Govern(mentality) and Accounting: the Influence of Different Enlightenment Discourses in Two Spanish Cases (1761–1777)

Abstract

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.

Accounting and the Papal States: The influence of the Pro commissa Bull (1592) on the rise of an early modern state

“…Previous studies have shown that accounting can be included within such mechanisms, demonstrating its strength to manage individuals and associations to achieve desired government objectives (Burchell et al, 1985;Miller and O'Leary, 1994;Preston et al, 1997;Radcliffe, 1999;Neu, 2000aNeu, , 2000bÁlvarez-Dardet et al, 2002;Jeacle and Walsh, 2002;Baños Sánchez-Matamoros et al, 2005;Sargiacomo, 2008Sargiacomo, , 2009Yayla, 2011;Rodrigues and Sangster, 2013). Sargiacomo (2008), in particular, has shown how the abovementioned approach can be fruitful in analysing the way of governing in Italian states in the second half of the sixteenth century, by examining the emergence of accounting, accountability and disciplinary practices in the feudal State of Abruzzo.…”

Accounting as a technology to disseminate the sense of unity in a nation state: The Kingdom of Italy

“…In this study, the dissonance between the domain of political knowledge and that of implementing activities is essentially due to the arbitrary use of technologies by actors. A partially different conclusion was reached by Sánchez-Matamoros et al (2005), who stated that accounting can master the population independently from the discourse of institutions. Although their research proves the capacity of accounting to govern people, a disassociation between rationalities and technologies is postulated.…”

“…Previous studies (Armstrong, 2015; Maran et al, 2016; Miller and Rose, 1990; Radcliffe, 1998; Sánchez-Matamoros et al, 2005, 2016) have analysed accounting practice as a technology related to the discursive nature of government. In these works, a close and linear connection between knowledge – especially, political knowledge – and technologies of government is postulated.…”

“…In this sense, a hierarchical and linear connection is postulated among political rationalities (and discourses), programmes and technologies, such as accounting (Castel, 1994; Miller and Rose, 1990). However, this linearity has been sometimes questioned due to a possible resistance of actors (Sánchez Matamoros et al, 2005, 2016; Spence, 2010) or factors not in line with a supposed rationality of the governmentality scheme (Lemke, 2002, 2007). In fact, the existence of this linear and hierarchical connection among rationalities, programmes and technologies should not be taken for granted (Armstrong, 1994).…”

Accounting as a tool of State governance: The tutelage system of ‘Free Africans’ in Brazil between 1818 and 1864

“…Accounting changes, and their interrelation with the State's governmentality practices, have been the object of several studies, including Sánchez-Matamoros et al (2005), Bogt and Helden (2000), Gomes et al (2014) and Yayla (2011). These changes in accounting have produced different effects (Caccia and Steccolini, 2006), which range from the expected, such as the control of the population (Sánchez-Matamoros et al, 2005), to the unexpected, such as the manipulation of the accounts' legitimacy (see Broadbent et al, 2001;Goddard and Issa Mzenzi, 2015). Regarding the way in which the government is able to manage people to achieve its goals, Miller (1990) proposed that more studies be undertaken on accounting changes, both within individual organizations and in specific national contexts.…”