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La contabilidad del Almacén de Agüera entre los siglos XVIII y XIX . Un estudio sobre su evolución desde el registro por cargo y data hasta la partida doble
Abstract
Este artículo estudia una empresa de propiedad privada, perteneciente a los siglos XVIII y XIX, con el doble objetivo de: i) describir y caracterizar el método de registro utilizado a lo largo del período estudiado, y ii) profundizar en el proceso a través del cual quedaron configurados el sistema contable estudiado y sus aplicaciones en el negocio. Las evidencias examinadas muestran la transición desde un sistema de registro muy rudimentario a formas más o menos evolucionadas de partida simple que culminan con la introducción de la partida doble. Asimismo, el artículo revela la paulatina aparición de nuevas prácticas contables—desarrolladas a partir de las introducidas originalmente por las presiones recibidas del entorno—conforme se van produciendo cambios en la organización estudiada. En general, la información contable obtenida debido a estas nuevas prácticas pudo aplicarse a una mejora de la gestión.
... "Power" could not be intended as a steady property, but rather as a result of strategic conflicts between subjects; it enabled the rulers to perform actions oriented to social welfare and happiness (Rose and Miller, 1992: 174). Compared to the different powers, the respective accounting systems were influenced by the recording technique that characterized each phase (Capelo, 2007). ...
... In this last book, for the first time, the presence of a double recording of the accounting operations was found, reported both in the Ledger and in the Journal. However, these records do not match the double-entry method as stated by Jócano and Madaria (1793), since a couple of entries derived from each journal entry are not found (Capelo, 2007). ...
The paper aims to analyse the role of accounting as a tool of government action, considering the function of the relationships established by the Santissima Annunziata Hospital in Chieti. Governmentality, intended by Michel Foucault as “governmental rationality”, attributes power and control to those who exercise it even though power is not to be understood as a steady property, but rather as a product of strategic conflicts between subjects. “Power”, however, had to enable the rulers to prepare actions oriented to social welfare and happiness (Rose and Miller, 1992: 174). The accounting of the Hospital of Chieti, which establishes power relations aimed at influencing internal governance, moves towards perspective. The Hospital, managed by different power groups, represented an example of alternation of powers. This charitable institution was run by religious brotherhoods, submitted to the ecclesiastical power and then to public leaders, who were, in their turn, subject to the power of the state. The paper analyses the accounting system used by these two kinds of power that administered the hospital as well as the ways to achieve social control over the people who were considered internal and supportive to each reference category. The study also uses primary sources, documents from the Chieti State Archives for the foundation and organization of the Santissima Annunziata Hospital in Chieti, and accounting books to verify the assistance activity, considering the application of two different accounting systems, from cameral system to the double-entry method.
... At the end of the eighteenth century, Cadiz was still the main Spanish commercial port, being the central hub of the overseas businesses. Traders from all over the world settled in Cadiz, by joining the Trade Association of the city 3 (Consulado de Comercio de Cádiz), these traders showing being at the forefront of the commercial practices (Capelo, 2007;Capelo, Araújo and Álvarez-Dardet, 2015). Liberalization measures introduced by the government from 1766 onwards facilitated that traders had access for the first time to municipal positions, increasing their influence over local government, until then occupied by people who accredited the due social recognition (Bustos, 2017). ...
This paper aims to extend the knowledge about how ad hoc accounting and accountability practices arose and were used in the past to face a situation of crisis in the context of local government. With this purpose, it addresses a health public problem in a specific context, the yellow fever epidemic in Cadiz in 1800. The specific characteristics of the setting, where acquaintance with accounting was usual, allow setting the following specific objectives: (1) to explain the genesis of the accountability systems and the accounting itself used for local government management of the epidemic and (2) to explore the versatility and plasticity that accounting background provides to the records produced in this context.
To accomplish them, primary sources as well as publications of the time have been considered. The evidence obtained shows that both an accountability system and a basic bookkeeping system influenced by the local accounting and medical background arose in the local context. Moreover, the findings suggest that the generalized accounting background promoted the self-serving use and interpretation of the records by local government, local Church, trade association and medical profession. The value that local society attributed to accounting books was important in this sense.
... It means that the "accounting necessity" for the manufacturers was quite limited. In the same period, Spanish firms adopted different accounting systems based on single-entry bookkeeping, according to the necessity of control of people involved in the business (Disertacion Critica y Apologetica, 1793; Capelo, 2007). Moreover, the necessity to shift towards a double-entry bookkeeping systemthat effectively widespread only in the nineteenth century among Barcelona's cotton millsand the adoption of the journal and of the auxiliary books, to control and record items and values, could be considered as the consequence of the transformation of production mode for manufactures of indianas. ...
