IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ebg/heccah/0786.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Accounting and the Birth of the Notion of Capitalism

Author

Listed:
  • Eve, CHIAPELLO

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to cast a new light on the post-Sombartian debate. It contributes to some understanding of the birth of the concept of capitalism itself. The author argues that the history of how the concept of capitalism was invented is an example of the influence of accounting ideas on economic and sociological thinking.

Suggested Citation

  • Eve, CHIAPELLO, 2003. "Accounting and the Birth of the Notion of Capitalism," HEC Research Papers Series 786, HEC Paris.
  • Handle: RePEc:ebg:heccah:0786
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hec.fr/var/fre/storage/original/application/09aadff94e30ff866f1723aa222461fe.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bryer, R. A., 2000. "The history of accounting and the transition to capitalism in England. Part one: theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 131-162, February.
    2. Winjum, Jo, 1971. "Accounting And Rise Of Capitalism - Accountants View," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 333-350.
    3. Hicks, John R, 1974. "Capital Controversies: Ancient and Modern," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(2), pages 307-316, May.
    4. Yamey, Bs, 1964. "Accounting And The Rise Of Capitalism - Further Notes On A Theme By Sombart," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(2), pages 117-136.
    5. Talcott Parsons, 1928. ""Capitalism" In Recent German Literature: Sombart and Weber," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36, pages 641-641.
    6. Anthony Hopwood, 1992. "Accounting calculation and the shifting sphere of the economic," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 125-143.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Chiapello, Eve & Ding, Yuan, 2005. "Searching for the accounting features of capitalism: an illustration with the economic transition process in China," HEC Research Papers Series 817, HEC Paris.
    2. Nhu Tuyên Le, 2009. "Liens Entre Comptabilite Et Systeme Economique : La Transition Vietnamienne," Post-Print halshs-00460227, HAL.
    3. Nhu Tuyên Le, 2009. "Liens Entre Comptabilite Et Systeme Economique : La Transition Vietnamienne," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-00460227, HAL.
    4. Yannick Lemarchand & Laure Pineau-Defois & Cheryl Mcwatters, 2011. "Comptes et récits de la maison Chaurand, retour sur les liens entre comptabilité et capitalisme," Post-Print hal-00650546, HAL.
    5. Napier, Christopher J., 2006. "Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 445-507.
    6. Suzuki, Tomo, 2003. "The accounting figuration of business statistics as a foundation for the spread of economic ideas," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 65-95, January.
    7. Nadia Matringe, 2016. "Ratio Pecuniam Parit Accounting and the making of financial markets in the Early Modern Age," Working Papers hal-01358129, HAL.
    8. Chiapello, Eve, 2008. "Accounting at the heart of the performativity of economics," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 10(1), pages 12-15.
    9. Bryer, Rob, 2012. "Americanism and financial accounting theory – Part 1: Was America born capitalist?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 511-555.
    10. Richard, Jacques, 2015. "The dangerous dynamics of modern capitalism (from static to IFRS’ futuristic accounting)," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 9-34.
    11. 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.
    12. Edwards, John Richard & Coombs, Hugh M. & Greener, Hugh T., 2002. "British central government and "the mercantile system of double entry" bookkeeping: a study of ideological conflict," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 637-658, October.
    13. Warwick Funnell & Jeffrey Robertson, 2011. "Capitalist accounting in sixteenth century Holland," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(5), pages 560-586, June.
    14. Jones, Michael John, 2010. "Accounting for the environment: Towards a theoretical perspective for environmental accounting and reporting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 123-138.
    15. Alexandre Rambaud & Jacques Richard, 2015. "Towards a finance that CARES," Post-Print halshs-01260075, HAL.
    16. 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).
    17. Bryer, Rob, 2013. "Americanism and financial accounting theory – Part 3: Adam Smith, the rise and fall of socialism, and Irving Fisher's theory of accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 572-615.
    18. Suzuki, Tomo, 2003. "The epistemology of macroeconomic reality: The Keynesian Revolution from an accounting point of view," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 471-517, July.
    19. Edwards, John Richard & Dean, Graeme & Clarke, Frank, 2009. "Merchants' accounts, performance assessment and decision making in mercantilist Britain," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 551-570, July.
    20. Rambaud, Alexandre & Richard, Jacques, 2015. "The “Triple Depreciation Line” instead of the “Triple Bottom Line”: Towards a genuine integrated reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 92-116.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    capitalism; accounting; Karl Marx; Werner Sombart;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B24 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist; Scraffian
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ebg:heccah:0786. 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: Antoine Haldemann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hecpafr.html .

    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.