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.

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

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 compilation concerns account books, not books on accounting. Most of the essays analyse the account book(s) of a single person or business. In each case the account book(s) demonstrate the presence of, at least, elements of double entry. The essays come in pairs, beginning with Geoffrey Lee’s paper on Florentine bank ledger fragments of 1211, some of the earliest relics of Italian bookkeeping. Subsequent papers trace the development of double entry over the centuries until 1786 when full double entry was achieved. There are papers from the UK and USA which illustrate the use of balance sheets, valuation techniques and the accruals convention as well as papers which analyse the causes of the development of double entry, using the evidence of others.

Global in scope, accounting has had its share of great thinkers and practitioners, from Luca Pacioloi, the father of accounting, to R. J. Chambers, W. W. Cooper, Yuji Ijiri, Stephen A. Zeff and other figures. This encyclopedia presents more than 400 entries that focus on such subjects as publications in the field, institutional bodies, accounting and economic concepts, accounting issues, authors in accounting, records, leaders in the profession, accounting in various countries, financial court cases, accounting exams and historical researchers.

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.

There are introductory analyses by the editor and suggested further readings for discussion or essay papers.

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.

This volume illustrates the research not only of French accountants (Colasse, Durand, Jouanique, Lemarchand, Nikitin, Richard, Tessier) but also the work of Belgian authors writing in French (Stevelinck, Haulotte) and of French non-accountants (de Swarte, Durdilly, Sauvy). The work of British and North American academics, writing in English on French accounting history is also illustrated from the 1930s (Howard, Edwards), through to the 1960s (Parker) and the more recent research of Standish, Fortin and Bhimani. The contributions to this volume have been arranged both chronologically and thematically as follows: the earliest business accounting records; the first French accounting authors; Colbert, Savbary and the Ordonnance de Commerce; the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; cost accounting; the national accounting plan; national income accounting; government accounting and accounting theory. An abstract of each contribution is given in both English and French.

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.