New perspectives in accounting history have uncovered previously unattended relations between accounting and government. Earlier Foucauldian analyses of governments have not explained sufficiently the relations of accounting practices to governmental discourses in order to manage populations.This work uses the governmentality frame to analyse the role of accounting in two organizations located in the south of Spain in the second half of the eighteenth century: the New Settlements of Sierra Morena and Andalucia (NSs) and the Royal Tobacco Factory of Seville (RTFS). The period studied is remarkable because it was the apogee of the Enlightenment in Spain. From the standpoint of government, this period facilitated a new way to manage populations. The present work has drawn on Foucault's concept of governmentality in order to discover how accounting worked in two government-supported organizations independently of the discourses that pervaded each one. Drawing on the reticulation of the space, the use of rules and accounting from the governmental perspective, we analyse those institutions.The article concludes that the reticulation of space is an essential apparatus to exert action at a distance; the rules are a type of government technology; and, overall, accounting is a practice for the mastery of the population independently from the discourse of the institution.New perspectives in accounting history have uncovered previously unattended relations between accounting, society and government (e.g., Miller, 1986;Hopper and Armstrong, 1991;Stewart, 1992;Ezzamel, 1997; Fleischman J uan B años S ánchez -M atamoros is a Lecturer in Accounting, F ernando G utiérrez H idalgo an Assistrant Professor, and C oncha Á lvarez -D ardet E spejo (mcalvesp@dee.upo.es) and F rancisco C arrasco F enech Professors of Accounting at the University Pablo de Olavide of Seville. This research has benefited from financial support (in part) by SEC2633-2001 and SEJ-0111. The authors are also grateful to two anonymous referees for their constructive comments.
The success of accounting history research has been evident through its recognition in the broader accounting literature in the 1990s. On this basis, we would expect that research in accounting history should display patterns of publication in generalist journals that are similar to those for other accounting research. However, we do not find such a similarity. First, accounting history has a relatively limited presence in generalist journals. Second, in the UK an elite group apparently controls accounting history research. Finally, there is cause to question the supposedly “local” nature of premier accounting journals in the US and the “international” nature of such journals in the UK.
Recently, accounting research on religious organizations has concentrated on the sacred/profane dichotomy. We analyse how dissimilar perceptions of the sacred led to different roles of accounting in sacred organizations and, consequently, to different behaviours in a process of accountability. We study the accountability process imposed after 1769 by Spanish Enlightenment governments upon the brotherhoods, secular institutions within the Catholic Church that were formed to conduct charitable activities and improve worship, and that broadly influenced Spanish society. In their responses to a government census, most of the brotherhoods obscured accounting information. Finally, the government enacted a law that was intended to subjugate the brotherhoods to the civil power but did not actually impose accountability on them. We conclude that all those involved in this process shared a perception that rendering accounts was part of the sacred sphere, yet considered accountability as a profane tool.
Recently, a growing literature in accounting history has provided sociological interpretations of historical facts in which accounting was involved. Foucault's governmentality concept has contributed to such analysis, specifically in 19th and 20th century's cases. However, the analysis of 18th century and, specially, colonial organizations has not been made yet. Thus, this work is devoted to analyse how accounting is implicated in the control of a Spanish colonial project. The relationships between accounting and the enlightened discourses that improved the colonies are clear. Conversely, the role of the resistance in this case allows questioning the refereed accounting literature in governmentality.
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