fells in cost ac¬counting; Cutforth in amalgamations; and de Paula in consolidated accounts and disclosure of accounting information. All the pioneers were, in one way or another, interested in the education of the profession.
It is assumed that the market at which the authors were aiming, particularly as it was published by the ICAEW, was the practicing professional accountant. It is hoped that it will appeal to profes¬sional accountants, and by reading the book they should soon ap¬preciate that “What accountants do today is still, whether they know it or not, conditioned by the reactions of the pioneers such as Pixley to the circumstances in which they found themselves and by the type of men they were” (p. 23). In addition, they should appreciate the importance of research into accounting and that they need “the Support of thinkers and writers in the education of new entrants and in the development of new ideas” (p. 1).
The book is well-written and researched, although perhaps rather short given its subject matter. It will clearly be of interest to ac-counting historians and teachers of accounting history courses. The book should also be of value to accounting teachers in general since it is a rich source of useful examples and explanations of the development of many accounting principles and auditing practices.
It was surprising and disappointing that a book written by such eminent academic authors should not contain an index. Equally disappointing was the fact that there were few references (other than to the pioneers’ works) and no bibliography. However these omissions should not deter one from reading this interesting his¬torical work.
