Las disputas contables en el Banco de España en 1859: valoración a precios de mercado vs valoración a precio de adquisición, el devengo y otras cuestiones. (Discussions on accounting criteria at the Bank of Spain in 1859: market price vs purchase price value, accrual basis accounting and other items)

En el presente artículo se abordan los antecedentes cercanos a la constitución del Banco de España -1856-, partiendo de su antecesor el Banco Español de San Fernando, si bien su origen realmente se encuentra en 1782 con la fundación del Banco de San Carlos. Asimismo se analizan los cambios bancarios iniciados en esa época como consecuencia de un nuevo marco normativo. Esa configuración determinaría la base de donde arranca la banca española actual. This paper deals with the discussions on accounting criteria taken place at the Board of Directors of the Bank of Spain short after its establishment. Shareholders pretended that Public Debt and real property should appear on the Balance sheet at market price values and some members of the Board of Directors shared this opinion. This was against the accounting principle of purchase price, which was the generally accepted at that time. Another burning matter discussed was the convenience of a wider disclosure of financial issues. The way to implement an accrual basis accounting was also a discussion subject as well as even the model that the published Balance sheet had to adopt. These discussions were so harsh that even the Governor, that is, the highest responsible of the institution, began to think to resign, although his appointment was made by the Government and not by the shareholders.