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The role of government accounting and taxation in the institutionalization of slavery in Brazil

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  • Rodrigues, Lúcia Lima
  • Craig, Russell

Abstract

We use a theoretical framework based on concepts of historical institutionalism, institutional logic and ideology to enhance understanding of how government accounting and taxation helped to institutionalize slavery in Brazil by interpreting enslaved people as an economic commodity. We conduct an interpretive critical analysis using archival sources from the period 1531–1888. The social practice of government accounting and taxation produced and conveyed meaning using symbolic forms that ranged from everyday statements to complex texts and images. These codified financial realities in a way that reified slavery and influenced the historical trajectory of slavery. Government accounting and taxation practices were self-reinforcing sequences. They encouraged a structural inertia that was not conducive to de-reification of the slave trade or of slavery. We reveal how government accounting and taxation institutionalized government administration of slavery by according it social authority, social reality and temporal endurance.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodrigues, Lúcia Lima & Craig, Russell, 2018. "The role of government accounting and taxation in the institutionalization of slavery in Brazil," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 21-38.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:57:y:2018:i:c:p:21-38
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2018.02.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Sydow, Jörg & Schreyögg, Georg & Koch, Jochen, 2020. "Current interest in the theory of organizational path dependence: A short update on the occasion of the 2019 AMR Decade Award," Discussion Papers 2020/12, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    2. Rodrigues, Lúcia Lima & Craig, Russell, 2022. "Using historical institutional analysis of corporatism to understand the professionalization of accounting in Latin America," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).

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