The paper aims to contribute to the debate about the emergence and development of management accounting in Europe by presenting an example of management accounting in Spain in the second half of the eighteenth century. The paper deepens the case of an indianas (cotton canvas printed and dyed) factory in Barcelona, exploring the productive organization and managerial structure using the accounting books of the firm. The firm’s methods of production, work organization, product costing, and production quality control are reviewed within the political and economic context of Spain during a period of deep transformation with the enthronement of a new monarchy and a deep change in the economic policy. The evidence presented in the paper support the existence of rudimentary management accounting and control techniques in a private firm in the midst of European industrialization.
El artículo se propone de contribuir al debate sobre el surgimiento y desarrollo de la contabilidad de gestión en Europa presentando un ejemplo de la España de la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII. El trabajo profundiza el caso de una fábrica de indianas (telas de algodón impresas y pintadas) en Barcelona, explorando la organización productiva y la estructura gerencial utilizando los libros contables de la empresa. Los métodos de producción, organización del trabajo, producción de productos y control de la calidad de la producción se revisan dentro del contexto político y económico de España durante un período de profunda transformación con la entronización de una nueva monarquía y un profundo cambio en la política económica. La evidencia presentada en el documento apoya la existencia de técnicas de contabilidad y control de gestión rudimentarias En una empresa privada en medio de la industrialización europea.
... También la mayoría de los autores coinciden en señalar que pese a ser un método anticuado en muchos casos, el cargo y data resultaba suficiente y suministraba los datos necesarios y precisos, tanto en la vertiente informativa como para la posible toma de decisiones. Otros autores, además de estas generalidades, hacen hincapié en nuevas excelencias del cargo y data, señalando que era fácil de usar y no requería una formación especializada (Carmona Pidal, 2001: 251 y 252); permitía determinar la renta generada, señalando los ingresos y gastos y, en otros casos, las entradas y retiradas de efectivo Capelo Bernal (2007: 473), y facilitaba el control de los ingresos y los pagos realizados, la persona que los percibía, si era por la cantidad correcta y cómo se empleaban (Calvo, 2005: 178). Poniendo en relación las investigaciones sobre uno u otro método, se puede afirmar que la partida doble y el cargo y data son 2 opciones para llevar la cuenta y razón, que se aplicaron una u otra en función de las necesidades del sujeto contable (Lemarchand, 1994) 1 . ...
The ‘double entry’ and the ‘charge and discharge’ were two of the ways of keeping track and reason, as stated by Diego del Castillo (1522). Of them and of the so called third form of ‘data and receipt’ has been said that with their advantages and disadvantages they both sought the same end.
Based on the study of the existing documentation of the Cathedral of Toledo, it is possible to demonstrate that the double entry and the charge and discharge were used simultaneously. Both forms of accounting were part of an accounting and legal process, in which the use of accounting served further purposes than those of information or communication. Although the double entry was used daily in the administrative departments of the cathedral, those responsible for these centres had to report to the auditors, who were integrated in the accountant's office from the late sixteenth century. In this office the accounts were produced periodically using the charge and discharge accounting system. This procedure was intended not only to control but to quantify the responsibility scope of the cashiers. The accounts produced by the auditors and signed by the secretary and the notaries of the cathedral chapter were the final documents that were used to claim responsibility to the manager, receiver or cashier before the Courts. Under this approach, the daily double-entry accounting in all probability disappeared once document-account was given to the person responsible for the charge and discharge process.
La administración de correos de Cartagena de Indias se configuró como un organismo productor de una abundante cantidad de documentación variada en su tipología documental y en el contenido de la misma. El documento escrito se convirtió en el vehículo por el que la administración de correos comunicaba a las autoridades superiores hispanas el desarrollo de las actividades de dicho organismo, el resultado de sus datos económicos, así como los sucesos ocurridos en el espacio americano. En este artículo se realiza un análisis diplomático de la documentación contable originada por la estafeta cartagenera donde se refleja el proceso administrativo y normativo, así como la tipología documental de la misma.
After a long period of abandonment due to the confiscation of its ecclesiastical properties in 1835, life at the Monastery of Silos recommenced in 1880, with the arrival of a group of Benedictine monks from France. This study focuses on the accounting system that the French monks brought with them to illustrate how accounting technology was transferred between two monasteries of the same religious order located in two different countries. The archives of the Monastery of Silos shed light on the differences between the accounting practices implemented at the end of the nineteenth century compared with those that had existed up until 1835. Our findings suggest that the French monks acted as agents for the transfer of technology by importing the accounting practices used at the Monastery of Ligugé (France) to the Monastery of Silos (Spain). The accounting approach used in Ligugé was notably less sophisticated than the one used for centuries at Silos. However, these new accounting practices fitted well with the needs of the Monastery of Silos at a time of scant economic resources, primarily focused on the reconstruction of the monastery’s buildings, activity which extended from the end of 1880 up until January 1883.
El método contable de cargo y descargo, un procedimiento de naturaleza más jurídica que contable, se empleaba cuando la actividad económica de la organización era confiada a un agente, circunstancia que facilita su análisis desde la Teoría de la Agencia. Tradicionalmente ha estado ligado a la toma de decisiones y al control del agente, sobre lo que existe una amplia bibliografía. Sin embargo, hasta ahora no se ha considerado como un instrumento que anula el conflicto de intereses contrapuestos surgidos en la relación entre principal y agente en una gestión delegada.
