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The rise of the professional accountant in British management

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This article quantifies the growth in the number of professional accountants in British management, charts their influence over the past century, and analyses the causes. It is most likely that Britain initially spawned large numbers of accountants because of the particular nature of its capital market which led to demands for the independent auditing of company accounts. British companies then recruited their accountants from this ever growing pool of professionally qualified auditors and the reason why these accountants rose to the top in British management was probably that the profession provided virtually the only formal management training available in Britain.
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... Research exploring accounting in organisations in the early part of the twentieth century typically details accountants in certain industries or accountants/accounting at the societal level (see for example, Boyns and Edwards 2007;Boyns, Matthews, and Edwards 2004;Fleischman and Tyson 2000;Fleischman and Tyson 1999;Fleming, McKinstry, and Wallace 2000;Loft, 1986;Matthews 1998Matthews , 2001Matthews, Anderson, and Edwards 1997;McKinstry 1999;McLean 2013;McLean, McGovern, and Davie 2015). However, the literature does offer insights into accounting developments in accounting in more general terms, and is thus relevant to our study. ...
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El objetivo general de este trabajo es el de ofrecer un perfil completo de los or�genes, la evoluci�n y el multiforme desarrollo de la historia de la contabilidad en Espa�a, as� como de su posible evoluci�n futura. Haciendo referencia a las actividades cient�ficas y a los estudios m�s recientes se ha intentado mostrar el notable grado de desarrollo alcanzado por esta disciplina, gracias entre otras cosas a la sinergia lograda por la colaboraci�n entre las instituciones acad�micas y las organizaciones profesionales, una caracter�stica particular de la experiencia espa�ola. Inserto en un cuadro de s�ntesis general, se ofrece el relato de esta experiencia, que ha conseguido situar la historia de la contabilidad espa�ola y sus representantes en el primer lugar del concierto europeo. The general purpose of this paper is to offer a complete profile of the origins, the evolution and the multiform development of accounting history in Spain, as well as the possible directions of its future evolution. Making reference to the scientific activities and the most recent studies it has been tried to show the remarkable degree of development reached by this discipline, thanks among other things to the synergy obtained by the collaboration between the academic institutions and the professional organizations, a particular characteristic of the Spanish experience. Inserted in a general picture of synthesis, this paper offers an account of this experience, an experience that has been able to locate the Spanish accounting history and its representatives in the first place of the European environment.
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