The patterns of change in the financial reporting practices of the early railway companies, and their causes, are important aspects of the evolution of accounting practice more generally. They have accordingly been widely discussed in the literature, although the views expressed have rarely been...

Dividends can provide a tangible signal of earnings, but this function depends upon characteristics of financial reporting that were not always present in early financial capitalism. Although eighteenth-century English canal companies offered low‐risk securitized capital approved by Parliament...

The main intention of this paper is to consider the disclosure practices of quoted UK companies during an important period of change in financial accounting practice, the first quarter of the twentieth century. The paper focuses in particular on levels of disclosure, as indicated by the volume...

The three UK rolling stock companies (ROSCOs) are a product of the privatization of the railway industry in the 1990s. As the UK approaches the 25th anniversary of the first privatization of a state-owned industry (telecommunications), this article evaluates the background and the structure of...