IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/euract/v11y2002i2p401-417.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial reporting in the context of crisis: reconsidering the impact of the 'mania' on early railway accounting

Author

Listed:
  • S. McCartney
  • A. J. Arnold

Abstract

The patterns of change in the financial reporting practices of the early railway companies, and their causes, are important aspects of the evolution of accounting practice more generally. They have accordingly been widely discussed in the literature, although the views expressed have rarely been supported by reference to any very substantial or systematically derived bodies of empirical evidence. One of the most interesting and important suggestions in this literature is the claim that the early UK railway companies voluntarily made both quantitative and qualitative changes to their published accounting statements, in response to a crisis in shareholder confidence in the second half of the 1840s, consequent upon the collapse of the railway mania of 1845-47. The quantitative response involved the disclosure of far more information and the qualitative led to changes in the conceptual basis of reporting, from a cash to an accruals basis, changes that met with the satisfaction of the shareholders concerned and were important parts of the gradual evolution of financial reporting. The paper undertakes a systematic analysis of the financial accounting practices of the major early railway companies from 1840 until 1855. The mapping of the variety of such practices, and their changes over time, enable a re-examination of these important claims concerning the nature of the financial reporting response to one of its earliest crises.

Suggested Citation

  • S. McCartney & A. J. Arnold, 2002. "Financial reporting in the context of crisis: reconsidering the impact of the 'mania' on early railway accounting," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 401-417.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:11:y:2002:i:2:p:401-417
    DOI: 10.1080/09638180220145687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09638180220145687
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09638180220145687?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, James, 1991. "The aura of accounting in the context of a crisis: Germany and the first world war," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(5-6), pages 487-520.
    2. Bryer, R. A., 1991. "Accounting for the "railway mania" of 1845-- A great railway swindle?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(5-6), pages 439-486.
    3. Brief, Richard P., 1966. "The Origin and Evolution of Nineteenth-Century Asset Accounting," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(1), pages 1-23, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. A.J. Arnold & S. McCartney, 2008. "The transition to financial capitalism and its implications for financial reporting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(8), pages 1185-1209, October.
    2. Mohamed Ali Dakkam, 2018. "qui et à quoi sert la comptabilité ? Un état de l'art et quelques réflexions théoriques pour dépasser le déterminisme des différents paradigmes," Post-Print hal-01907865, HAL.
    3. Valerio Antonelli & Raffaele D?Alessio & Emanuela Mattia Cafaro & Michele Bigoni, 2019. "The Pope and the Train: Financial Reporting Practices in the Railroad Companies of the Papal States (1846-1870)," CONTABILIT? E CULTURA AZIENDALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(2), pages 7-34.
    4. Sudipta Basu, 2003. "Discussion of Enforceable Accounting Rules and Income Measurement by Early 20th‐Century Railroads," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 433-444, May.
    5. Gregory Waymire & Sudipta Basu, 2011. "Economic crisis and accounting evolution," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 207-232, August.
    6. Carola Frydman & Eric Hilt & Lily Y. Zhou, 2015. "Economic Effects of Runs on Early "Shadow Banks": Trust Companies and the Impact of the Panic of 1907," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(4), pages 902-940.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carnegie, Garry D. & McBride, Karen M. & Napier, Christopher J. & Parker, Lee D., 2020. "Accounting history and theorising about organisations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    2. Carmona, Salvador & Donoso, Rafael & Walker, Stephen P., 2010. "Accounting and international relations: Britain, Spain and the Asiento treaty," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 252-273, February.
    3. Ashraf, Junaid & Uddin, Shahzad, 2016. "New public management, cost savings and regressive effects: A case from a less developed country," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 18-33.
    4. A. J. ARNOLD & S. McCARTNEY, 2011. "‘Veritable gold mines before the arrival of railway competition’: but did dividends signal rates of return in the English canal industry?," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(1), pages 214-236, February.
    5. Sikka, Prem & Willmott, Hugh, 1995. "The power of "independence": defending and extending the jurisdiction of accounting in the United Kingdom," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 547-581, August.
    6. Toms, J. S., 2002. "The rise of modern accounting and the fall of the public company: the Lancashire cotton mills 1870-1914," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(1-2), pages 61-84.
    7. Stephen Fox, 2018. "Irresponsible Research and Innovation? Applying Findings from Neuroscience to Analysis of Unsustainable Hype Cycles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-16, September.
    8. Eugene White, 1998. "Were banks special intermediaries in late nineteenth century America?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue May, pages 13-32.
    9. Arnold, Patricia J. & Sikka, Prem, 2001. "Globalization and the state-profession relationship: the case the Bank of Credit and Commerce International," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 475-499, August.
    10. Harvie, David & Lightfoot, Geoff & Lilley, Simon & Weir, Kenneth, 2021. "Social investment innovation and the ‘social turn’ of neoliberal finance," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Carnegie, Garry D. & Napier, Christopher J., 2010. "Traditional accountants and business professionals: Portraying the accounting profession after Enron," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 360-376, April.
    12. A. Arnold & S. McCartney, 2002. "The beginnings of accounting for capital consumption: disclosure practices in the British railway industry, 1830–55," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 195-208.
    13. Valerio Antonelli & Raffaele D?Alessio & Emanuela Mattia Cafaro & Michele Bigoni, 2019. "The Pope and the Train: Financial Reporting Practices in the Railroad Companies of the Papal States (1846-1870)," CONTABILIT? E CULTURA AZIENDALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(2), pages 7-34.
    14. 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.
    15. Salvador Carmona & Luca Zan, 2002. "Special Section: Mapping variety in the history of accounting and management practices," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 291-304.
    16. Campbell, Gareth, 2012. "Myopic rationality in a Mania," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 75-91.
    17. Matilal, Sumohon & Adhikari, Pawan, 2020. "Accounting in Bhopal: Making catastrophe," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Aresu, Simone & Monfardini, Patrizio, 2023. "Oppressed by consumerism: The emancipatory role of household accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    19. Georgiou, Omiros & Jack, Lisa, 2011. "In pursuit of legitimacy: A history behind fair value accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 311-323.
    20. Richard Mattessich, 2003. "Accounting research and researchers of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century: an international survey of authors, ideas and publications," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 125-170.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:euract:v:11:y:2002:i:2:p:401-417. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REAR20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.