El análisis de los documentos de cargo y descargo, contenido en estudios previos que tienen como base las fuentes documentales manuscritas y en los que se ha estudiado la relación entre principal y agente desde la perspectiva histórico-contable, ha permitido identificar todos los elementos característicos de la relación de agencia, inferir los intereses de principal y agentes, deducir los incentivos empleados por el principal para alinear el comportamiento de los agentes y concluir que este modo de registro era capaz de neutralizar los desequilibrios de intereses y la información asimétrica entre ambos.
Los registros contables son el fundamento del sistema de información económica y control de las organizaciones; y los estados finales que surgen de ellos la base de la información general útil para tomar decisiones, así como para mostrar los resultados de la gestión realizada por los administradores con los recursos que les han confiado.
El cargo y descargo, a pesar de sus múltiples funciones ligadas principalmente al control y a la rendición de cuentas, se ha considerado tradicionalmente más deficitario que la partida doble en cuanto a que no constituye ningún sistema al no ser el resultado de una interrelación previa entre los elementos de un negocio y, por tanto, menos válido para proporcionar información útil para decidir.
Con este trabajo pretendemos, a través de un análisis cualitativo, aceptar o refutar la hipótesis de si el cargo y descargo, además de servir para la rendición de cuentas, constituía un estado en sí mismo capaz de atender las necesidades informativas de sus usuarios en un contexto histórico donde la partida doble ya era perfectamente válida para ofrecer a sus usuarios información relevante y fiable para decidir y determinar el resultado de la gestión realizada por un agente en el marco de la Teoría de la Agencia.
Resumen: Este artículo presenta, desde una perspectiva metodológica diplomática, la descripción y análisis de los libros de contabilidad que se llevaron en la Casa de la Contratación para el control administrativo y contable de la Real Hacienda. A estos efectos, mi objetivo es establecer el origen, naturaleza, formas y evolución, así como una clasificación de estos libros. Para el registro de las operaciones contables en esta institución se utilizaron, desde el momento de su creación en 1503, los libros de cargo y data. A mediados del siglo XVI aparecieron, además, los libros de arcas y los diarios y mayores de la partida doble.
Abstract: This paper present, from a diplomatic methodological perspective, a description and analysis the accounting books of the Casa de la Contratación to the administrative and accounting control of the Royal Treasury in Indies. To this purpose, it is possible to demonstrate the origin, nature, formals requirements and evolution, together with a classification of these books. Transactions were recorded in the charge and discharge books, since 1503, and since the mid-sixteenth century in the books about arks and in the journals and the ledgers for double-entry bookkeeping.
Accounting history has a long tradition, but in recent years it has expanded its interests and approaches. Early literature of accounting history that sought to glorify the practice of accounting and the status of accountants has been supplemented first by a more utilitarian approach viewing the past as a “database” for enhancing understanding of contemporary practice and for identifying past accounting solutions that might be relevant to current problems, and then by a more critical approach, which seeks to understand accounting’s past through the perspective of a range of social and political theories. A tension has developed between those historians whose first loyalty is to the archive and those who look primarily to theory to inform their historical investigations. As accounting history matures, open debate between practitioners of different modes of history making can only be beneficial, not only to the development of the discipline, but also towards our own self-understandings as accountants, including the impact we have on organizational and social functioning. Suggests that accounting history without a firm archival base is likely to lose direction, but that our notion of what constitutes the archive, and our ways of communicating, explicating and interpreting the archive, should not be taken as fixed. To illustrate this, examines a number of approaches to the writing of accounting history where recent research has begun to demonstrate a critical and interpretive tendency, and suggests directions in which this research might develop as accounting and its history enters the twenty-first century.
This paper analyses the influence exerted by compulsory mechanisms and cognitive and social factors on the adoption and implementation of double-entry bookkeeping. The study focuses on a small, commercial and family owned company located in Spain in the period 1829-1852. As our main conclusion we suggest that the adoption of double-entry bookkeeping in 1851 was influenced more by the managers' self-perception as traders, and the belief (internal and environmental) that the company must employ an accounting method appropriate to its new commercial status, than by State pressures derived from the enactment of a new accounting regulation in 1829.
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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- De
JÓCANO Y MADARIA, S. DE [1793]: Disertacion critica y apologetica del arte de llevar cuenta y razon. Reproducción fotográfica editada en 1998 con un estudio introductorio de Rafael Donoso Anes y Alberto
Donoso Anes (Madrid: AECA).
de 21 de febrero de 1829 declarando a Cádiz Puerto Franco (Cádiz: Imprenta de la Viuda e hijo de Bosch)
- S M Real Decreto De
REAL DECRETO de S. M. de 21 de febrero de 1829 declarando a Cádiz Puerto Franco (Cádiz: Imprenta de
la Viuda e hijo de Bosch).