Adopting an archival-based, historical methods approach to the study of eighteenth-century merchant trading networks, we analyse base accounting transactions to demonstrate how accounting discourse was a critical conduit via which these commercial networks developed and were sustained. This...

In 1803, Pierre Boucher of Bordeaux, France, published the second edition of an accounting textbook, La science des negocians et teneurs de livres, with sections on agricultural, nautical, and merchant accounting, an extensive commercial dictionary, discussions of accounting terminology and...

Approximately 40 international congresses of accountants took place between 1889 and 2002. Before World War II, accountants were divided between two international networks: a group of Latin countries and a group led by the USA. Only the latter continued their activity after World War II. From...

Before the Revolution, tax-collecting was a very profitable private business. Using fiscal receipts, tax-collectors lent money to the Crown, instead of giving it without delay, so the State paid interest on public funds. To accelerate the receipts of the Royal Treasury and to diminish the...

This study complements our investigations into the use of accounting manuals as representations of commercial activities. Our previous work focused on the Guide du Commerce of Gaignat de l'Aulnais and the slave trade in eighteenth-century France. We broaden our scope with cross-sectional...