Following Colbert's <italic>Ordonnance</italic> of 1673, most of whose provisions were reiterated in the <italic>Code de Commerce</italic>, 1807 and the Law of Bankruptcy, 1838, traders in France were under a legal obligation to keep accounts of their business activities. In the event of bankruptcy, traders were potentially...

The purpose of this article is to study accounting valuation practices in French bankruptcies following enactment of the Law of 1838. The research is based on a study of 500 files in the archives of the Paris Court of Commerce. After first presenting the main steps in the bankruptcy proceedings,...

In the French language, the word comptabilite (accounting) first appeared in the middle of the eighteenth century. It was used in the Royal finances and its first meaning was that of accountability. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, or thereabouts, the uses of the word evolved...