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Accounting on the frontline: cost accounting, military efficiency and the South African War

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  • Warwick Funnell

Abstract

The South African War (1899–1902) exposed significant defects in the administration of the British army which precipitated several parliamentary inquiries. The findings of these inquiries convinced the British Government that army administrators, but especially those responsible for supplying the army, had given insufficient attention to the military benefits which might be obtained from the methods and experience of business. The absence of cost accounting systems throughout the War Office and on the field of battle, resulting in problems for financial management and military efficiency, was given particular prominence by the War Office (Reconstitution) Committee (Esher Committee) and the Royal Commission on War Stores in South Africa. The paper broadens the compass of the debate about the evolution of cost accounting in the latter decades of the 19th and early 20th centuries by demonstrating how the advantages of cost accounting were clearly established and accepted by many senior civilian military administrators and politicians as a result of British experience during the South African War.

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  • Warwick Funnell, 2005. "Accounting on the frontline: cost accounting, military efficiency and the South African War," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 307-326.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acctbr:v:35:y:2005:i:4:p:307-326
    DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2005.9729997
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Weetman, Pauline, 2006. "Discovering the ‘international’ in accounting and finance," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 351-370.
    3. Miley, Frances & Read, Andrew, 2021. "Soldiers don't go mad: Shell shock and accounting intransigence in the British Army 1914-18," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).
    4. Noguchi, Masayoshi & Nakamura, Tsunehiko & Shimizu, Yasuhiro, 2015. "Accounting control and interorganisational relations with the military under the wartime regime: The case of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry's Nagoya Engine Factory," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 204-223.
    5. Baños Sánchez-Matamoros, Juan, 2014. "Management accounting and rationalisation in the Army: The case of Spanish Military Hospitals in the 18th century," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 71-77.
    6. Malcolm Anderson, 2006. "Accounting History Publications 2005," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 457-462.

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