The early emergence of European commercial education in the nineteenth century: Insights from higher engineering schools

Abstract

The setting of European commercial education has traditionally been addressed with reference to higher schools of commerce and faculties of business. This has not taken into account empirical evidence showing that, historically, higher engineering schools also offered a mixed education in mercantile and technical subjects to students who wanted to devote themselves to business. However, this type of schooling has received little attention. This article investigates how commercial departments from higher engineering schools constituted an initial, yet ephemeral, public attempt to build an engineering model of commercial education that closely combined mercantile and technical instruction well before the twentieth century.

Cash and accrual: A dual system of accountability for salient stakeholders by the first Italian higher school of commerce

“…Microhistories from other under investigated contexts (Carmona, 2004) may provide further evidence on the initial accountability systems of other schools of commerce. Indeed, few studies have dealt with the pioneering governmental efforts to establish commercial education in a European context throughout the nineteenth century (Passant, 2019). Second, as described in the ‘Research methods’ section, the retrieved primary archival sources describe and detail the (external) Report as being based on a cash accounting system, while the School's internal accrual accounting system is described only within the Extraordinary Report (1873).…”

“…Some recent literature (Bisman, 2012; Carmona and Ezzamel, 2006; Sargiacomo and Gomes, 2011) has emphasised the need for historical studies about these accountability practices, especially in education institutions and schools (Fowler, 2010; Fowler and Cordery, 2015; Moggi et al, 2016; Sian et al, 2020). The systematic literature reviews, however, revealed that no works have analysed the initial accountability systems conceived and implemented by the first European schools of commerce – even though their establishment has been recognised as crucial for understanding how accounting developed in Europe in the nineteenth century (Passant, 2016, 2019; Rodrigues et al, 2004, 2007).…”

“…Focusing on the accounting history literature on education institutions and schools, Rodrigues et al (2004, 2007) emphasised the great importance of putting the statutes, practices and curricula of schools of commerce under the microscope. The historical analysis of these schools’ establishment enhances our understanding of how accounting and commercial knowledge developed in Europe in the nineteenth century (Passant, 2019). A few recent studies have considered their different statutes and their first curricula, but no works, as far as we are aware, have analysed the initial accountability mechanisms implemented by the schools of commerce to effectively communicate with stakeholders.…”

“…The present article aims to fill this gap and focus on such practices, which were both taught and applied by the schools of commerce (Engwall et al, 2010). It answers two calls for historical studies: the first regarding the use of accountability practices implemented in education institutions to effectively communicate with stakeholders (Fowler, 2010; Fowler and Cordery, 2015; Moggi et al, 2016; Sian et al, 2020) and the second concerning the first European schools of commerce (Passant, 2016, 2019; Rodrigues et al, 2004, 2007). The study adopts a microhistorical approach to provide insights into the accounting reporting and conventions implemented by one of the first European schools of commerce (as emphasised in Kaplan, 2014) and the first higher school of commerce in Italy: the Royal Higher School of Commerce, or Regia Scuola Superiore di Commercio (hereafter, the School).…”

Marketing the past over the long run: uses of the past in French accounting textbooks, 17th-19th c.

“…Eventually, accounting came to be taught in primary schools (Giolitto, 1983, p. 134; de Oliveira, 2014), in agricultural institutes (Charmasson, Lelorrain and Ripa, 1992, pp. 47–48 and p. 80), in schools for girls (Thivend, 2020) and of course in the commercial schools (Brucy, 1998; Passant, 2019) created as part of the new system of pre-baccalaureate vocational education and in the higher-level, post-secondary business schools at the end of the century (Maffre, 1986). However, it did not penetrate the University properly, where such practical skills were still considered too far beneath the dignity of the classical cursus to be taught ex-cathedra .…”