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From 1860 to 1964, but particularly after 1930, Brazilian society changed from an agrarian to an industrial society and from an emphasis on the export sector to becoming focused primarily on the domestic market. During this period, there were significant changes in accounting that were largely imposed by the State. This note explores the main political, economic and social factors that influenced the development of accounting in Brazil during this period. In a legalist country such as Brazil the development of accounting cannot be effectively studied without considering how accounting affects, and is affected by, the political and social context. The note ends with a call for further accounting history studies about Brazil based on archives and primary sources.

Although Brazil imported more African slaves than any other country in the Americas, knowledge of the accounting and taxation of slave-related transactions in Brazil is under-developed. Here we explore Portuguese language documents showing how accounting and taxation were implicated in maintaining slavery in Brazil in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We present examples of key documents involving slaves (such as inventory lists, rental agreements, insurance policies, and receipts) and explain how slave-related transactions were recorded and taxed. We enable important comparisons to be drawn with the accounting and taxation of slaves in the USA and British West Indies.[its] population[s] without large and continuous importations of Africans' (Fogel and Engerman 1974, 25-26).Second, slave labor activities in Brazil were more diversified than elsewhere in the Americas. Slavery was a major factor responsible for the success of Brazil's sugar, gold mining, coffee and cotton industries (Baranov 2000, 18-19). When the trade in slaves was abolished in 1850, slavery had spread throughout Brazilian society. Big farmers and rich people were not alone in owning slaves: they were owned too by priests, the military, civil servants and even free slaves themselves. This diffusion and convergence of interests was one of the main reasons why slavery endured for so long in Brazil (Albuquerque and Filho 2006).The long history of slavery in Brazil has produced a genuinely multi-racial society, as evidenced by Brazil's art, architecture, linguistic expression, cuisine, music and popular culture. The diversity of art and samba and the rhythm of the dance of capoeira and carnival is said to give a peculiar spatial dimensionality to the existential reality of Brazilian culture (Sidekum, 2007). Fiorin (2009, 120) states that Brazilians are characterized by 'the mulata [a person of black and white ancestry], who is the most important representative of Brazilian race; and by the tolerance and the good relationship between people of different races.' Similarly, Freyre (2006) believes that the identity of Brazilians was forged by the principle of multi-racial participation.Third, although some scholars have examined accounting for slave plantation workers in the US (Razek 1985;Fleischman, Oldroyd, and Tyson 2004; and in the BWI (Cowton and O'Shaughnessy 1991), knowledge of how accounting and taxation practices were implicated in the operation of slavery in Brazil is under-developed.Fourth, understanding the operation of business in modern Brazil can be enhanced by knowledge of its strong historical links with slavery: 'Brazil has the largest African-descent population in the Americas' (Reis and Klein 2011, 181). At the beginning of the nineteenth

Professor Adjunto da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do SulDoutor em Controladoria e Contabilidade -FEA/USP INTRODUÇÃOO objetivo deste artigo é o de suscitar uma discussão sobre a natureza teórica e doutrinária da Contabilidade, mesmo considerando que a comunidade contábil tenha comemorado há poucos anos o qüingentésimo aniversário da publicação da obra de Luca Pacioli, ainda não existe unanimidade sobre a natureza da disciplina contábil. Por um lado, existem grupos de pensadores contábeis que defendem que a Contabilidade é uma técnica ou uma arte; por outro, existe um grupo que defende a sua natureza.Esta controvérsia sobre a natureza da disciplina contábil, embora possa parecer, num primeiro momento, despertar interesse apenas da comunidade acadêmica, vem centrando as atenções de outras áreas da comunidade contábil, como as associações profissionais, pois esta polêmica terá um reflexo direto nos blocos econômicos (Mercosul, Nafta, Comunidade Econômica Européia,etc.) que buscam os mercados comuns, pois, dentro destes blocos "sem barreiras", ambiciona-se a unificação de normas e procedimentos contábeis.Diante do quadro que se apresenta, surge um questionamento que merece ser investigado: será que a Contabilidade poderá alcançar a harmonização de suas normas e procedimentos enquanto não existir um consenso sobre a sua própria natureza? CONTABILIDADE COMO UMA DISCIPLINA AUTÔNOMAO final do século vinte tem se caracterizado como um período de marcantes questionamentos sobre a natureza do conhecimento contábil, embora esta preocupação da comunidade contábil não seja recente. Este fenômeno, certamente, tem como um de seus principais influxionadores a revolução causada pelo avanço do processo informacional vivido pela sociedade nos últimos anos.Esta realidade evolutiva não é uma manifestação recente, tendo em vista que a Contabilidade, ao longo de sua história, sempre foi influenciada pela realidade social e histórica da humanidade. Esta realidade pode ficar melhor caracterizada analisando-se, brevemente, o processo evolutivo vivido pela Contabilidade. A seguinte tabela apresenta, como forma de facilitar

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